HEARTSTRINGS’ WARNS: DON’T LET POLITICS DESTROY YOUR HOME

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (written July 29, 2022)

With ‘One Size Fits All’ Heartstrings Players didn’t just give us an ironic title of their latest comedy, given the divisive nature of political parties in families today.

They also gave us one of the most unanticipated endings that we have seen in a long time. The last words of many Heartstring plays are punchy and surprising. But in this case, the final revelation was so unexpected, my jaw literally dropped with what the brother (Tim Drissi) of Mama Sylvia aka Janet (Bernice Nthenya) had to expose.

What made that final twist even more explosive was the fact that emotions were already running high and getting hotter by the minute before Tim’s one-liner broke open the mystery that no one even knew about until a few moments before.

Storytelling by Heartstrings is almost always a collective creation. It comes together apparently by magic and usually works well. Cast members pick up the gist of what to say, not by having a script typed out in detail. It is more by virtue of the creative process being so memorable that the actors can’t forget their lines, however improvised.

But ‘One Size fits All’ didn’t ramble. Of course, there was the impulsive uncle of Sylvia (Adelyne Wairimu) who is prone to loud outburst of unsolicited opinion. But he’s a loveable fellow and clearly adores Janet’s only child. So does her dad (Paul Ogola) who is so devoted to her, he’s been known to weep for joy at her graduation ceremonies.

The eventful day that much of the play takes place in is filled with anticipation as Sylvia’s fiancé, Jared (Pascal Otieno) is coming to meet her parents. Of course, he can never be ‘good enough’ for Paul’s daughter. And her dad’s brother Marko (Lawrence Murage) can easily make matters more difficult for the lad since he seems to delight in being a bully. Marko apparently came over as family and to see if he feels Jared is ‘worthy’ to be part of it. But he also comes to harangue his humble son Junior (Fischer Maina) who is at odds with his dad regarding his career and study plan.

Junior wants to study cosmetology, a course his dad poo-poos as manicures and cutex polish, not a manly topic like computer science. Dad is on the attack against the millennial generation for their obsession over issues like mental health and depression, and social media as a useful preoccupation. He lampoons young people like his son for thinking they have it rough in life but haven’t a clue what roughness really is.

Janet tries to intervene on behalf of Junior who looks meek and humble until the issue of politics comes up.. Then we see the central theme of the play, which is the divisive nature of today’s political scene and how it threatens to tear families apart over people’s intolerance of differing opinions.

In fact, once the topic crops up, and Janet and Junior don’t fall in line with Paul, we see all hell break loose. It’s just starting to get hot when Jared shows up and meets the brunt of misunderstanding which is fueled in a major way by Marko.

Nonetheless, Jared sticks around to see how ugly and poisonous political differences can get. The anger between Janet and Paul become so volatile that she finally proclaims a fact that is unbearably hurtful to Paul. Marko quickly picks up on Paul’s pain and throws Tim out of Paul’s house. Janet has already said she was leaving him, though she clearly wants to retract that statement as well as the painful one that followed it.

This play was long but nobody moved till we found out how the story ended. It finally did, in a courtroom where they were there over property. Marko was pushing for Paul to get everything, and the court ruled that way. But once the judge asked Sylvia to speak, she gave a moving acknowledgment of her dad, saying that whether she had Paul’s blood or not, he was still her dad and she adored him. Janet then spoke and explained why she had to use a surrogate to give Paul a child. The shocker, finally, came when Tim disclosed exactly who that surrogate was. I won’t tell since I want Heartstrings to bring the play back and talk more about Esther Kahuha’s comic return to the group as a pleasure to see.

 

CHECKMATE’ NEEDS AN EXTREME MAKE-OVER

Checkmate is a strategic term used in the game of chess to indicate the King’s being irredeemably cornered, attacked, and finished by any opponent of the King.

It can also be used as a metaphor to refer to anyone who is attacked and having no means of escape. In the case of Howard Lumumba’s play, ‘Checkmate’, the one getting checkmated is Kingston (Jera Etale) although we don’t know it until the end of the play.    

And oh, how very long it took to get to that point.

Characters like Wambugu (Prince Ianya), the landlord who normally carries all the keys, and particularly one that opens the way out of the Black and White estate was excruciatingly slow in answering neighbors who wanted him to open that door. In fact, he never had the nerve to tell them he didn’t have the key. But his beating around the bush got him tossed off the roof by Kingston. Nobody seemed to care, not even the cop who’d come to meet the area MP.

