The role of media in society

The role of media in society ‘KNOWLEDGE IS POWER’(composed December 29 for talk given December 30, 2023 to university students from all over Kenya. all were Bahais) Because media conveys knowledge, media is sought and often for personal self interests, which is why media is protected under the first amendment in the US constitution, and under Kenya’s 2010 constitution in relation to culture being recognized as the bedrock of freedom in society. Today, media and journalists under threat everywhere for one reason, journalists as members of the media are truth tellers. It is said they write the first drafts of a ciybtry’s history. So they are being shot e.g. in Palestine, in Russia, and elsewhere for seeing what is really happening. Yet ‘what is really happening’, ‘what is the truth?’ is no longer plainly reported. Now in the US at least, the country is so divided, that the rift is turning into a deeper divide every day, the media doing its part to create antithetical universes. E.g. Fox News vs MSNBC with 2 different populations believing what’s in their media, so that millions may bring back Donald Trump to power and that’d be so damaging to the environment and the media at large. 3 questions posed to me: 1.What’s the role of media in reflecting and shaping vlues, habits, patterns of thought and action 2. Can we explore the forces operating in and around the media? 3. The role of media in preserving and communicating re: the arts and culture? e.g. Margaret Atwood wrote Handmaid’s Taleswhich initially shocked people cuz women treating like baby-makers by dominant men. sShe said she was only recollecting actual experiences which had already taking place. Then the story became a popular media series, followed by governments and dictators starting to treat women like this. E.g Iran under Sharia law, and in the US where pro-life anti-abortionists rallied to smash women’s right to control their own bodies. But that anti-abortion ultra conservative thought has brought a backlash among women who claim their right of choice. They came out politically during last US elections and toppled several right wingers. They could easily do the same in 2024 presidential election. It was all their in Handmaid’s tale. So it a book leading to a TV series, having increasing influence, awareness in society leading to political activism and women becoming a powerful force in society. Other forces include Big Money and Dark Money, Dictators wanting to crush the media, and capitalist ‘big fish’ seeking wider control over an independent media 1. Back to One: what’s the role of media is shaping values, habits, and patterns of thought? Case in point: the ‘BIG LIE’ leading to January 6, insurrection at the US Capital, which Trump now claims was peaceful—and his cult followers now believe. When trump kicked out of Twitter, he started his own Twitter equivalent knowing how important media is in staying connected with his audience whose thought and actions he now controls. Media so important Elan Musk spent $44 million to buy Twitter, let Trump back on in, but he already has his own Twitter equivalent, called Truth Social, in his effort to stay connected 2. Explore forces: Big media platforms: Fox vs MSNBC, Koch brothers & other multimillionairs and billionairs, Dark Money-Jane Mayer at The New Yorker, 3. Role of media and the arts. BD Life, Pulse, increasing interest and coverage but arts journalists complain about so little space given them. Blogs like mine and Vlogs too do well.

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.

KITFEST OFFERS CAPACITY BUILDING WORKSHOP

By Margaretta wa Gacheru There were so much positive vibes that came out of collaboration between the Czech Republic artists, Mirenka Cechova and Pete Bohac and the Kenya International Theatre Festival (KITFEST) Trust. It was best seen when they spent almost a month in Kenya in June. The first big one derived from their agreement to jointly run a ten-day acting workshop for Kenyan artists who were invited over social media to apply to participate in the event which transpired towards the end of that month. The second positive feature of their cooperation was what happened as the culminating moment of the workshop. That was the performance by 15 Kenyan artists, selected on a first come, first served basis (not by favoritism, nepotism, or tribalism). Their performance was stages at Kenya National Theatre with musical accompaniment by the American cellist, Nancy Snider, who travels and works closely with the Czechs. As a rule, she provides backup sound to whatever project the Europeans are working on. An ‘Anthology of Everyday Struggle’ was an amazing achievement of the fifteen Kenyans who hadn’t worked together before. Yet they were transformed into one harmonious ensemble by the time the ten days were up. “We agreed that at the end of the Workshop, we would produce a show to reveal what the actors had learned during the workshop,” Mirenka told BD Life on the first day of the workshop when warm up exercises were about to begin. “I spent the first four days just listening to the artists’ life stories before we scripted the show,” She explained just at the workshop’s end. “In a real sense, everyone had a hand in the creation of the program,” she added. Coming to Kenya with a bio that tells us she is a leading Czech stage director, producer, actor, and playwright, Mirenka was asked to describe her theatre life back home, during a Q & A session held after the performance. What she shared was a sobering moment of revelation. She explained how her country held artists in such high esteem that the Czech Government helped subsidize actors’ education, theatre centres, specific performances, and even offered them health insurance. What was also striking was how organized the theatre scene is in the Czech Republic. That might have to do with the fact that the Republic’s first President was award-winning poet and playwright, Vaclav Havel. One point that Mirenka made elicited an important response from one of Kenya’s leading female actors, Marrianne Nungo. She noted that Mirenka told us she writes her own Grant proposals to raise funds for her forthcoming productions. “I understand KITFEST conducts workshops, so I would like to suggest that they run one on how we artists can learn to write Grant proposals so we can fund our own production and not expect someone else to do it for us,” Marrianne proposed. That put the onus on KITFEST Chairman Ben Ngobia and Workshops Director Dickens Olwayl who kept that possibility open. Meanwhile, the performance itself was a rich blend of mime and mimicry, contemporary dance and acrobatics interspersed with a cascade of complaints about the way artists are neglected, undervalued, underpaid, and often cheated at the end of the day. Yet what Mirenka managed to infuse into the production was a beautiful sense of a unified ensemble. Backed by a rhythmic drum beat and mellow cello accompaniment by Nancy Snider, the entire troupe moved onto the stage like a magnificent wave. They looked like an organic ensemble of fish as they swirled and swarmed around one another as if they were one united body. The beauty of their performance was that they never lost that sense of unity, even when they hemmed and hawed about the injustice of the status quo who didn’t give the artists or the arts the respect and pride of place that they should be due. But their first utterances in the show were their life-long dreams and aspirations. Each one in their turn told of ‘when they were little’, they used to dream. One wanted to be a dancer, another a super-hero, another a super-star, and so on. But then came the disappointments, the negative stereotypes to quash those dreams. Meanwhile, there was always a feeling of defiance as they danced to the dreams they retained. They also mimed parts of their stories and struggles. And they even mimicked a government’s spokesman who promised so much, but ultimately came up with nothing much other than a flash in the pan. In short, their Anthology encapsulated so many aspects of performing artists’ life struggle, from the competition among them to the pittance they get paid to the rejections that can lead to depression and a loss of hope. Yet through it all, the actors were clearly pleased to have this rare opportunity to be mentored by Mirenka, Pete, and Nancy, courtesy of KITFest.

CRONY PLAYERS' WHEN IT RAINS 12.13.23.3PM

Crony Players came out late last year in "WHEN IT RAINS" at Alliance Francaise. They propelled themselves as a highly energized, supersonic team of two families related to a couple believed to be heading off to Canada for work and marital bliss. There’s nothing like that going on. But before the reality of Caleb (Nick Kwach) and Sandra’s (Cindy Hahuha) situation becomes clear, their story unfolds, starting with Caleb’s adrenaline-pumped delight over his fiancée and their impending marriage. She shares their love, but is more of a realist, acutely aware that they both are jobless. Their situation changes dramatically once she finally gets offered a job, which she jumps at. But her new boss is pleased she is single and plans to station her in Canada for four years. Initially, Caleb is thrilled since he thinks they’ll travel together. But then, she makes clear that is not the case. She will go alone, despite his insistence that she goes with him or doesn’t go at all. Her rejection of his pleas is devastating to Caleb as his initial enthusiasm turns quickly into anguish. His devastation gets worse when members of her family arrive, unaware that the two are hardy on speaking terms since she is going alone. Their spokesman, her father (Humphrey Maina) is effusive in his praise of his child and has many stories about family to share. His wife (Esther Kahuha) also gets her turn, but hers is primarily a verbal assault on Caleb for being jobless and not providing well for her daughter. It’s one more abuse of the man who is already down and out due to her daughter’s decision to put her work ahead of him. Now it’s getting late, and the entourage that has come in support her trip to Canada is quick to leave. Then seconds after they go, another family entourage shows up, this one representing Caleb’s side. Headed by another big blowhard, Caleb’s uncle Boya (Victor Nyaata), this group is also shattered at the news that Caleb is not going abroad, especially after his nephew had called his Uncle to say he was going. Moya wanted bus fare from Caleb for the false alarm, but the jobless nephew reminds his uncle he has no means to assist. Those family members also departed. But curiously, Boya leaves his lovely adopted daughter Shantel (Lydia Wabocha) alone with Caleb. His reaction which he mutters under his breathe, “when one door closes, another is bound to open!” One could actually see the cosmic shift in Caleb’s head. The biggest battle of the play is about to begin. It takes place when Sandra suddenly returns, suitcases and all. Caleb had been quick to adapt once he’s known his fiancée had effectively left him for good. He would speculate on how tight would be their relationship after her four years in Canada? So, he picks up on Uncle Moya’s 'gift' to him of his step-daughter. He calls his favorite restaurant and orders two coffees, a bar of dark chocolate and flowers Sandra’s outrage of being so easily forgotten ignited a war we couldn’t see the end of since the delivery man arrived just in time to put their war onto a different plain of argument. For now, she can see that her fiancé is a ladies’ man, the kind that can easily have another candidate for wife or side chick any time he likes. So perhaps she was right in the first place, to prioritize work over wedlock. In any case, Crony came up with a classic case of the complications that arise when a couple gets split due to economic factors. However, in the past, it was always the man who was heading out of town, leaving the woman to cope alone. But in this case, it’s the woman who is off to the States while he is stuck at home. She’s the one who will be expanding her perspective and seeing new prospects for growth and enlightenment. As for the technical features supporting Crony’s show, the lighting and sound were excellent. But it was the set design that I found thoughtfully assembled and tastefully uncluttered. There was a bookcase filled with several shelves of a broad selection of books in the living room where all the action was staged. Even the costuming was well done and often fun, as when Caleb brings Sandra breakfast dressed in a cook’s apron, shorts, and colorful striped socks. The script itself was devised by the cast, all of whom came out strong in 2023.

