NO SHORTAGE
OF GOOD THEATRE THIS SEASON
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted November 22, 2017)
This weekend
and the next few, there will be no shortage of theatrical entertainment on show
in Nairobi.
This past
weekend will be a bit difficult to top since there were powerful performances
throughout that time. They came from both Aperture Africa Productions staging
‘Robin Hood the Musical’ and from the Kenya International Theatre Festival
where Kenyatta University students performed Francis Imbuga’s The Successor,
Reagon Ochoo’s The Mirage and Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband has gone mad again.
Meanwhile, troupes from Uganda and South Africa gave spine-tingling
performances as well.
Nonetheless,
the Nairobi Performing Arts Studio hasn’t let us down once since it came into
being nearly two years back when the British director-actor Stuart Nash got
together with Dr. Edwin Gichangi and decided to start up a theatre school at
Kenya Cultural Centre.
Tonight ‘Grease’
the American rock musical opens at the Kenya National Theatre and it should be
heaps of fun to watch. With the lead characters being played by Kaz Lucas and
Elsaphan Njoka, the show can hardly go wrong. They both are sure-fire
professionals who can sing, dance and act which are talents essential to making
the show dazzle and delight. But so are the likes of Nice Githinji, Nick Ndeda
and Ian Mbugua (who’s been a busy man, working on two shows at once!)
‘Grease’
will run through this Sunday night with matinees both weekend days. It will be
back again December 8th through 10th after the word gets
around that it’s a show you won’t want to miss!
Speaking of
Ian Mbugua, he’s been working closely with Susan Bantu at Brookhouse School
where he teaches Drama and she’s directing Tennessee Williams’ hard-core modern
classic, ‘The Glass Menagerie’. The show opened Wednesday night at the school.
It will run through Saturday night so you had best get tickets right away.
Then next
weekend, Martin Kigondu’s Prevail Arts Productions returns to the Daystar
University stage with Martin’s latest script, entitled ‘What Happens in the
Night.’
This is
another case of the word getting round after ‘What Happens’ was staged just
once last month. So the director-producer and scriptwriter Martin had to comply
with popular demand and bring the show back next Saturday, December 2nd
at 5pm.
The other
important performance that should not be missed is by the doyenne of
storytelling, Maimouna Jallow. She’ll perform in the finale of ‘Re-imagining
Storytelling’ on Thursday night, November 30th from 8pm at The Alchemist in
Wetlands.
Finally,
Heartstrings opens December 6th in ‘Nobody is Leaving’ at Alliance
Francaise.
PS. Pantomime this weekend at Braeburn School by Braeburn Players.
pps. Nutcracker the ballet coming next week too.
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