By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted September 14, 2017)
Dress
rehearsals can never tell you everything you need to know about a new
production, especially when there invariably are stops for checks on the sound,
the lights and other last minute details coming from perfectionist directors
like Stuart Nash who has brought back Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Jesus Christ
Superstar’ to the National Theatre stage this weekend, including tonight.
The show has
come back due to popular demand; but the new version of JC Superstar has been
seriously revised, refined and improved well beyond anyone’s expectations. The
reasons are number one, the casting and number two, the musicians who’ve been
hand-picked by Nash who has worked with all of them before.
The main
difference in the casting is super significant since both Martin Githinji as
Jesus and Nice Githinji as Mary Magdalene are seasoned actors who Nash
discovered could not only act but sing very well. Both put so much passion into
their performances that one should be able to feel their charismatic pull which
complements that of Mugambi Nthige who’s still being a treacherous Judas and of
Mkazee Mwatela who plays the much-hated Herod with gleeful nastiness.
So even
though I only saw half the dress rehearsal I could clearly see this revised
version of JC Superstar is a show not to be missed, even if you already saw it
once. This production is brand new and a deeply moving experience.
Meanwhile,
there’s much to celebrate at the Storymoja Festival this year. Opening
September 27th and running through October 1st, the first thing is
that the Festival got brought back to Nairobi by popular demand after its
venturing to West Africa in 2016 to stage the ‘biggest literary and cultural
festival’ coming from Kenya in Accra, Ghana.
The second
thing is that this year as in years past, the Festival has expanded its
artistic options, bringing us not only books and their brilliant authors but
also master classes, workshops and talks by creatives from all over Africa and beyond
Storymoja’s
founder and CEO Muthoni Garland together with her team headed by leading storyteller
Wangari Grace, are also hosting a whole series of theatre productions.
Working in
collaboration with The Theatre Company, there will be a range of outstanding
theatrical events. One is the return of ‘A Man Like You’ which has been
slightly shortened since the show was recognized by the International
Association of Theatre Critics. And according
to ‘A Man’s script writer and director, Silvia Cassini, the Theatre Critics
were so impressed with the show that they got the whole company an invitation
to Hong Kong where they’ll perform at the World Culture Conference which will
run from November 2nd through 6th.
What’s
equally exciting is that the two Zimbabwean actors who performed in the last
staging of ‘A Man Like You’ will again be part of the current cast. But in
addition to performing at Nairobi National Museum’s Louis Leakey Auditorium
during the Festival, the two will be performing one-man shows.
Kevin
Handssen, who plays the kidnapped British diplomat in the play, will do his
much-acclaimed one-man show based on the life of Charles Dickens. “He’s
performed ‘Dickens’ with much success all around Zimbabwe and Southern Africa,
so I know it will be a treat of Nairobi theatre goers,” said Silvia.
Kevin will
also be conducting a workshop on Improvisation. As the founder of the Improv
Show, Kevin has years of experience and success in that challenging field.
Aspiring as well as established actors need to sign up soon with Wangari Grace
to ensure a space in that workshop since I suspect there will be a limit on the
numbers and it’s likely to fill up fast.
The other
Zimbabwean, Mike Kudakwashe, will also be doing a one-man show at the Festival
in addition to playing a bad Somali kidnapper in A Man like you. In sharp contrast
to being that bad guy, he’ll be doing stand-up comedy. It’s a show that he too
is lauded for back home in Harare.
Finally, the
other one-person performance happening in collaboration with TTC is Davina
Leonard’s ‘Every Brilliant Thing’. Davina also costars in ‘A Man’, but again,
her charming one-woman performance is very different from the role that she
plays in Silvia’s gripping production.
There are
bound to be other performances, workshops and writers featured during the
festival, but for now just know that The Theatre Company’s contribution to the
Festival will be large.
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