TWO CONTRASTING VIEWS OF THE TOWN AND COUNTRY

BY MARGARETTA WA GACHERU (wrote 12.16.23) Evans Kangethe and Antony Mega, two Kenyan artists that seem to have little in common, one wonders why Red Hill Gallery curator-owner Hellmuth Rossler chose to fill his whole gallery with works by these two contrasting characters. “They both work with black ink on white paper,” Hellmuth tells BD Life, clearly pleased with his choice of putting the two artists’ paintings together. He clearly liked the clashing contrasts, the visual cacophony of one, clashing with the contemplative intensity of the other. “They are also two different generations, since Evans is 60 while Mega is 30, half his age,” Helmuth noted, one being a veteran to the Kenyan art world while the other a new-comer. Both are so-called ‘self-taught’ although both found artistic mentors after they realized visual art was the direction they wished to go career-wise. Evans, being from Ngeche, grew up artistically surrounded by a whole range of early Kenyan artists, from Sane Wadu and Wanyu Brush to Sebastian Kiarie and King Dodge. Meanwhile, Mega got his start at Brush tu artists collective after he’d attended BIFA, the Buru Buru Institute of Fine Art. Both have exhibited at Red Hill before, Evans several years back when he was experimenting with ‘Smoke Art’ while more recently, Mega has contributed works to two group exhibitions at the gallery. Even the title of their exhibition is two-pronged. “It’s actually got two titles,” Hellmuth tells me. “Evans’s is ‘A Sea of People’ while Mega’s is ‘Natural Mystic’.” So there is not even a single title to convey something that unites them. “The link between them is the black ink on paper,” he adds. But even the way they use that black ink is contrasting. One unifying factor that could make a case for a Mega-Kangethe combo in a single show is the passion that is reflected in both of their artworks. One could claim that both are ‘environmentalists’ in the sense that they both are deeply influenced by the space they have chosen to express in their art. Both are effectively ‘plein air’ painters (artists who paint outside in the open air). Yet even in this regard, they do things differently. Kangethe sits in the city centre, and simply observes for hours the comings and goings of busy Nairobians. He records his impressions on the spot with sketches of what he sees. After that, he takes those sketches home and uses them to produce his cityscapes. These are several spaces layered and assembled in a format of visual vignettes, each reflective of Nairobi’s city life some years back. For instance, before newspapers went online, men in town used to get a copy of one paper, either a Nation or Standard. Then they’d all read the paper together and discuss local politics with passionate fervor. That practice is long gone, but it’s good that Evans recorded it and other urban rituals One can almost hear the cacophony of matatu touts shouting and drivers honking and people, vigorously gossiping about local politicians whom they may or may not like. In contrast, Mega is a forest-dweller, someone who will find spaces in he can be alone with nature. “Mega doesn’t make sketches, only mental notes that he takes home to create imaginative impressions of what he’s felt,” Hellmuth adds. It's a more contemplative, internal reconstruction of feelings. The thing about Mega’s work is that once you look at it, you’ll have no choice but to sit and contemplate what’s going on. Hellmuth described it as surrealist; I feel it’s more impressionist Again, there’s a big difference in the way each artist uses black ink. Where Evans draws outlines in fine point pens, he also paints in more sweeping stokes, with brushes as well as pens. Mega also seems to use two different pens, one black the other a subtle grey which he uses to create shading and shadows. And where Evans creates sketches, Mega makes tiny, meticulous doodle-like circles that must take him hours to produce. His intense process produces intriguing, impressionistic images, drawings that contain shapely spheres suggestive of flora that is deeply embedded in soulful caves of consciousness from which emerge the artist’s inspired perspective on nature. Ultimately, the two reflect two very different facets of a multifaceted city that originally arose from nature (Nairobi was originally a swamp) up to now when people are building skyward for lack of the space both artists are passionate about. .

DICKENS A RISING STAR IN THE VISUAL ART WORLD

By margaretta wa gacheru (published 12.16. 23) Long before he had ever heard of the Nigeria-based Ghanan-born artist El Anatsui, Dickens Otieno was busy flattening metal bottle-tops and making them into hand-stitched sculptures. Even so, Dickens’ sculptures were qualitatively different from those of the acclaimed West African artist. He didn’t simply stitch his bottle tops together to create flattened tapestries. He actually cut his bottle-tops and metal tins of Kimbo and Tusker beer into metallic threads that he could then weave into new fabrics that he would use to design his own metallic outfits and uniforms. “I was starting from scratch, not having funds to buy art materials, so I decided to make my own,” he told BD Life a few days after his show opened November 25th. Having a mother who was a seamstress who often created her own clothing designs from scratch, her work had a profound impact on him. He studied mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic. But when he came to Nairobi looking for work, he couldn’t find it. Instead, he found the original Maasai Mbili, Kota Otieno and Gomba Otieno (not relations). “Kota became my mentor in shifting my interest in painting to sculpture,” Dickens recalled. “It was his use of recycled trash that inspired me to start doing the same.” Currently, his metallic sculptures and three-dimensional tapestries are on display at Circle Art Gallery. Entitled Trails, they mainly reflect a mix of Dickens’ memories and recent journeys back and forth between Nairobi and his home in Migori County. Traveling by Bus gave him many hours to take in the landscapes, views that inspired creation of tapestries like … and… But Trails, the title of this his second exhibition at Circle doesn’t refer exclusively to the personal treks he made in preparation for this show. It also refers to the assorted trails that he saw in rural areas, both man-made and animal-made. His tapestries track the man-made trails of ‘Climbers’ and a Hiker, while he also sees ‘Cow Tracks’ and the largest tapestry out of the 13 in the show, his Panya Routes. It’s a monumental piece (3.11 x 5.93 meters) and it reveals just how far the artist has come. When we first met almost 15 years ago, his metallic sculptures were already gems of creativity. But they were much smaller and more illustrative of the role his mother had played in his art insofar as his hand-woven garments were a mix of school uniform-styled outfits and fancy dresses worn of special days. In his Trails exhibition, he has three sets of fashionable outfits, namely three shirts, two short pairings plus one long skirt. All are colorful, perfectly contoured, and shimmering despite Dickens’ still using recycled metals that were ‘found objects’ before he sliced them into threads, then wove by hand into fabric, and finally constructed them into gorgeous garments that he designed. Evidence of Dickens the designer is the tapestry entitled Sketchbook page, Uniform Series. It’s a work which explains part of his process and the ‘trail’ that he’s traveled as he’s gone on to become the masterful sculptor he is today. Back on his Western Kenya trek, Dickens spent time at the Lake since Lake Victoria also made a profound impression on him as a child. His love for her waters is reflected in the tapestry, Waves (Oscillations). Designed in his 3-D sculptural format, he’s carefully selected the colors of aluminum cans (Blue and white exclusively) which are shredded, then stitched onto steel mesh. Nature generally is an important feature of his art as seen in works like ‘Darkened Clouds’ and Pe-Hills Seasons. Clouds is particularly ambitious since it's a diptych that tells the story of the sky with its blue hue darkened by grey clouds foreshadowing the storm to come. Initially, Dickens worked alone, which is how I found him working and weaving at The GoDown art centre more than a decade ago. He immediately impressed me with his inventive practice which was creating colorful material that he would thereafter use (like him Mum) to design his own garments. Initially, those garments were relatively small, as if made for a child’s school uniform, something his mother might have made out of local cotton. They also reflected the artist’s own modesty. He was still working at the experimental level. But gradually, as he gained more assurance of the direction in which he wanted to go, his designs diversified and his garments got bigger, bolder and still more shapely. But despite the fact that he has collectors of his garment sculptures, he has been encouraged to create more tapestries. Trails is a sign that he has listen to that voice which has compelled him to tell stories about the land, the light, and the waters of Lake Victoria. Dickens is one of only four Kenyan artists who featured in the 59th Venice Biennalle inside the Kenyan Pavilion. His inclusion is a huge statement about the quality of his art and the recognition his work is finally receiving and uis well deserved. His Circle Art showcase, Trails, will run until early January. .