Wambugu wasn’t alone repeating his lines and dragging out stories until it got tedious. Getting to the point wasn’t something characters in Checkmate seemed willing to do. But one can’t really blame them.

We could also blame Howard Lumumba’s script or even his direction or both since he’s responsible for both. In fact, Checkmate is the perfect example of the peril one can get into when one person is both playwright and director of a play. On the one hand, we’d like to congratulate the writer for giving us his or her script. On the other hand, when one person is both writer and director, the danger is that there will be no one to edit the writer and no one to critique the director. So, if the text needs trimming or the action needs to be snappier or the dialogue more straightforward, none of that is likely to take place. Those were problems we saw in Checkmate.

It wasn’t a problem that most of the play took place as Kingston’s flashback. He’d been playing chess with his daughter Princess (Shirleen Njeri) and was explaining how it was important for her to have a backup –a plan B in her life. Otherwise, she might get into a fix as he did. Then he shifted into flashback.

We find ourselves in the Black and White slum where neighbors are bemoaning the state of affairs in Kenya today, especially the joblessness and high cost of living. When he arrives on the scene, he’s treated like a mad man because he is slightly craze. He has no money and his daughter requires school fees asap since she’s already two weeks late. We learn he might be one of the thieves who has been robbing grocery stores for food. So, it’s no surprise to see him on the roof of the tallest building in the slum, preparing to jump to his suicide since it seems to be Kingston’s only way out of experiencing a checkmate on his life.

The neighbors all have their own preoccupations, but they come together to beg him not to jump. On the other hand, when Wambugu arrives up there with him, the neighbors are so angry that he won't open the one way out of the slum, it feels like they might be ready to lynch him if they had to chance.

What apparently saves Kingston from both suicide and going to jail is the area’s candidate for Member of Parliament (Stella Muchina) who uses his situation as a propaganda tool and public relations trick. Kingston is treated like a charity case that she is helping. It’s her way of illustrating to her constituents that she can do it for one or many at the same time. It’s meant to show that she cares for the poor and is prepared to go all the way to help them out.

But then we come back to the present and discover the MP never kept her promise to Kingston. He’s still stuck and unemployed. What is worse is that his wife (Ann Njeri) plans to leave him and take Princess with her. So, in real time, Kingston is stuck and about to get checkmated. And that’s how the story ends.

Talk about a weak ending. The whole cast of neighbors had already walked off stage. Now it’s Kingston’s turn. But wait, there are so many loose ends that never get resolved. There's the fire that threatens to burn up Princess and the entrance-exit of the slum. There's the issue of whether blondie makes her 7pm blind date and whether her date will be Man 1 (Trevor Otieno). And there's the problem of how Kingston finally gets off the rooftop and onto solid ground.

What is clear is that ‘Checkmate’ needs an extreme make-over before it comes back on stage.

KOBO ARTISTS MESMERIZE VISITORS WITH ARTFUL STORIES

Mushrooms by Kobo Guest artist Elna Akware

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted July 25,2022)

Kobo Trust was alive with artistic energy this past weekend when all the artists working there held their second Open Day exactly one year after they organized their first Open Day in July of 2021.

It was a day that included not just a Group Exhibition in which all eleven resident artists displayed one painting each in the Trust’s Great Hall. There were exceptions made for the newcomers to Kobo, namely Iona McCreath, Aron Boruya, and this year’s Guest Artist, Elnah Akware, all of whom got a chance to show more than one of their works. The other exception was made for Onyis Martin’s three sculptures since he displayed just one painting, and the three were retrospective in nature and the only three-dimensional pieces in the show

 Paul Njihia

There was also a sale of artworks by the artists, including a 30 percent discount on the original sale price of the art. In this case, most of the works were slightly smaller, but the quality of the paintings was not diminished by the size.

Then, as all the artists had their studios upstairs (apart from Iona McCreath who shares her space downstairs with her mother Ann and her chic African clothing company, Kiko Romeo), a trip upstairs was imperative to get the full feeling for the show.

That was where we found the energy flying high as visitors came upstairs to be spellbound by the artists telling stories about everything from their techniques to their childhood to the retrospective nature of much of their art. 

For instance, Onyis had to tell us why his papier mache boat was on the floor in the main exhibition hall.

“I was experimenting with different materials and concerned about the problem of migrants traveling from Africa trying to reach Europe,” Onyis tells BDLife. “The boat symbolizes the treacherous journey they take, and the rock-like pieces on the floor next to the boat symbolize those who died trying to migrate abroad,” he adds.

