By
Margaretta wa Gacheru
“Night,
Mother” is a Pulitzer prize-winning drama that makes its Kenyan premiere
tonight at Kenya National Theatre’s Ukumbi Mdogo at 7pm.
Presented by
Sanifu Productions and ACT Kenya, the two-hander is a compelling story about a
mother and daughter at a critical moment when Jessie (Rachel Kostrna) is
contemplating suicide and her mom Thelma (Julisa Rowe) is trying to talk her
out of it.
‘Night,
Mother’ won its playwright Martha Norman several Tony award nominations and the
prestigious Pulitzer prize for theatre in 1983. But despite the play being more
than 35 years old, it remains fresh, timely and sadly relevant to our local
scene where suicide has become the second most frequent cause of death among young
people.
According to
the World Health Organization, it’s youth ranging from ages 15 to 29 who are
most prone to depression and suicide. Jessie falls into that age group and has
decided she’s got no good reason to stay alive.
The tension
in this tenderly sensitive tale is what has made the play so popular in the
Western world. But just as Kenyans have appropriated so many other cultural
qualities, customs and quirky attributes from the West, they have also embraced
a number of psychological trends. One of them is suicide, a practice virtually
unheard of in pre-colonial Kenya.
Julisa Rowe
has been a professional actor for many years and a theatre lecturer at Daystar
University for the past 11 years. Rachel Kostrna is a visiting performing
artist from Oregon who’s directed, scripted and starred in many plays.
“Night,
Mother’ will be staged through Sunday.
Meanwhile,
news just in is that Heartstrings Kenya has been working on a new comedy. They
will be staging ‘Last Man Standing’ from 4th-7th October
at Alliance Francaise.
Finally,
this past week has witnessed a style of performance that relies on literature
other than actual plays. At Goethe Institute, Ngartia Bryan of Too early for
Birds, gave a spellbinding performance from Olumide Popoola’s novel, ‘When we
speak of nothing’. And at the Point Zero Coffee House, members of the
Performance Collective, Aghan Odera and Wambua Kawive read from ‘Love in the
time of cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Both performances were inspired.
And at Kenya
National Theatre, Tinga Tinga Tales the Musical is only running this weekend
and next. So it’s best to book now or you might miss this extra-ordinarily
entertaining production.
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