CHEKHOV'S PLAY KENYANIZED

bY mARGARETTA WA gACHERU (12.11, 23) Liquid Arts Players accurately entitled their last play ‘Fragments of Tomorrow’ since the production was filled with broken bits that defied a wholistic perspective on the message of the work, which was adapted and directed by the company’s founder Peter Tosh. What complicated our receipt of the message was the incessant shouting. The worst shouter of all was Dr. Astrov (Majestic Steve) who was bitter about everything under the sun or storm. A more dissatisfied man I have never seen in a Liquid production. He’s bitter about being old, about wasting his life, about it being too late to do anything to make a change, and just generally, he’s a man prepared to blast and bulldoze everything that comes in his sight. One couldn’t help feeling that Astrov belonged in a mental institution, and that by the end of the play he would have been taken there, but no such luck. Astrov’s problem seemed to be that his mind was filled with so many demons that he needed a Jesus Christ-type healer to cast them all out and send them into the sea to drown like the swine in the Biblical story. There are other shouters in the play, like the old man, Professor Bakari (Moses Ian) who is also an old man, shouting complaints interspersed with a few sane philosophical notions about being and nothingness (the title of the renowned existential writer, Jean Paul Sartre’s magnum opus). He is also bitter about life but he wasn’t on stage as much. Sadly, even the women in the play picked up on the shouting style, as if they wished to be heard above Astrov. Not all of them shouted. For instance, the professor’s second wife Yelena (Sophie Kendi) didn’t shout, but her very presence in her step daughter, Sonia’s (Catherine Kibuthi) life was painful to watch. The daughter was one more imbittered person who resented her father getting married again after her mother died. She was also unhappy since she had deep feelings for the doctor who wasn’t interested in her at all. I can’t tell you what Fragments of Tomorrow was actually about, only that ‘tomorrow’ didn’t look or sound like a very happy place. There was one message that did come through. And that was that in the present, one had better not waste a moment messing around with his or her life because in your old age, you don’t want to reflect back on it, (as Astrov did) and feel remorse for failing to fulfill your full potential when you had the chance. You also don’t want to reach old age and feel guilt for having done so many bad things that you never could apologize for, but didn’t even try at the time. The play actually brought up a number of philosophical issues, like contemplation of the meaning of life and death, of love and hate, and of happiness and sorrow. And on a more mundane plain, it also caused us to question why the play ended as it did. Forgive me for being a spoiler, but why did Astrov have to shoot Professor Bakari and his second wife, Yelena? I realize Tosh adapted Fragments of Tomorrow from Anton Chekhov’s famous play, Uncle Vanya, and perhaps that is how the Chekhov classic ended and he merely kept the ending as the playwright wrote it. But I think not. This is what we call artistic license, what Peter Tosh chose to do with the Chekhov ending. Why he chose to take the story in such a violent direction is something we should ask him about. Perhaps it was meant to expose the insanity of alcohol, since we all saw those fancy bottles filled with what we can assume were powerfully addictive booze. Or perhaps we were meant to see just how dangerous the mentally ill can be when they are let loose in society. Their minds are fragmented, blown apart either through actual bombs or other traumatic experiences that exploded the mental means the insane once had but now, no longer exist in the individual’s psyche. Either way, I’m glad Liquid Art made the effort to tackle these topics. Only that the director, in future, needs to ensure his cast doesn’t lose the acting quality of performance through shouting rather than sensitively developing their character’s identity from within and then cultivating their character from there. Chekhov also had one of his plays rejected, but a few years after that event disheartened the playwright, it was salvaged by Stanislavsky and it made a great comeback.

HEARTSTRINGS' HORSES (12.10.23)

Heartstrings Entertainment took full advantage of one of their newer members this past weekend when they made Arnold Saviour not only the MC of the night.

They also gave him the complicated comedic role of Solomon, the night watchman in their weekend run of ‘If Wishes were horses.’ It’s an intriguing title much like most of Heartstrings’ plays’ names: appealing, even provocative, but obtuse and ultimately, absurd, meaningless, and irrelevant to understanding the story. Saviour is an organic wit and comedian who uses every bone in his body to create a style of physical comedy that feels natural and effortlessly hilarious. As the MC he came out on the Alliance Francaise stage and didn’t just produce a few funny quips and let the show roll. He warmed up his audience with a series of short seemingly improvised skits that had us howling with laughter, his humor transcending barriers of language, culture, and community bias. Then, just as swiftly as he came on stage, he disappeared, only to reappear a few minutes later. He returned as Solomon, the sleepy night watchman whose neglect of his job led to the most consequential heist and burglary to hit the home of Immaculata.

Immaculata is the kept woman who sees her ‘keeper’, the man who pays for her flat, food, and luxury lifestyle, including three fundis, once every three months. Apparently, her lover and paymaster, Mheshimiwa (Fischer Murage) is a married man, which is why he visits Immaculata so sporadically. The story’s intrigue unfolds after we’ve met Immaculata and her staff, Solomon, the watchman, Fernand (Timothy Ndisii) and Kalundu (Angel Kioko), the house help hired to assist Immaculatah, by her paymaster to keep her content and prepared to receive him whenever he came visiting. In the first scene, Immaculata reprimands them for their laziness. Then she sleeps and the lights go off. Then come the flashlight, apparently checking if it’s clear to come in. Then someone with a black hoodie climbs through the window and proceeds to clear the living room of anything of value, including Immacuata’s expensive computer. But before he can escape, he hides, hearing Immaculata rising from her bed, and for some reason rushing to the sitting room to check her pregnancy text, which was positive. For her, it’s distressing news. Having no one to talk to about this disruptive discovery, she calls her mom and tells her It’s all overheard by the buglar who remains hidden until Imma goes back to bed. The next day, Immaculata doesn’t seem that bothered by the heist (due perhaps to poor direction) although she calls the three in and demands an accounting. Where was the watchman, and the compound manager, and the cook?

These are the same questions Mheshimiwaha asks, having just arrived. But just moments before he comes in, a strange woman arrives, unannounced and looking for a job. She is self-assured, and wants to speak with the Memsab who doesn’t care to retain her. But once the petite Regina (Bernice Kyalo) starts to inject her opinion and defend the interests of immaculata, she looks like she has a job. But once she continues offering relevant information to Mheshimiwas, the woman’s knowledge of the situation bowls him over. He quickly hires her for big bucks to supervise the household on his behalf. Her power grab is impressive, although the workers, including Immaculata are not pleased with having a spy in their midst. Mheshimiwa also has a lecherous eye for her; she tells him she cannot be bought. We know however that was nothing but a stratically-planned lie to gain more of his admiration and more into his pocket book.

When he asks her what she would do if she was given a flat by someone, she said she’d sell it to buy land and livestock. He is further impressed by her practicality and candor, little does he know that she quietly mentioned to one of her workmates that she was the buglar. It’s a line that nearly gets lost. But now we can understand how she obtained the secrets she seemed to know. But the real shocker comes when she claims Immaculata is pregnant which is true. Of course, he wants to know who dunit? It could hardly have been him. Now is when Regina comes out with great mental guns to accuse all the men and the women of cheating right and left among one another. Finally, the shocker of the play comes as Mshemiwa asks who is the women want the most, and who’s the daddy in Immaculata’s case, they all rush to embrace Solomon, the watchman! So the mystery is solved, but it’s a shocker nonetheless. [It's a story dedicated to the campaign '16 days of protest vs Gender-based violence}

EXPLOITATION AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

By Margaretta wa Gacheru ( written 12.8.23) Botched is a production by the university of Nairobi’s theatre of the Absurd which staged at the university’s Taifa Hll. It is also a show that missed several opportunites to improve their show. One was filling the whole gigantic stage with actions and sets that allowed their audience to get a richer chance to see and feel the efforts on the part of this new theatre company. Instead, they used a fraction of the stage to create several scenes that they layered one on top of the other which they could have stretched to other areas of this vast stage. They wouldn’t have had to freeze one conversation among workers while they had a telephone conversation between Mr Patel, a pharmacist providing fake morning-after anti-pregnancy pills to university students who were irate when they discovered they were pregnant. What was intriguing however was the devilish scheme involving the student president, Patel the drug-dealer, and the doctor who provided abortions to the young women, presumably for a fee. The scheme was set to exploit women first and foremost since the ones who went for the pill and found they were pregnant anyway then were advised the school’s medical doctor could provide the necessary operation. That meant it was like a one-stop shop. Take the pill, get pregnant, and then abort the pregnancy right there on campus. The operations were not advertised by any means since the last thing the university would want to be notable (or notorious) for was being the abortion capital of the city. In fact, the student leader who was in cahoots with Patel and the MD was closely associated with the Dean of the Medical School. when it was brought to her attention that tiny feotus’ were being found in the trash by the cleaners, she opened a covert investigation into the matter. The problem was she was giving it to her daughter’s boyfriend who was also a smart student leader and abortion scheme. If the scheme had simply worked with the doctor to assist women in need of an abortion, he could have been seen as a compassionate male who sought to provide a service to women. He might have been perceived as part of a system involving Reproductive Health. Instead, he was corrupt as they came. And when the doctor tried to leave the program, schemer wouldn’t let him go. That’s when we got a flashback to the doctor’s student days when he was studying by candle light when he remembered there was a football match he had wanted to watched and he was late for it. so he got up from his books and his candle and dashed off. Problem was he had left the candle burning and tipped over when the future MD jumped up to run away to his match. He hadn’t given a thought to the candle, the flame, or the fire that immediately began as he ran away. When he got back he’d found both his parents had died in the fire and he’d lost everything. The student leader must have been his peer because he now claims that if he and presumably his family hadn’t stepped in to support the orphan, he wouldn’t be where he is today. So it was that sense of obligation that the schemer used to twist his friend’s arm and make him continue provide women with abortions. The climactic moment when students came out in protest against the doctor and his colleague. They were angry and intent on attacking and arresting the doctor. But before they could reach the doctor, he had one last abortion to give. It was for the Dean’s daughter who was also the student leader’s girlfriend. Her mother had been called to the abortion clinic and was shocked to find her daughter having aborted, and her trusted student leader being the one who had impregnated her. The play ended with the students’ feeling a sense of triumph. Yet we couldn’t really tell what their motive was. Did they want to practice to end because they were against abortion, or we they against the scheme that was entrapping women? So it was more of an ethical issue than a medical or religious issue. Or were they upset the so many women had suffered severe complications after having the abortion? We’ll never know. And it is better that the playwright left us wondering. But he and his director need to tighten and sharpen the script so that you make clear, it’s women health that’s at stake, first and foremost.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE Kenya Arts Diary