Timothy Ochola was also concerned about people looking outside themselves for a savior rather than seeing one within themselves. “That’s why I called my painting ‘Questions,’” says Ochola who, in addition to painting, teaches Landscape Architecture at Jomo Kenyatta University.

                                                                                          Tim Ochola

The exhibition features a number of university graduates, not all of whom graduated in fine art. For instance, Paul Njihia majored in Marketing and Commerce. But he’d been drawing since primary school. “I spent half my life in school, 16 years, so it’s no wonder I like to paint school children,” he says, referring to his painting entitled “Dining Hall, Prayer Day.” “With elections coming up, this is what they’ll be doing on that day,” he adds.

Kobo’s guest artist this year, Elnah Akware, also graduated from Kenyatta university, but unlike Njihia, she actually studied fine art. “I knew, by the time I got to secondary, I wanted to study Art and Music,” says Elnah whose dad backed her decision, including having her attend university. But her early years are the subjects of her woodcuts. “We used to eat mushrooms every morning before we ran to school,” she says, explaining why mushroom prints are in both the group show and the Open Day sale. A lover of fashion as well as furniture, Elna plans to have her own fashion house and furniture store in future. She’s got the passion and ambition to do both.

                 Iona McCreath, fashion designer with Kaloki modeling Kiko Romeo shirt hand-painted by El Tayeb

The other fashionista at Kobo is Iona McCreath who’s already created whole collections of unique garments. “My latest collection was inspired by Swahili culture using fabrics made out of things like orange peels and Lotus leaves,” says Iona whose concern for sustainability compels her create clothes with a social message.

Cyprian is a second-year university student who’s been having tutorials with Kenyan artists like Onyis ever since he was 14 years old. “I’d come study and paint with him on weekends and during school holidays,” says Rasto who, now 21, has already been in this year’s Venice Biennale alongside the likes of Njihia, Onyis, David Thuku (who is also at Kobo), and Michael Musyoka at the AKKA Gallery.

                                                       Rasto Cyprian's Self Portrait

Some of the other artists featured at Kobo’s Open Day included Onesmas Okamar (‘Empowerment’), Nadia Wamunyu (“Black Mirror”), Lemek Sompoika (“Identities”), Taabu Munyoki (“Rosemary Munyoki”), and David Thuku (“Red Room”), all of whom created figurative imagery in their art.

The one thing all twelve artists seem to share is their love for experimentation. As Onyis put it, “Experimentation is the only way to grow and discover the resources one has within one’s self.”

Taabu Munyoki's mom, Rosemary 

 

 

 

DAVID MULWA CELEBRATED

 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted July 26, 2022)

David Mulwa is a living legend among thousands of Kenyans who have been blessed to be his students over the years. Best known for his roles on TV and film, his stage performances have been magnetic and have inspired countless youth to take up acting as a career simply for having seen and felt the soulful passion of this consummate performer and award-winning entertainer.

Yet Dr Mulwa has been equally passionate about his teaching in the Theatre and Film Department at Kenyatta University where he’s taught thousands of students the art of acting and the craft of creative writing. Scores of those appreciative Mulwa alumnae attended the Kenya Theatre Awards early this year where the elder statesman of the Kenyan stage received a Lifetime Achievement award for the huge body of artistic work he has performed, specifically in theatre, as not only an actor but as a director, producer, and playwright as well as a pedagogue and mentor.

It was the Chairman of the Kenya Theatre Awards and former Mulwa student, Benson Ngobia who invited all ex-Mulwa students to come on stage to congratulate their Mwalimu. The Kenya National Theatre stage veritably shook from the shock of so many Kenyans rushing up to greet Mulwa who many had not seen since their last class with him, except on national TV in series like ‘Family Affairs’, ‘Nairobi Law’ and ‘Heart and Soul’ to name a few.

“It was then that I began to think about organizing a gathering of his former students to pay Mulwa a visit,” Dr. Emmanuel Shikuku told BD Life at the event that finally occurred on Saturday, July 16^th.

 

Mulwa was deeply moved by the receipt of the KTA award, but even more so by all his former students who appeared as if by magic on stage with him. What was clear on that occasion was that the ex-students were equally thrilled to be in the presence of the man who had mentored them when they had most needed assurance that their love of the theatre arts wasn’t a waste of time or a useless career pursuit in life.

