By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 10 April 2019)
This weekend
will have plenty of theatre for everyone. There will be everything from a musical
suitable for kids and adults alike to a murder mystery sure to show the dark
side of human character to social commentary that will tackle heavy-duty themes
like corruption and the judiciary but taken on with a light touch.
‘Esther’ is
the full-scale musical that Potterhouse School is putting on at Braeburn Theatre,
Garden Estate. Opening tonight at 7pm and running through Sunday, Esther is one
of the great heroines whose spell-binding story of courage and selfless
sacrifice for her people is contained in the Old Testament.
Transported
to the stage by Martin and Janice Landry, ‘Esther’ is being directed by Julisa
Rowe who is a veteran thespian and former theatre lecturer at Daystar
University. Having directed scores of plays and musicals in the past, Julisa is
well equipped to handle a cast of 63 students ranging in age from 9 to 16.
Promising to
be a Broadway-calibre production, Esther the Musical is one of the three shows
to see this weekend. Another is Hearts of Art’s ‘Necessary Madness II’, which
its playwright-director Walter Sitati says is a new script altogether although
it’s the sequel to the first ‘Necessary Madness’ that the public had requested
and Sitati complied and supplied.
The cast
will be nearly the same with just two additions in Gilbert Lukalia and Veronica
Waceke. Otherwise, NMII will tackle themes touched on in the first edition of
the drama. Corruption, of course, is inescapable as it creeps into so many
facets of our everyday lives (from where most of Sitati’s scripts begin). The
traffic cops are still there but there is more searing focus on the judiciary
which should be hot.
Finally,
after many months, the Festival of Creative Arts is making a come-back from tonight
through Sunday at Louis Leakey Auditorium.
At last,
Eliud Abuto has reassembled a cast of illustrious actors working under the
direction of Maina Olywenya, who we are also pleased to see back in theatrical
action.
Billed as a ‘comedy
thriller’, ‘Enemy Within’ is adapted from a murder mystery by the British
playwright Norman Robbins entitled ‘Practice to Deceive’.
The cast
includes Johnson ‘Fish’ as General Theodore, Angel Waruinge playing Miss Morgan,
Juma ‘Anderson’ Williams, Rosemary ‘Maya’ Waweru and others.
It won’t
spoil the show to know ‘Enemy Within’ is a production about scams and bogus
suicides.
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