By Margaretta wa Gacheru, Ph.D (shared at December 6th Launch of KAD 2024) For as long as i have known nani, ie since the 70s, she has told me about her famous artist father who assisted fledgling artists just coming out in the world. that was what was her incentive in launching the kenya arts diary in 2011. most of the artists who were in that first diary are famous today, i'm happy to report. Every year up to 2021 we created a new diary filled with new arts, rarely repeating the ones we had featured in years before. But in 2020 we lost our marketing manager and we thus published eoo many diaries to distribute, just Nani and me, so we went bankrupt. 2020 was our last diary. up until... Niketa and i started talking about how we missed the diary. Then we met Tim Bromfield who was a lover of the Diary, so much so that he helped us get back on our feet and into action. Only different these two tech-savvy put the whole process of creating the diary online. If you as an artist did not see our call out to you, you must not have been active on social media or we simply lost your email,. Pole sana. Anyway, we proceeded with Tim and Niketa doing a gigantic part to make it all happen. I am so grateful to them . anyway, Nani could make it but sent her best wishes to you all. The diary is DEDICATED TO NANI wgi we cgerish as the founder and first curator of the diary. Today I must thank Sarit Raja-Shah for giving us wonderful support this year. He is not only the GEM of I&M bank. He is a conaseur and collector of our leading Kenyan arti and artists. I also must thank all the artists, both those in the diary--congratulations and artists who arehere in support of the Diary. WELCOME!! PLEASE EVERYONE, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY ANYTHING, THE MIC IS AVAILABLE FOR A MINUTE OR TWO

SERVICE ABOVE SELF, AN ETHIC WE SHARE

By Dr Margaretta wa Gacheru (written 6 December 2023) The Rotary Club of Nairobi has been my honorary club since I first came to Kenya on a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellowship many years ago. I was assigned to stay with RCN over the lunch hour every week, and I learned a lot about colonial Kenya during that time. Today, I’m a full-fledged member of our club. And I’m so grateful to have joined and found, not expatriate members but indigenous Kenyans in the membership. And young women providing a new dynamism in leadership and activism. I’m also seeing women walking side-by-side their male counterparts, evolving a new culture wherein equal partnership and mutual respect between men and women is happening as we work and have fun together. The beauty of our club is the way we can stick with the four-way test while having a good time in the process. A big part of our enjoyment is being involved in purposeful projects, like SCAW and Eye camps and Job Training for youth who, once trained, can go out and quickly get full-time jobs. I wonder what Paul Harris would think if he came back from Rotary Heaven and found our club currently being headed by a woman astronomer! And our previous president was also a female medical doctor specializing in public health. He would also see why our club has been called the Rainbow Club since we have members who come from a wide range of communities, from Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Ismaili, Jewish, and Christian as well as from Jain, Sikh, Catholic, Protestant, Kamba, Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Embu, and Meru. Mr Harris most likely would be impressed with the strides our club has made and how adaptable members from District 9212 are as well. We might need to tell him how we all had to adjust during the COVID lockdown, but we quickly picked up sufficient skills to continue our weekly meetings using this awesome new invention called Zoom. If we were to meet Mr Harris today, I’d love to thank him for establishing the simple but supremely important motto, Service above Self. It’s important because it establishes an ethic that all Rotarians make a pledge to follow so that when we do anything with our Rotary Club, we can feel a heartfelt incentive to trust that we all share the same priorities and purpose. We can know, just as our District Governor has told us, ‘We are One’ .

STRATHMORE DRAMATISTS LOVE G.B. SHAW

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 12.3.23) Strathmore Drama Club has an affinity for plays, especially satires by the Nobel prize-winning Irish playwright, critic, and social activist, George Bernard Shaw. Shaw may be best known for plays like My Fair Lady and Pygmalion. But all his works are thought-provoking and relevant to our times. The play the drama club chose to stage last weekend, Major Barbara was especially challenging as it addressed a whole range of provocative themes, everything from poverty and philanthropy, idealism and realism, charity and religion, and even militarism versus mediation. Scripted and staged first in 1902, the play retains its relevance, especially as Kenya and the continent as a whole have been inundated with philanthropic groups coming to serve or save impoverished people. Yet they rarely see the broader picture which Shah aims to subtly show. It is that philanthropy is contingent of the wealth generated from the extraction by the rich countries of the poor ones’ raw materials in the South. They don’t bring trade, only aid which does nothing to eradicate poverty. In Barbara’s case, her father is a billionaire, not because he extracts wealth directly, but he sells weapons everywhere wars are being fought, usually over who controls land where the raw materials are coming from. Barbara abhors war and her father’s business. Her response is to join the charity, the Salvation Army, and to work hard to ‘save souls’ from their suffering. She has been so diligent that she’s been rapidly promoted to the rank of Major. Barbara (played powerfully by Venerva Gichio) is the embodiment of idealism. She believes in what she’s doing and doesn’t want a penny from her father, Umkala (Eric Francis), even when he comes to see her and offers her cash to help the struggling Salvation Army pay its bills. To her, her father’s wealth is tainted by the blood shed with the arms he sells. But her radical idealism isn’t shared by her boss, Mrs Banes (Ivy Nguijo), who readily accepts Umkala’s offer to give the Army a million shillings since she knows her church won’t survive otherwise. Banes’ willingness to compromise Salvation Army’s values shocks Barbara to the core. But it also raises her father’s appreciation of her determination to be true to herself and consistent in carrying out the work she wants to do. He’d seen all this when he came to visit her and watch the way she handled her ‘clients’, including one angry man, Bill Wakito (Gideon Maritim) who beat two women outside Salvation Army headquarters. Barbara tamed him, and seemed to virtually cast out the demons that were making him so violent towards women. The incident impressed her father, who had never seen his daughter in action before. The insight he gained eventually helped resolve an apparently intractable problem at home. Barbara’s mother (Joy Orino) had five kids before she and Umkala divorced, and now she wants to ensure the family fortune stays with their family. She wants Umkala to hand over the munitions factory to their son, Stephen (Dan Kaleuru). Umkala believes Stephen is not fit to do the job. He quietly admits to his dad, he never wanted it anyway as he’s an artist, not an engineer. But now, Umkala has seen that Barbara could run the factory if he could persuade her to do so. That’s quite unlikely. However, her dilemma is now with her fiancé, Adolphus Chacha (Justin Mwanzio) who shows himself to be an ordinary opportunist who joined Salvation Army just to get close to Barbara. All his high-minded talk to her was his way of wooing her into becoming his wife. Having been disillusioned by the church, Barbara now reflects on the fiancé. Is he any better than the other men she has met? In one regard, yes. He actually loves her. So, in the end, Umkala chooses to leave his factory in the hands of Adolphus and Barbara. Surprisingly, she does not raise a complaint about the idea of her man taking charge of the munitions business. Apparently, her idealism has been brought down to earth after she has seen how well her father takes care of his workers. Or perhaps she has decided she can save souls inside the factory as well as out. Or maybe she has become as amoral as her dad. Shah allows us to figure that out for ourselves. Meanwhile, the drama club created fabulous sets, although their overhead lights were a bit too bright and acoustics could be improved. But over all, it was an outstanding performance.