“One thing I found most inspiring about Mulwa was the fact that he didn’t just talk about acting; he was also acting on stage or in film while he was teaching us,” said Sheila Masinde, one of the multitude who showed up at Mulwa’s new home in Ruia.

At age 77, Mulwa only retired from teaching in KU’s Theatre Arts and Film Department in 2021. He hadn’t been in perfect health for quite some time. Yet he never let the physical challenges he faced get in the way of his coming to class and teaching the Principles of Acting, Directing, Stagecraft, or Creative Writing. Nor did it stop him from acting in roles for Television or Film until recently.

Following the KTA awards night, Dr. Shikuku, who is also a former student of Mulwa (1999), went to see him at his home. That’s when he decided that the idea to plan a kind of ‘pilgrimage’ to their mentor’s home would be a pleasure not just for his students but for the man himself.

Shortly thereafter, a WhatsApp group was formed, inviting all the former Mulwa students to go together and see their Mwalimu. After that, the open invitation went viral and the numbers of Mulwa alumnae that joined the group soared. And even after Shikuku suggested that members of the group contribute to a fund to deal with the logistics of the meet-up day and another to donate for a gift to the Mzee himself, the numbers continued to grow and so did the donations. Funds even poured in from the Diaspora, from Europe and US.

“Ultimately we raised over Sh300,000 as our gift to Mwalimu Mulwa,” Dr Shikuku said. “That’s not including the additional Sh70,000 we raised to cover everything from tents and chairs to cooking utensils, 15 chicken and the sheep that we slaughtered and ‘choma-ed’,” he added, noting there was more than enough food. “It was a feast!” said Kevin Kimani, who’s now the Program Director at Kenya Cultural Centre as well as founder of the KIT Festival.

The plan originally was for there to be performances of some of Mulwa’s plays. But his students were so keen to share their feelings of affection and gratitude to the man that most of the day was spent with their taking turns telling how their Mwalimu had influenced and uplifted their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

IMAGINE ROTARY ART SHOWS TO END POLIO FOR GOOD

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (written July 22,2022)

DG Azeb Asrat launched her End Polio for Good Campaign in early August with the announcement of an Imagine Rotary Art Exhibition and Auction happening in November, from the 12^th to the 26^th. It will culminate during the Rotary Foundation dinner which she encourages Rotarians to attend.

The art exhibition will be a major fundraising event aimed at not only aligning our efforts with the Rotary International President’s theme to ‘Imagine Rotary’. It is to advance the Polio Plus campaign which RI initiated in the 1980s so successfully. Unfortunately, there are still small pockets of polio in several countries, which is why DG Azeb’s End Polio For Good campaign aims to give the final push to eradicate polio completely from the planet.

RI President Jennifer Jones has contributed to DG Azeb’s art exhibition in a major way, by sharing a fabulous painting, created by her brother, Darren, with the DG. The artwork to be auctioned during or just before the Rotary Foundation dinner will be a beautiful gold-framed print specially signed by the RI President.

Darren Jones, the RI President’s brother, is an acclaimed American artist whose works have been exhibited and collected all over the world. The work that DG Azeb plans to auction is entitled ‘Imagine One’s Dream’ and evokes a serene sense of radiant color, blended with an array of layered textures including everything from shredded paper and wood fiber to sand, plaster, and industrial staples. Hidden within the papers are words from the Four-Way Test meant to reflect the artist’s deep appreciation of Rotary.

The wider art exhibition will include paintings by artists from District 9291 countries, namely Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan as well as from other countries in the region such as Uganda and Tanzania. And because DG Azeb’s vision of Ending Polio embraces the whole world, she invited artists everywhere to apply to be part of the exhibition.

The location of the exhibition and auction have yet to be finalized but they are likely to be in the City Centre of Nairobi in one of the city’s leading Hotels.

Simultaneously with the Nairobi exhibition, DG Azeb is also planning to have a fundraising Art Exhibition in Addis Ababa, organized by one of that country’s leading gallerists and curators. The rationale for having the second art exhibition is the same as the Nairobi show. It is to mobilize resources which will enable countries to vaccinate the most vulnerable in the society, namely the children. Imagining a world free from this disabling disease is a dream the DG wants to see come true.

The DG has been considering various strategies to enable all Rotarians in the district to contribute to this worthy cause, especially as it will amplify Rotary’s role in initiating the highly successful Polio Plus campaign. One proposal is to open an Imagine Rotary Art Account and everyone who contributes Sh50,000 would be entitled to one of any number of designated artworks in the show. Further details to follow in the September DG Newsletter.

