Valentine Zikki and Veronica Wacuke in Cords & Discords
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (composed 2 September 2018)
Martin Kigondu
just scripted and directed his most successful ‘whodunit’ since he began seeing
himself more as a playwright than an actor, which is how we first met him on
stage with Phoenix Players.
It helped
that he had two outstanding women actors, Valentine Zikki and Veronica Wacuke,
acting in his two-hander, called ‘Cords and Discords’ which he staged just once
last Sunday at Braeburn Theatre.
They play two
complicated characters who are half-sisters. Joan’s the older one and a twin
who’s lost her brother long ago while Jane’s adopted, brought home as a sort of
replacement after Joan’s twin brother died.
They were
never close growing up, and their lives have gone in very different ways. Joan’s
married to Ken who’s a popular musician and together they’re considered ‘celebs’
in the social media. Jane’s also married, but unlike Joan who’s childless, she’s
a housewife with two kids.
But now it would seem Joan’s in pain and called
her sister to come urgently to help. Ken has apparently left her. But the
moment Jane arrives, there’s tension between them and the suspense quickly
becomes palpable.
Why did Joan
really call Jane? Was it simply for solace and moral support? Quickly we find
out that it’s not. But Cords & Discords is like that proverbial onion, having
layers to peel away before we can get to the heart of the matter.
Unfortunately,
before one can reach that heart, there are so many issues raised that don’t
quite get resolved. We can only be sure that someone in the house was seriously
hurt, maybe even murdered. But by whom? Clearly, Joan is bitter about her
husband’s infidelity, but did that lead her to do something rash? Did she plan
on hurting her sister who she suspects was one of Ken’s women?
Wacuke plays
the angry wife who, like taraja Henson in Acrimony, is out for blood. But ultimately
we really don’t know ‘whodunit’, who apparently murdered the body buried under
bedsheets that Jane discovers? By the time we find out the body isn’t Ken’s,
the body comes to life and so does the banging at the front door? Is it Ken? Or
the cops?
Wacuke and Zikki
both keep us guessing since we will never know if both sisters are guilty or
innocent. At the show’s close, fans were already demanding Kigondu write a
sequel, which we hope he does.
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