IS IT ‘TOO LATE’ TO REPAIR BROKEN MARRIAGES?

 By Margaretta wa Gacheru 

Heartstrings’ latest comedy, ‘Too Late’ is the most cynical indictment of marriage that the company has produced to date.

It wasn’t necessarily a new message, that modern-day marriage as an institution is broken. But it is still somewhat disturbing to see it brought out with so much passion as was expressed by the whole of the Heartstrings cast.

The company itself is so genius at embellishing their deeply insightful truths with jokes and brilliant body language that their audiences can’t help laughing when they could just as easily weep over the loss of security, trust, and love that marriage used to promise.

In ‘Too Late’ we meet three crafty women who have already figured out they’ve got to fend for themselves, and not expect support from or be reliant on any man. Instead, each one, Mackrine, Bernice, and Adelyne has figured out means of taking care of themselves. They all, at multiple points in the play, give their graphic reasons for why they don’t rely on untrustworthy guys. They’ve got grounds for their convictions so it’s already ‘too late’ to turn their heads around.

Mackrine’s case might be the most dramatic since she puts up the most convincing argument for leaving her husband Paul. He comes to beg her forgiveness for his infidelity, although we can see he hasn’t been fully cured of it despite his agreement to hand over the long-awaited dowry to her people. Her refusal to accept his pleas, which he generously sprinkles with expensive gifts and champagne, seems understandable. What’s more, it is Paul who calls in their marriage counselor (), who looks like a pillar of rectitude, to convince them to be faithful to their initial decisions to be together.

It's stunning to see mackrine fall back into his arms so easily. But in act two, we discover her true colors when she arrives as Adelyne’s Massage Parlor and Beauty Salon. She tells her girlfriends how her ‘two-minute man’ is now going to build her a house and pay her kids’ school fees as if that was all their reconciliation really meant to her. He is there for his ‘full-body massage’ and hears her every word. Coming out of hiding (under a hair dryer) to accuse her of deceit and hypocracy, he notes she is such a brilliant actor (meaning liar) that she deserved an Academy award. I agree.

Yet Bernice and Adelyne are equally amazing actors. At the restaurant where Bernice meets men like Paul and old Fish on Valentine’s Day, she treats them like puppets. And in act two, she tells Adelyne that women must learn to be trickster like herself. But she also works at Adelyne’s salon where she again encounters Paul and Fish. The old man is especially keen to have her give him a full body massage. Yet while he waits for her to come to his booth at the parlor, Paul has called the counselor again to reconcile these irreconcilable circumstances. That’s when the last little bit of marital credibility falls apart, when we discover the lustful old man is none other than the counselor’s spouse!

Adelyne plays the shrewd 36-year-old businesswoman who gets set up for a blind date with the 23-year-old boy. He’s the embodiment of foolhardy romantic [Mills and Bones-nurtured] ‘love’. He’s fantasized about their prospective love affair, but she has only come for the meal, the bill of which she allows him to pay. The poor guy only has sh5000 in his mpesa account when she racked up a hefty bill of sh18,000. The management agrees to allow him to work the difference off by working for the owner who apparently is also adlyne.

But when act two opens it’s not quite clear where we are since boy now has skills in massage and manicure and works for Adelyne, his former ‘valentine’ who looks quite different now. Ultimately, everybody shows up at the Salon. Bernice comes in first, followed by Fish, Paul, and counselor Mary. And working full-time at the Salon is girl who shares her horror story about her unreliable man with A and B. She fuels the conversation that A and B are having about the opposite sex. But then Fish shows up, insisting on having a full-body massage with B. After that, we sees that Paul is also awaiting his turn. But when his wife shows up, he quickly hides under a hair dresser until he hears M’s girl talk. She talks about him as if he’s the fool who’s finally agreed to pay dowry, build her a house and pay her kids’ school fees. That generates the climax of the play. Paul comes out of hiding, calls their counselor again, and now it’s his turn to feel wronged with his wife’s style of duplicity and deceit.

Once the counselor arrives, Paul and Mac are again contemplating compassion in light of her conviction and moral example. But then comes the old man fish demanding his massage, only to find his wife in front of him.

Like a game of cards, the delicate balancing act called marriage crumbles and we are caught by surprise at how well we do not understand the tragic loss of happy marriages in our lives.