 

BIBLE DRAMATIZED BY OUR BEST

 It’s tempting to suggest you won’t enjoy ‘Voices of the Bible: Kings and Leaders’ nearly as much if you don’t have a slight grounding in the Bible, especially the Old Testament.

If you haven’t read about the trials and tribulations of men like Moses and Jeremiah or even John, who was exiled on the island of Patmos, then you won’t understand how brilliant Gillette Elvgren’s script is.

But if you love watching sterling performances by some of Kenya’s finest actors alive on our stage and screen today, then you won’t want to miss “Kings and Leaders’ because these are the leading roles they play.

In fact, scriptwriter Gillette specifically focuses on the leading men in numerous scriptural tales. He amplifies their innermost feelings as they reflect on their lives, and the reasons they are in the Bible in the first place.

In Moses’s case, it’s to deliver God’s chosen children out of bondage in Egypt into the Promised Land which he is destined not to reach himself. In the case of the prophet Jeremiah, it’s to lament the children of Israel’s neglect of their God and the tragic times they’ve gotten themselves in because of that forgetfulness of the blessings they received from Yahweh, their name for God.

And John’s the one who wrote those scary bits in Revelation, the meaning of which scholars have been trying to understand for centuries, especially what he ultimately sees in ‘a new heaven and a new earth’.

But even if you haven’t a clue about what happened to guys like Aaron (Sam Psenjen) or Eli (Steve Katingima) or even Uriah (William Mwangi) who dies so masterly on stage, declaring his loyalty to King David who’d just had him killed to conveniently snatch his wife), they all gave spellbinding performances. And most everyone (even heretics and atheists) will have heard about Adam (Elsaphan Njora), Moses (Justus Mirichii), and Paul (Mugambi Nthiga), all of whom were equally riveting in their roles.

                                                                                   Elsaphan Njora

The lighting at Braeburn Garden Estate isn’t the best for this type of production. But sound-wise, the eight actors brought together in this Chemi Chemi Players production harmonized melodiously in acapella style on everything from popular Swahili hymns to one Black American gospel song to the show’s culmination with a deeply moving performance of Kenya’s National Anthem.

In fact, ‘Kings and Leaders’ is the kind of show that sticks in one’s head long after you watched it. It leads you to appreciate how deeply the scriptwriter delved into the innermost thoughts of those key characters. Of course, it can be seen as fiction since she didn’t know any of her characters personally.

But take a guy like Adam (Elsaphan Njora) who’s mainly remembered as the guy responsible for ‘the original sin’ of disobeying God. Elsaphan explores the loneliness that ‘first’ mortal man must have felt, having no one to talk to but Eve. That same reflective, soul-searching point of view is seen in almost all the characters. They include everyone from Pharaoh (Kevin K1 Maina) who lost his first son, to Eli (Steve Murage) the priest who also died on stage after confessing his ‘sin’, that of envy over young Samuel’s hearing the word of God directly, not him.

                                                                               William Mwangi

Yet the play has several surprisingly funny scenes, like the reenactment of a light-hearted Sunday School Biblically-based performance of the cast playing school boys overdramatizing their roles. It started with Purah (Mugambi Nthiga) who drew us into his enchanting childhood recollection of his Sunday School reenactment of the story of Gideon (William Mwangi) and the angel (Kevin Maina) from the book of Judges.

The other comedic moment was captured by Sam Psenjen playing Matthew, the tax collector whom Jesus picked to follow him. Previously only seen as a corrupt tax man, even by Jesus’s own disciples who were shocked at their master’s selection, Matthew was philosophical in his light-hearted appraisal of how many ways people cheat themselves, and even cheat God.

Kings and Leaders is very different from Chemi Chemi’s previous production of the all-women show, “Spread your Garment over me’ which projected the lives and feelings of women characters in the Bible. The latter was a slightly more accessible script. But the quality of the casts and the direction by Julisa Rowe are the same.

                                                                                    Mugambi Nthiga

What’s also amazing about this production, which will be running again this weekend (so don’t miss), many in the cast have moved over to making films. So, we’re happy to see them back on stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A CHEATERS’ GUIDE ILLUSTRATED

 

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru (written July 17, 2022)

‘How to have an Affair: A Cheaters’ Guide’ is a scandalously funny two-hander, co-starring Nice Githinji and Charles Oudo, directed by Nyokabi Macharia.