NEW GALLERY OPENS UP POSSIBILITIES FOR VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTISTS

By margaretta wa gacheru (28 November 2023) Ardhi Gallery is turning out to be one of the most vibrant and versatile art spaces in Nairobi. They have only been open for the last few months, but like another venue, the French Cultural Centre when it was establishing itself in the city many years ago, Ardhi made its space available to virtually every artist that needed a public venue to get the word out that they are painting, drawing, sculpting, or printmaking. Christine Ogano, the gallery’s owner and chief curator was also new on the job. “I wanted artists to feel free to come and show their art here. I wasn’t discriminating or rejecting anyone since I wanted [visual] artists to come,” which Christine told BD Life shortly before the end of her current exhibition, Art Fusion. “Our current show, which is all about the fusion of art and fashion has proved to be so popular, we decided to extend it until early January,” Christine added. Art Fusion is one of a stream of exhibitions that the gallery has had this year. The shows normally fill her vast basement gallery which is just beneath her husband’s restaurant. She also just had a brief exhibition of miniature paintings which she hung outside, in the open air. “The miniatures show was well-received since most of the artists were young and prepared to keep their art affordable,” she said. Art Fusion is the gallery’s most ambitious Pan-African showcase that Christine has curated thus far. “We have 33 artists represented in the show. They come from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda as well as from Nigeria and Ghana,” she noted. It has taken a while to assemble this collection since much of it had to be sent from the artist’s home country, so that has been a major challenge. Christine now admits it may have been a good thing that she hadn’t known beforehand how complicated the shipping process could be, since she might not have embarked on the exhibition in the first place. Or minimized it somewhat. But her being a banker by day and a curator and gallery owner by night and on weekends has taken its toll. Christine sleeps less these days, but she is happier nonetheless. “I have always had a passion for art, and dreamed of having a gallery of my own. But I hadn’t seen myself actually owning one. So I’m grateful. My husband has been really encouraging,” she said. Meanwhile, it wasn’t only visual artists who have been eyeing the Ardhi space and its potential for use as a performing arts venue. Millicent Ogutu, the former managing director of Phoenix Players as well as a stage producer, director, and actor saw that potential and recently proved its worth. Her company, Kibanda Theatre, working with the research team at the Venio Group, just staged an original piece, ‘What we have/What we need’ downstairs at the gallery, amidst colorful paintings and prints in the exhibition. These are by everyone from the Tanzanian artist Masoud Kibwana, the Rwandese Romeo Niyigena, and Ugandan Michael Dungu to the Nigerian Emmanuel Idowu, Ghanaian Oyekale Segun, and a wide assortment of Kenyans, including Tom Mboya, Mbugua Kimani, Jane Gathoni, Maria Kwamboka, and Evans Linyerera among many others. The paintings served as a beautiful backdrop to the story, which was based on the research of Dr Njoki Ngumi and Elizabeth Maina related to women’s sexual and reproductive health and Rights (SRHR). And while the stage was definitely make-shift, it served its purpose. The only shortcoming was the show’s MC and her microphone which was quite unnecessary. What worked the best was when Arthur Sanye came on ‘stage’ without using a mic and his story was clear, his power of projection ensured his voice was crystal clear. Lorna Lemi also didn’t use a microphone, although perhaps she should’ve since her sensitive portrayal of one woman’s feelings came across as a whisper. One had to be a lip reader to know what she had to say. Millicent’s production was staged in the round, in one remote and intimate corner of the gallery. Designed as a series of monologues and based on interviews with women from West and East Africa, the other two actors, Fulky Agnes and Hannah Wangare also told stories about women’s relationships that touched our hearts. But one couldn’t leave the performance without making a quick dash around Art Fusion, an exhibition that’s bound to captivate someone in a corner where they will find an artist’s work that they have never seen before.

AMAHL, A PERFECT OPERA STORY FOR THE SEASON

BY mARGARETTA WA gACHERU (POSTED nOVEMBER 27, 2023 Opera is a form of theatre that most Kenyans don’t know much about. Yet it’s easy to understand once you see it as a form of storytelling using music and song as its key components. It’s very much like musical theatre, only that the voices must be trained to a professional standard of beauty, audibility, and articulation which is so clear and strong that the singers never need a microphone to be heard and ought to always be accompanied by a live orchestra. Baraka Opera Kenya was started by Rhoda Ondeng Wilhelmsen with the specific goal to promote opera by staging wonderful stories with the desire to arouse broad public appreciation of opera. It was launched a decade ago with the performance by her company of Kenya’s first indigenous opera entitled Nyanga, Runaway Grandmother. “It was based on the life of my own grandmother who ran away from her village to become a Christian [and to marry Rhoda’s grandfather, a Christian missionary],” Rhoda, a professional opera singer herself, told BD Life late last year when the opera was being restaged. Baraka Opera Kenya ushered in the holiday season this past weekend with the glorious production of ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’ at the Visa Oshwal Auditorium. Amahl may not be as well-known a Christmas story as for instance, Charles Dickens’ novelle, A Christmas Carol or the animated cartoon adaptations of the holiday classic like Scrooge: A Christmas Carol and Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. But it’s a beautiful story, especially as it was adapted for Kenyan audiences by Michael James who also conducted the BOK orchestra, assisted by his wife Chiru. The story itself is a charming one. It’s based on the Nativity story and the coming of the three kings who are following the Star which they know is guiding them to the new-born babe, the Christ child. All three are kings bearing gifts to give the babe, gold and exotic spices The story (all of which is sung) is set in the home of Amahl and his destitute, widowed mother. Amahl is a shepherd boy who can only walk with a crutch that he’s made himself. It is dusk and he is seated outside, watching a giant star shine right over his home. His mother calls him to come inside, but he’s in no hurry. He is clearly a mischievous little boy who’s adored by his mother. But because he’s told her so many fanciful tales in the past, she doesn’t believe him when he speaks about a brightly shining star. Finally, he comes in and she reveals her fears for their future since they have nothing more to sell, so they may have to begin begging to stay alive. He is not bothered by the prospect as long as they stay together. Their story is beautifully sung by the 12-year-old Barak Malachi Mwangi as Amahl and Mariah Gichu as his mum. But then, after they sleep, knocks at the door rouse Amahl who refuses to let the gentlemen in. Finally, Mama Amahl goes to the door and welcomes in the three kings. They explain that they are following the star. Meanwhile, the mama has sent Amahl to get the villagers to come greet and entertain the visitors with song and dancing. Then the three men sleep, but the mama is tempted by the gold which she feels she needs to save her son. Of course, she is caught, and the kings tell her she can keep the gold since the Christ child has come to build God’s kingdom not with gold but with Love. She is so moved by his message that she gives all the gold back and wishes she had more to give to the babe. So does Amahl who offers his crutch and claims he wants to go with them to meet the Messiah and give him the one thing of value that he has. It’s by that act of selflessness that Amahl is suddenly healed and is able to walk again. After that they head out together, and we are also meant to learn the value and power of selfless love. It's a beautiful story written in 1951 by the Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti. It was the first opera ever written for American television. It’s been performed annually ever since. The second half of the musical showcase was a beautiful Pan-African collection of Christmas carols, several of which the audience at Chandaria Auditorium were invited to since along with.

MAMMA MIA MAKES FUN WITH POP-MUSIC

Theatre may still be an extracurricular activity at Brookhouse school, meaning the student doesn’t get graded in the activity, but still, the students as well as the faculty throw themselves with a passion into the performing arts. That could be easily seen last week at the Karen branch of the school when they staged ‘Mamma Mia!’ The musical, which is based around the pop-music of the Swedish band ABBA that took the world by storm in the mid-Seventies and early Eighties. The group broke up in the Eighties, but then their album came out years later, and again, they hit number one on the pop charts for weeks. Then when Mama Mia! The Musical was devised, it too became a blockbuster. When the show was finally made into a film, ABBA’s popularity got even bigger since not only did the baby-boomers know all the words by heart. Their children and grandchildren were loving the film and learning to sing along with the elders. That timeless magic of the music apparently had the same impact on students from the upper school who clambered to be in the musical. Around 150 went on stage as both dancers and singers, to fill the school’s spacious auditorium with joy and reverie. The beauty of ABBA’s music is that it’s filled with stories simply told and musically rendered by the two composer-lyricists, Benny Andersson and Bjm Ulvaeus who were also members of the ABBA quartet. The music was made to sing along to, which is why it’s been translated into so many languages (even Chinese) and staged worldwide. The Brookhouse production could easily be the first to be staged in Africa, with the students, mentored and directed by gifted teachers, giving the show their all. The musical is essentially a romantic comedy with an inter-generational edge since both Donna (Stephanie Muiruri) and her daughter Sophie (Nolwazi Ndlova) are the co-stars of the show. Their story is set on a remote tropical island where Donna, a single mother, runs an old tavern and has raised her lovely daughter to be as strong and committed feminist as she has always been. The problem is Sophie has picked up her mother’s independent spirit but reversed her gender ethics. Where Donna grew up just as the sexual revolution in the States was taking off, Sophie had gone back to the tradition of abstinence until marriage. Thus, the 20-year-old Sophie plans to be married to Sky (Nate Mwangi), which absolutely freaks out her mother who can’t understand how her daughter could make such a radical reversal of all that she believes in, namely freedom, equality, and independence and the firm determination not to depend on a man to lead a good life. The show’s story begins on the day before the wedding. Sophie has always had a nagging curiosity to know who her father is. So when she discovers her mother’s early diary, she gets closer to finding out who her daddy is. Sophie found three men who her mom had discussed in the diary. So she secretly writes and invites all three to attend her wedding which is taking place the following day. Hoping to have her authentic dad walk her down the aisle, she meets all three as they get off the boat. She then sweetly explains that Donna doesn’t know they were coming because she is the one who invited them. It doesn’t take long for Sam (Leon Muriuki)), Harry (Paul Turray), and Bill (Andrew Momany) to figure out who she is and how they are indeed her father. Of course, they don’t know that Donna had slept with all three around the same time. All three are happy to walk Sophie down the aisle! Sophie faints at the realization that she had generated a disaster in the making. As it turns out, Donna knows who the father is, and is furious that he has come. But as Sophie reaches the alter, the tide turns sharply and she decides she doesn’t want to get married. Instead, there’s a reconciliation between Sam and Donna who utilize the Pastor who has come to marry Sophie and Sky. Now he’s going to do the ceremony (as spontaneous as it is) for Donna and Sam. The musical is meant to be a light-hearted romantic fantasy, which is the best way to see this unrealistic resolution. It works for Sophie who now will have a father for the first time and it works for Donna who’s finally back with the love of her life.

