A KENYA THEATRE ROUND UP OF 2023-

There were so many theatre performances staged in 2023 that it was difficult getting around to see them all. “We watched more than 300 plays in 2023,” Peter Ndoria, Chairman of the Kenya Theatre Awards Jury told BD LIFE. “We tried to see everything since we wanted to make sure that we’d be fair when we chose the winners of this year’s Kenya Theatre Awards. But as hard as they tried, it wasn’t always easy to reach all the venues where shows were being staged. What also proved a challenge was the fact that multiple shows would be happening simultaneously. But Ndoria says the jurors tried to share responsibilities so that if all of them couldn’t see every single show, at least one or more among them did see the double-booked performances. The jurors’ problem reflects the fact that there is no umbrella organization that could manage thespians’ time tables. Nonetheless, there was an explosion of theatrical activity since the lockdown was lifted. It’s been happening among new groups like Zillaz Arts, Astar Players, Hall of Fame Entertainment, Short Shorts Productions, and Beyond the Mainstream. Equally, more established groups, like Heartstrings Entertainment, Crony Players, Prevail Arts, Aperture Africa, Liquid Arts, Igiza, Son of Man, Renegade, Millaz, Chemi Chemi Players, Legacy Arts and Film Lab, Baraka Opera Kenya, and Nairobi Performing Arts Studio, have all been active this past year. So have the universities and secondary school drama clubs like those found at Strathmore, Braeburn, Brookhouse, Braeside, and even at Gifted Kids Premier Academy. But none of these groups could have performed well without outstanding directors, of which we saw many. They included thespians like Sitawa Namwalie, Sammy Mwangi, Amar Desai, Stuart Nash, Martin Kigondu, Brian Orino, and Mugambe Ngithe, Wreiner Mandu, as well as Ted Munene, Terry Munyeria, Julisa Rowe, Ogutu Muraya, Zippy Okoth, Njeri Mwangi, and Mavin Kibicho and many others. And just as important as the directors are, the playwrights could be considered even more so since it’s indigenous scriptwriters who create the fabric for shaping our fresh, new Kenyan theatre. We have been advocating for the local writers and poets to step into the theatre realm for quite some time. At last, they are doing it, and it’s a wonderful unfoldment of originality and progressive artistic expressive to watch. Included in that unfoldment includes everyone from Fred Mbogo, Sitawa Namwalie (for ‘Escape’) Martin Kigondu (for ‘Matchstick Men’), Ogutu Muraya (for Maaraba Initiatives), Mark Wabwire (for ‘Bigger Boys of Shibale’), and Mugambe Nthige (for ‘Supa Modo’), Zippy Okoth (for ‘Zanzi Madness’), to Brian Orina (‘Men of Ambition’), Wakio Mzenge (for ‘Ijumbe’), Peter Tosh (‘Fragments’), Saumu Kombo (for Millaz Players) and Mavin Kibosho (for ‘Guns of War’). One only hopes the playwrights will keep track of their scripts so that eventually, they can follow John Sibi Okumu’s example. He just published a six-play compilation of his writings, including Meetings, which was directed and staged this past year by Martin Kigondu and Prevail Arts. Sibi had been inspired by the late, great African American playwright, August Wilson, who wrote a series of plays, each reflecting African American life in every decade of the 20th century. Sibi was so impressed with Wilson’s work that he wrote those six plays aiming to reflect issues that impacted the lives of Kenyans during their six decades of Independence. In 2023, we watched a wide variety of productions, starting wit comedies (by everyone from Heartstrings, and Crony to Aperture Africa, General Theodore and other Kikuyu companies as well as other language groups producing comedies in Luhya, Dhuluo, and Kisii). We also watched dramas (like ‘1984’), thrillers (like ‘39 Steps’), and musicals, (including that very British breed of musical theatre, the Pantomime). We saw several solo performances: ond by Dr Emmanuel Shikuku and (by Zippy Okoth, Sitawa Namwalie, and Mufasa among others), and several two-handers too (by Matchstick Men, Wakio Mzenge and Sam Psenjen (in ‘Ijumbe’ which was also the premier performance of Wakio’s new theatre company entitled Theatre beyond the Mainstream (TBM). And we also saw Heartfelt performances of the Island by Shikuku and Odiyo). We watched opera when Baraka Opera Kenya gave us the Christmas gift of ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’ and ‘Improv’ (or improvisation) from the company of ‘Because you said so’. We even watched Oliver the Musical transformed into a ballet, directed by Cooper Rust. Finally, we capped off the year watching nearly two weeks of performances by both local and international groups from 18 countries and four continents at KITFEST, the Kenya International Theatre Festival.