By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (Posted May 31, 2022)
Kenyatta University
theatre students had a heyday recently at Kenya National Theatre’s
Ukumbi Mdogo where they performed two original plays, The Hoax by Gertrude
Liru and Ninevah by Jante Juma.
Staged back-to-back
on Sunday, one has to hand it to the student-casts, most of whom acted in both
plays, meaning they had to memorize two different characters’ lines.
Acting
generally was quite fine, with several stand-outs performances: two by Rahab
Nyambura who played two radically different sorts of mama’s in either play; two
by Elvis Mambo who played a hypocritical ‘holy man’ twice; two by Edna Kariuki
who played the headstrong sister to Sandra Gaturi; and one for Victor Muyekwe
who played the drunken de-frocked former Father Juma who howled like the
prophet Jeremiah.
The
technical side of the show was fair. And under the circumstances, where the cast
had to double up as both actor and technician in charge of either lighting,
sound, costuming, makeup, music, choreography, or direction, they did their
best.
The themes
in both plays were somewhat similar, that is, the lust for power and the
efforts to acquire it by any means necessary, including murder, rape,
extortion, mental manipulation, poison, physical abuse, and 24-hour scheming to
steal whatever they wanted.
The other
thing the two plays had in common was complexity. Ninevah was easier to
follow, but both plays kept one guessing what cruel or duplicitous event would
hit us next.
Both plays
took advantage of time-travel. In The Hoax, the two sisters, Lynda and Lois get
grabbed in the night by a cop who takes them who knows where. Then in the next
scene, we meet the same two with their mom, and all seems normal. What
happened? It took some time to figure out the rest of the play, until the last
scene, was a flashback. This was a bit disconcerting.
Ninevah did something similar, only instead
of starting with a flashback, they presented a scene that would be coming soon.
It was the baptism of an unlikely character, Neo (Robert Kamau), who would turn
out to be the biggest bad guy of the bunch. But then again, in the following
scene, we find Neo arriving aggressively at his mother’s (Rahab Nyambura)
house. He’s confrontational, but she quickly quashes his ire and throws him out
of her house. Theirs is a terribly unhealthy relationship as we soon find out.
Both plays
have complicated storylines although The Hoax is more mystifying since a number
of issues are raised that never quite get resolved. The biggest one is Which
bit is the hoax? It would seem the whole story is a hoax, but that too is unclear.
Ultimately,
we do get to find out who the two sisters’ father is, which was the girls’ main
concern. But since several loose ends were left dangling, one gathers the
script is heading back to the drawing board.
Ninevah’s story is more coherent, but it’s
dark and disturbing. The Big Mama (Rahab Nyambura) behaves like a Mafia
Godmother, extorting and also using the church a means of controlling people’s
souls as well as their bodies.
As in The
Hoax where one person is scheming and operating through others behind the
scenes with their hidden agendas, so the Big Mama pays off people to lie about
Father Juma (Victor Muyekwe) so he’ll get thrown out of church. She wants her
daughter to get the top job in the local church hierarchy and gets the green
light from one higher power to whom she seems almost reverential, in contrast
to the way she treats her son whom she belittles and verbally abuses for being
too violent and generally lacking in the skills she needs to pick up the
leadership mantle that she plans to hand over to his sis.
The Big Mama
has been ill, but she dies suddenly just before her daughter arrives home. She
smells a rat and goes sniffing around to figure out who actually poisoned her
mom. She figures it out, but before she has a chance to confront her little
brother, resolve the mysterious murder, and tie up that story, the play ends abruptly.
We’re left at the somber funeral of the autistic child of Neo’s sister. Her
murder by Neo is left hanging. So, the play ends without anyone insisting on
justice for Big Mama or her grandchild.
Both The
Hoax and Ninevah were actually designed to be ‘final exams’ for
these fourth year KU students. I pray their plays will pass.
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