MISSING MARKS BLENDS HILARITY WITH HYSTERIA, Mbogo style

by Margaretta wa Gacheru (POSTEDNov 22, 2023) Prevail Presents recently put together an almost impeccable set of elements required to produce an award-winning play. They included a genius script, sensitive director, and gifted cast who could easily grasp the levity, lyricism, and alacrity behind playwright, Fred Mbogo’s words. Prevail may have fallen down on set design which was nothing special, and time management, starting the show a half hour late. But how could they have known the public was coming out in full force to watch Fred’s latest script, ‘Those with missing marks cannot graduate’. Or maybe they came because they love Martin Kigondu’s (who’s also a playwright and actor) directorial skills. Or because they appreciate cast members like Justin Mirichii [who recently played Pilate with Chemichemi Players] or Bilal Mwaura [last seen in Kigondu’s Matchstick Man] or even Justin Karunguru (who’s much love for his comedic antics in the improvisational show, Because You said so). For whatever reason, more than a house-ful of theatre lovers showed up at Ukumbi Mdogo last Friday night right when the show was about to begin. They all wanted to be accommodated, so Prevail requested we be patient as they filled the aisles with plastic chairs so that all could finally get in. And they weren’t disappointed. Basically, the tale is about the dysfunctionality of the public university system in Kenya today. But Mbogo’s storytelling isn’t that simple. It’s illustrated in the lives of anyone who has expectations of receiving anything essential from the system. It could be a paycheck, as sought by lecturer Mr. Kiprong (Bilal Mwangi), or a signature, needed by the acting department head, Dr. Joseph Birunda (Justin Karunguru), or notice of a job interview (like Dr Friedah Mbula’s (Angela Mwandanda), or the missing marks sought by Justin Mirichii’s character, Maina Njoka for his daughter to graduate. Yet as much as the situation might seem bleak, (given it’s all about those victimized by the broken system), Mbogo somehow manages to keep his script light and ironic. We often get glimpses of the absurdity of it all. But there’s also a serious sense of realism seen between the lines of humor and hysteria, irony and angst, frustration and future hopes of truly ‘corruption-free’ campuses all over Kenya. Those sentiments are played out most strikingly in the performance of Justin Mirichii, whose social persona disappears completely as he presents himself credibly as a peasant from upcountry who wants nothing more than to find his daughter’s missing marks. He’s even prepared to chain himself to the Principal’s desk, not budging till he gets them. Meanwhile, the principal is going nuts over his bosses not giving him a green light to attend an academic conference in Zimbabwe. It finally comes but not before his frustrations get so raw his shouts are at par with those of the angry father. Then comes Bilal’s character, Kiprong (the long-suffering, unpaid lecturer), prepared to spur on the Dad who’s protesting till those missing marks get found. The irony is that Kiprong is protesting too, only his strategy involves omitting students’ marks (including Njoka’s daughter’s) until he gets his cheques long overdue. Once Njoka gets the picture, he’s obviously relieved. He now knows the source of the omission and the guy who’s going to give back the missing marks. And lest we forget, the one female lecturer in the play, Dr Friedah Mbula (Angela Mwandanda) exposes the misogyny ingrained in the male-dominated system. Not that she made a dent in her department head’s, Dr Birunda’s attitude. But at least the issue was identified. Now it can be rectified. The climax of the play, leading to a liberation of sorts, comes as Kiprong agrees to return the missing marks and the dad agreeing to go home happily. But as the hysteria and hilarity subside, we are still left wondering when and how the broken system will get fixed. Mbogo’s play can’t tell us that. It has us laughing through our tears. He raises serious issues, such as ‘what is to be done?’ to rectify a system so broken that it has accelerated Kenya’s brain drain which has led to literally thousands of the country’s best minds fleeing the country and scattering for work all over the world. Fortunately, the protests are growing, including Mbogo’s sharp but subtle rebuke to bosses and politicians who don’t have their people’s best interests at heart. It’s time for them to go. But first, let them give us back all the billions they got by underhanded ways and means.

MY BODY BETRAYED ME AGAIN FULL OF SURPRISES

By Margaretta wa Gacheru... My body has betrayed me again’ was initially conceived as a short story by Ndegwa Nguru. It was then transformed into an audio-play interpreted by Jim Chuchu in a podcast that Joseph Obel heard and felt compelled to respond to creatively, in his own artistic way. “Joseph was so moved by what he heard in the podcast, he devised, produced, and directed the show we have just seen,” Obel’s co-producer Esther Kamba told BDLife on the show’s opening night at the FEMLAB in Westlands. Clearly, the solo performance was a deeply personal expression by Obel of the challenges both he and the author have faced, growing up in a world that still largely treats gay people as aliens and outcasts even when they are making immense contributions in their respective fields of practice, especially in the performing arts. Obel’s production aims to defy those stereotypic tropes of gay people as being bestial and alien, outsiders who should never be let into society, leave alone lauded for their public contributions. Nonetheless, he starts his performance with sound, sound that suggested it might be coming from alien territory since it has an extra-terrestrial aura to it. The alien echoes, generated by sound masters Emmaus kimani and …./ give way to sounds of the Nairobi streets. Matatu touts or manambas call out for customers. But then, they have a special style of mockery for an effeminate fellow like Obel’s androgenous man. By now, the mocked one has suffered years of cruelty from classmates who, early on, could see that his body was already ‘betraying’ him. He walked like a girl and moved like a model. And it would seem he had ‘queer DNA’, meaning it wasn’t just a fad imported from the West that he was emulating. It was an implicit quality received from birth and unlikely to be ‘cast out’ or exorcised by religious means, however much one might believe otherwise. In any case, Obel spent much of his performance strutting on high heels and swinging his hips in a fashion nearly as stylish as the elegant strut of a Naomi Campbell. As it turns out, in real life, Obel is a fashion model as well as a thespian. But where he did fall short was in his choreography. That is to say he had set up so many open-ended situations where his body movement could have dramatized so much more story if he had worked with a choreographer. The other area of contention is costuming. Obel was sharing stories about how gays were victimized. Yet to his credit, his actions mostly reflected the resistance to and defiance of the oppressive and undermining encounters that came his way. Freedom of expression is the ethic that comes through in My Body. It also underlies the totality of his performance. And it’s the costuming that confirms that commitment. Yet I really wondered if just a simple black drape was sufficient to enable him to express himself fully? Those who saw the contours of his long, lean, and lanky body will most likely agree that we saw his embodiment of freedom in the near nudity that he gave us in the last few minutes of the play. He moved with so much vigor in his dance that his black drape went flying. One assumes it was meant to do so. But either way, one wasn’t shocked by the no-drape effect, only suggesting that the next time he performs the show, he pays more attention to costuming. The drape covered up the beads, bangles, and totem-like necklaces that covered the guy until the drape flew off. After that, those totems served as his attire. Speaking to Esther Kamba after the show, she implied that some of what we watched may have been improvised and unanticipated. But if that is true, Obel didn’t have a problem strutting without shame since his body is well-toned, shapely, and well-suited for a career in modeling as well as on stage. His was a brave endeavor and we applaud him for that. However, the ending of the show felt anti-climactic. unfinished and unresolved.. “Joseph wanted it to end that way,” says Esther. But if his defiance has ultimately turned into outrage at the lack of tolerance, kindness, and love of the haters he knows, Obel feels that by ending with him banging on floor, he’s implicit affirming the idea, ‘A luta continua,’ the struggle continues. And so will he.

THE NUTCRACKER 2023 WILL BE MORE MAGICAL THAN EVER

By Margaretta wa Gacheru... The Nutcracker opened this past weekend, but the Gala is this coming weekend at Kenya National Theatre. But my preview story can work for anyone keen to know the backstory of the Christmas musical and the show's artistic director. So here you are: The beauty of attending a dress rehearsal for Dance Centre Kenya’s annual holiday musical, The Nutcracker is in meeting the show’s artistic director, Cooper Rust. What’s marvelous to see is the passion she puts into her pedagogy, which is not only about dancing with perfect precision, balance, and grace. It’s also about literally keeping her students on their toes, to stay alert and follow all the corrections, critiques, and clear directions that she commands to be followed to the ‘t’, precisely. If she can be characterized by a single word, it would be perfectionist. Yet however much she speaks at a decibel loud enough to fill every inch of space in any one of the three Dance Centre’s studios all around Nairobi, her students listen intently and immediately try to respond accordingly. She has the aura of charisma and control that makes young dancers delight in pleasing her if they possibly can. She trains them to do that, and she does it by actually dancing every part that needs special attention herself. She can demonstrate exactly what she wants for any particular part because of her history with the ballet. “I think I was three when I performed as a mouse in my first Nutcracker,” Cooper told BDLife as she reminisced on how she had performed in this Christmas classic practically every year since then. The other reason she can demonstrate what she wants from her students by doing it herself is because she has been a professional ballerina who danced with several professional ballet companies in the States before deciding to work with underprivileged youth in Kenya. It was that surprising shift of life priorities that led her to meet and teach young people from Kibera. Among them were Joel Kioko and Lavinder Orisa, both of whom (among many others) she mentored, not just in the dance studio, but also in her home where she’s brought a number of Kibera kids who she saw had immense potential but still required special tuition to prepare them to go places she envisioned for them, both socially and professionally. That multi-disciplinary training is what enabled both Joel and Lavinder to be invited to study and dance at the English National Ballet School. Joel, who is several years ahead of Lavinder, went on to work with the acclaimed Alvin Ailey Dance Company of Chicago, USA. But he had planned to return to Kenya especially to be in this year’s ‘Nutcracker’. However, at the last minute, his plans were changed. “Joel just got a job dancing with the Milwaukee Ballet Company,” Cooper told BDLife shortly after she got the news herself. But Lavinder, being several years younger than Joel, just got back from London and will star as this year’s Sugar Plum Fairy. She will be dancing opposite the fabulous principal dancer from the Turkish State Ballet and Opera Company, Yigit Erhan, who had just flown to Kenya to join his good friend Cooper as DCK’s Guest Artist performing in The Nutcracker. He will dance the part of the Prince, a role Cooper re-choreographed in order to maximize on Yigit’s special gifts as a dancer. For he dances like a flying angel, swirling above ground as if his feet defied gravity. One might even describe him as the Michael Jordon of the DCK ballet. Yigit’s premiere performance in a DCK production was in 2020 when he starred as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet and was warmly received for his performance. The Nutcracker was originally commissioned by the director of Moscow’s Imperial Theatre in 1891. It premiered in St. Petersburg with music by Tchaikovsky and choreography by Marius Petipa a week before Christmas in 1892. Since then, everyone from George Balanchine and Rudolf Nureyev to Mikhail Baryshnikov and our Cooper Rust has choreographed their own version of what has now become a holiday classic staged all over the world. Cooper admits she tweaks the ballet dance-wise every year, depending on various factors, but always, the goal has been to maximize the beauty of the performance and allow her students to shine. This year, Tchaikovsky’s music will be performed live by the DCK Orchestra under the professional baton of conductor Levy Wataka. And a new backdrop is being painted by the Kenyan artist, Robinson. The costuming has also been given special attention as parents are also enlisted to help the Centre create an even more magical experience at this year’s Nutcracker. The Gala night will be Saturday, December 2nd, but the first performances will be this coming weekend, from Friday, November 24th to Sunday, November 26th.

CHELENGE AT NCAI AS A RETROSPECTIVE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted November 19, 2023) Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute, NCAI, has again curated a fabulous retrospective exhibition of one of the country’s most illustrious female artist. Chelenge van Rampelenge often describes herself as self-taught. But I am more inclined to describe her as a Renaissance woman. She is someone, who like Michaelangelo left formal schooling early on, but who went ahead to make many artistic breakthroughs fueled by her immense energy, curiosity, and determination to pursue a career as an artist. “Before I knew what an artist actually was, I knew I was different,” Chelenge told BD Life just days after her solo exhibition “The Long Way Home” opened at NCAI. “I also knew that my father meant no harm when I heard him tell my mother I should have been born a boy,” she added, referring to his intuitive sense that her difference was an artistic strength more often associated with men than women. “But I was always hanging out with the boys up until I was 14,” she noted. From an early age, she was also spending lots of time with her father, a weekend furniture maker. “From age 5, I was playing with wood chips he used to leave as he carved. I also used to play with his hammers and chisels,” she said, never imagining at the time that those memorable moments with her father foreshadowed a blossoming career as a sculptor and printmaker. Chelenge’s other source of inspiration was her grandmother, a woman who used beads to decorate calabashes and make colorful jewelry. She was also a fascinating storyteller whose stories Chelenge says continue to serve as the subjects of many of the paintings and sculptures. As you enter the first room of her exhibition, you will see some of her earliest paintings and the first sculpture she created, that of her mother and herself as the child. What the exhibition doesn’t include is any of the jewelry that Chelenge made, inspired by the beadwork of her grandmother. “After I left school, I had to earn a living and jewelry is what earned me my first paycheck,” Chelenge said. “I had gone to African Heritage Gallery and [Alan Donovan’s assistant] saw the beaded jewelry I was wearing and asked if I could make her a bracelet like mine. When I brought it to her the next week, she handed me a cheque which I hadn’t expected. But after that, I started selling my jewelry as the Gallery as well as at the Maasai Market. Soon after that her husband Marc discovered Chelenge had been drawing and painting in secret. He quickly alerted his friend, Ruth Schaffner of Gallery Watatu who became another source of inspiration, encouraging her to come out and feel free to express herself more fully. But the sculpture came by another means. She had an avocado tree, that somehow had split so that half of it was dying. “I was concerned the dying branches might fall and do damage to our roof, so I called people to chop half of the tree down. It was from that tree that I saw the sculptures I was meant to create,” she said, speaking like a visionary. It was from then on that Chelenge picked up the skills she’d begun to develop as a child, working with a hammer and chisel, mallot and nails. Increasingly, her attention was given to working with woods, including the avocado as well as the jacaranda, ebony, and indigenous mahogony. In her Retrospective show, one will see no less than 17 of her sculptures, one of the most spectacular of which was shipped all the way from Japan just to be part of the exhibition. But then, there are still more sculptures at her home which is literally in the bush at Kitengela. “I didn’t want the show to feel cluttered with too many sculptures,” said Chelenge who also included her etchings and woodcut prints as important elements of the retrospective. Inviting us to come visit her at her home where I had come before and drank goat’s milk for the first time. “I won’t be able to serve you that goat’s milk now since a leopard came and ate the goat,” she casually noted. But her comment reflects just how fearless Chelenge is. “I love my home,” she says, noting the title of her retrospective, The long way home, is more than a metaphor. It’s also a specific place. “This exhibition is also like coming home for me. It’s a wonderful experience and I’m grateful.”

MATCHSTICK MEN GRAPPLES WITH TRAUMA

Trauma is not an easy concept to understand as one would have seen last weekend when Prevail Arts presented ‘Matchstick Men’ at Kenya Cultural Centre. Trauma is defined in one dictionary as simply ‘a deeply distressing experience’, But the consequences of such experiences are not easily understood. Yet they can shatter relationships, turn one’s life upside down, and even disable someone’s grasp on reality. Martin Kigondu chose to tackle the topic of trauma sometime after the 2007-2008 post-election violence that rocked the country and traumatized whole families and communities. Shem (Emmanuel Mulili) is one man who’s been deeply traumatized by the violence that robbed him of his wife; but as the play opens, one cannot see visible scars on his body nor detect a psychological scar when his friend (Bilal Mwaura) arrives late for their meeting. There’s a white medic’s jacket on a chair in their meeting room that suggests this might be a psychiatric session. But then, who’s the doctor and which one’s the patient? One can’t be sure since both men seem to have issues. What’s more, as their conversation opens up and they start to address more intimate, personal topics, they seem to get eluded, intertwined in word games and mental twists and turns. Shem seems to be especially good at this sort of stone-walling, remaining with what the Shrink (who we have figured out is Mwaura) believes are Shem’s secret demons. Yet just as their hour-long session is about to end, there seems to be a breakthrough in Shem’s steel-clad story (that even he doesn’t remember). That’s when we see the Shrink step out of the room and tell his nurse he needs a ‘double session’ with this patient. But he quickly steps back into their interchange to try to unravel Shem’s traumatic experiences with his parents and also with his wife. As it turns out, both of those experiences were deeply traumatizing. So much so that Shem apparently buried them down in the deep recesses of his psyche. He unconsciously stashed them so far away from his rational consciousness that they might never hurt him again. Both traumas were closely associated with his close encounters with violence and death. They began in his childhood when he watched his cruel step-father beat up his gentle mum. The violence inflicted on her was so intense one night that Shem at aged 11 was now strong enough to fight back. He pushed the man down a flight of stairs, at the bottom of which the man lay dead. Yes, Shem had actually killed his step-dad. The other truly disturbing experience happened during post-election-violence when terrorists broke into his house, raped, killed, and chopped off the hand of his wife. It goes without saying that the loss of his wife by those exceedingly cruel and violent means must have had a profound impact on Shem. The Shrink had sought to unearth both of these ugly experiences so that Shem could reconcile himself to what really happened. The play ended rather inconclusively since Shem was now stuck having to address the guilt that he must have buried all those years. The Shrink had succeeded, but poor Shem. Beautifully sensitive performances by both Mwaura and Mulili. ++++++++5666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666a sensitive, loving man which shem had been. Now he is numb, and this was why his sister, a friend of the Shrink, decided it was imperative to get to the root of her brother’s problem. Otherwise, the State could take him away and his problem would never be treated. Matchstick Man is an elusive script aimed at unraveling the truth about one man’s traumatizing experiences and breaking through the mental barriers that obstructed his grappling with his demons. At the end of the play, we naturally do not find out what Shem will do with all of this unadulterated information. He looks shocked by these discoveries about what he’s done in his life, and what he can actually do with this information. The two actors have a wonderful chemistry that enabled them to naturally swing from a sensitive exchange of ideas into a well-choreographed brawl that went on for several minutes, but is beautifully choreographed, rather like a brutal wrestling match. It was as if the demons that were gripping Shem’s spirit and memory were battling to remain in Shem’s head. But in the end, they lose their place and disappear. It’s a warfare reminiscent of several in the Bible, especially the one between Jacob and an unnamed angel who ultimately gives Jacob a new name, that of 'Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and has prevailed.' (Gen 32:28)

ART AUCTION AS A SECONDARY MARKET MADE MILLIONS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (composed nov 15, 2023)

This year’s Art Auction East Africa was a highly anticipated affair. For not only was it the first time the auction would be held at the Circle Art Gallery, from where it was actually hatched by the founder of both Circle Art and the Auction, Danda Jaroljmek. In previous years, Danda had taken the event to fancy five-star hotels. But having recently moved the gallery to a new and more spacious arena, it made sense to bring the auction home to Circle as well. However, it’s still an experiment. “We finally have a large enough space to hold the auction right here,” said Danda who now has been able to not only curate the auction but also hang it with time and space to spare. She’s also able to control the lighting and sound as well as the filming of gallery exhibitions and the auction itself.

The experimental nature of this year’s auction extends to the fact that practically all the sumptuous mix of 45 paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures has come to Circle, using it as a secondary (or resale) market. “That is what we had expected the auction to eventually become,” she noted, adding that collectors have various motives for delivering their art for resale. For some, it may simply be that finances are tight at home, and whereas the collector might or might not have actually bought art for its investment value, knowing that art invariably accrues in value over time, its sale at auction would bring in some much-needed funds. What many collectors realize is that rather than trying to sell a work of art by themselves (and making a pittance in the process), they can earn a whole lot more if their art sells at auction. If it doesn’t sell, that is another story. And several works didn’t sell for whatever reason. In some cases, we saw how fickle the market can be. For instance, why did Ancent Soi’s Feeding Flamingos sell, but his Hat Maker did not? And why did Rosemary Karuga’s lovely collage get ‘bought in’ while her sculpture sold for far more than the top most ‘estimated value’ of her work. Her sculpture’s sale is what the audience who attend auctions in person come to watch. It’s the notorious ‘bidding wars,’ fought between competing bidders who professional auctioneer Philson Wamoja has to field. His job is no easy task since he has to watch those who are fielding on-line bidders as well as those on the phones and audience members who may also be part of the ‘war’. Fortunately, for every artwork that didn’t sell, there were pieces that either exceeded the estimated value or sold above the minimum estimate. For instance, Yony Waite’s impressionistic Migrants End sold for USD10,096, above the higher estimate. So did the Tanzanian artist Francis Imanjama’s Giraffes by selling for $2583. And so did another Tanzanian, David Mzuguno’s Jungle; by selling at USD4579 he too exceeded expectation. Of course, Richard Onyango’s I Love Africa painting of himself with his beloved Drosy sold for more (at USD4696) than expected. Onyango and Drosy especially are epic characters in Kenyan coastal art. The gallery was expecting both E.S. Tingatinga paintings to excell in value after previous bidding wars surprised everyone who witnessed the ferocity of that bidding. Neither painting exceeded the maximum estimate of USD15,000; but both got up to USD14088, so that can’t be considered bad news. Another one who didn’t quite go over the top was Shabu Mwangi. His Bedsitter painting didn’t reach the suggested maximum estimate of OSD5000. But it did sell for USD4461, which came pretty close. Two other sales that exceeded expectations were Ugandans Livingston GK Nkata’s Namanwe Forest at USD4109 (not USD3500) and Fred Mutebi’s A Dream at the Pealing Place for USD2818 (not USD2000). Ultimately, it was the two sculptures that most dramatically exceeded expectations and vindicated the value of both the artists and their works. Rosemary Karuga’s terracotta Mother and Child sold for USD9509, not the KSD7000 expected at best. And Gakunju Kaigwa’s Kisii stone Chai Motto went for USD7748, not the USD4000 anticipated. There was a sigh of relief especially after Kaigwa’s bidding war since there were several buy backs prior to his sculpture’s success. In all there were 45 lots that got auctioned (or not) by professional auctioneer Wajoma. They came from Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan, DRC Congo, Ivory Coast, and South Africa. And in total, they made USD…..

ROSES OF BLOOD OPENS KITFEST 2023

Roses of Blood was one of the first plays staged at the Kenya International Theatre Festival (KITFEST) 2023, and as I’d felt committed to attending as many of the shows being performed at the Kenya National Theatre, I decided to attend. The title might have put me off. What did ‘roses of blood’ mean? Something gory, I guessed, but as it was coming from Mount Kenya University students, I figured I should just be adventurous and find out. The synopsis shared in the program was equally cryptic. It was about a dead woman, a madman, and a dysfunctional family. How grim. But again, it might have something of interest to communicate. The first thing that confirmed I had made the right choice was the set design. It was both mobile and portable, and once opened, stretched all across the wide National Theatre stage. Act one opened inside a mad house, or insane asylum. Mad people were misbehaving everywhere with the staff having little control over the scene. Even the doctor (Warren Othiambo) couldn’t take charge as he brought the family of their sick son, Stephen (Jacob Koli) for a visit. But Stephen seems oblivious to any need to interact with, acknowledge, or communicate in any way with his father Mr Johnson (Steve Odewa), mother (Marylyn Wangari), or brother Raul (Anthony Macharia). But he does seem to be tortured mentally. He hears voices, which we too get to hear. They are troubling to him, up until his dead sister appears, dressed in a pure white gown as if she was either a ghost or an angel. It’s as if we are meant to be climbing into his head since nobody else on stage can see or hear her but Stephen and us. The father isn’t pleased with his son’s behavior and sounds as if he would just as soon leave him there forever. But the mom urges him to be patient and understand the boy is ill. The issue that had made him sick was the news that his beloved sister Abigail (Irene Lucy Akinyi) was dead. The cause of her death is not explained and the dad claims he loved the girl too, but that doesn’t mean a real man would break down as Stephan has done. The family departs as the doctor is amusingly ineffectual. The set change is signaled with the lighting, which shifts to the room next door where Johnson and Raul are planning how to benefit themselves in the name of serving the community by setting up a water project which supposedly will serve the whole community. Now the scene has cleverly shifted to a flashback or prequel-side of this story. The water project was originally the dream of Johnson’s and his sister Audassia’s (Florence Nyasiwe) Dad. It’s Audassia’s plan to pick up the idea and run with it. She proposed it to her brother, Johnson, but this is when the crux of the story comes out. Johnson’s misogyny (hatred of women) comes out in all of its raw and self-righteous colors. It’s also deep-seated, ridged, and rooted somehow in what it means to be a man. At the same time, there’s an economic element to Johnson’s resistance to having his sister involved in the project. First and foremost, he’s already planning to rob the project and doesn’t need Stephanie snooping around and discovering his corrupt practices. So, to say that Johnson is threatened by Audacissia’s strength might not be initially apparent. But his attitude is ugly, argumentative, and self-serving. It’s also extremist and deeply insulting in its demeaning of the entire female gender. In any case, Audacissia ignores her brother’s opposition to her being involved in what he now sees as his family business. She proceeds anyway, enlisting her niece Stephany (an Akinyu look alike, Abigail Wangui) set up their own company in order to bid for and legally win the tender to carry out the whole water project. When Johnson hears about their plan and their efforts to take legal steps, his rage against his sister and daughter is manic. It leads one to seriously wonder if he isn’t the one with the more extreme mental problems. Johnson transmits that sense of intense, over-the-top outrage to his son Raul who, when he has a one-on-one conversation with Stephany, he’s also propelled by the dad’s insane misogyny. Thus, once Raul pulls out a knife, one could feel his vicious intent. It was truly a tense, threatening interchange between Stephany who was about to die, and Raul. But it was still a shock. What gave this story such a fascinating and powerful twist came in the final scene when not just Stephan, but even Raul and Johnson can also hear from beyond the grave. Stephany’s ‘ghost’ had struggled to break through that mental barrier that divides the living from the dead just to reach Steve. But the conditions were ripe for breaking through again and speaking first to Raul and then to Johnson. Somehow she was able to convey to her father that he had to loosen up and give the women a chance to be +``equal partners both in the water project and in life at large. Meanwhile, Raul was in agony, seeing what evil deed he had done to destroy the life of one human being. The show endS in contrition and in convincing us that Mt Kenya had an outstanding team of actors whose performance touched me deeply. They and their director and scriptwriter all dared to address some very relevant issues, doing so without belaboring points that might put us to sleep. Keep it up, good people.