Having such a suggestive title, you might think the show would attract house-full audiences every night, especially as it was staged at Ukumbi Mdogo. And you’d be correct.

It was the debut of the play which was adapted and indigenized by ‘Shorts from Africa’, the theatre company that’d essentially devised the script, having drawn from an array of sources. But it was also the debut of Shorts from Africa, which was started by Nice and Nyokabi who began working together during COVID.

“We both were part of an experimental online theatre project that brought together actors from all over the world,” says Nyokabi, citing the project’s organizers as Balcony Arts. Their second project was entitled Shorts Around the World which is what spurred the two women on to create Shorts from Africa and later develop “a cheaters’ guide”.

The show takes you inside the heads of two married individuals as they illustrate exactly how ‘it’ is done, how to have an affair and effectively cheat on the other interested parties effectively. That might sound like a shockingly salacious premise on which to formulate a play. In fact, the eroticism itself, suggested in the title, could be titillating and tantalizing to others.

As it turns out, the play is both salacious and erotic yet cerebral and thought provoking. Kendi (Nice) initially raises the salient question, why do women risk everything to chase men they know they will never marry? Similarly, Harun (Charles) raises the disturbing question asking why men screw around at all?  Could it be as simple as Harun suggests? He claims he has screwed countless women simply because he can and because he loves women. What in his case has been troubling is the question, why do men stop screwing around which is a more unusual problem that he’s apparently confronted with in A cheaters’ guide.

Well, not exactly he’s definitely waylaid from cheating on more than one after his encounter with Kendi.

Initially, Harun takes up his habitual role of charming Casanova who’s an expert in the art of seduction. We watch their wooing game where she looks befuddled and easy prey, and he looks confident in turning on the sexy charm that normally knocks them out every time. But in Kendi’s case, after two or three casual yet evocative meetings, she drops all pretenses and tells him plainly she has the afternoon free and basically available to him.

The next scene is the high point of sexual ‘shock and awe’; of hilarity and the unexpected. It’s a shocker to see Kendi being so candid, aggressive, and insatiable all at once. It’s also awesome because it’s so cleverly handled by the set designer Muthoni Gitau and the director Nyokabi Macharia. They fabricate the glossy white translucent curtain behind which Kendi and Harun have their first intimate encounter that gets hot, hotter, hottest with Kendi apparently the aggressor and intoxicator of Harun who doesn’t know what hit him.

Speaking of set design, Muthoni assembled a beautifully modern set complete with an upright mattress and pillows that lend a much more ‘innocent’ portrait of what goes on between the couple. Even the foyer of Ukumbi Mdogo got a makeover by ‘Shorts from Africa’ as there was seating for early birds who’d never before found a place to sit while waiting for the theatre doors to open wide.

In the final analysis, it’s the acting that makes the Cheaters’ Guide such a marvelous performance. Taking on such a delicate topic with sensitivity that tells a story that is rarely revealed. It is what actually happens in terms of the rise and fall (pun intended) of relationships, sexual liaisons that can never work because the initial passion and pleasure never be sustained with the same intensity as that initial hook-up. It can never elicit the same adrenaline that ran rapidly through the cheaters’ veins during that first ‘close encounter’.

Also, the cheaters’ fling can rarely retain the commitment initially implied or hoped. Anyone who thinks otherwise is sadly deluded. Not that marriage is the only alternative, but when there are children involved, it’s hard to keep that ‘pango wa kondo’ if you have even a small sense of responsibility for the children’s lives.

Kendi ultimately gives up on Harun because she finally sees how he’s increasingly putting his family’s needs before her own. How could it be any other way?

 

                                                                        Nyokabi Macharia, director

 

 

 

 

WOMEN ARTISTS ASSEMBLED AT NEW KAREN GALLERY

 

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru

Fridah Ijai, Valsey Wangui, Victoria ‘Blaine’ Thuo, Chela Cherwon, Gemini Vaghela and Naitiemu Nyanjom.

These are just a few of the forty-seven women artists whose artworks were exhibiting the entire month of June upstairs at the Usanii Mashariki (U.M.) Gallery at The Waterfront Mall in Karen.

Shame on me for not having been there at the opening of the exhibition entitled ‘Breaking the Bias: Value our Differences’ on June 1^st. As I write, the show has ended. But this one had to be the biggest collection of artworks by Kenyan women ever assembled.

We have Gemini Vaghela to thank for that. She struggled first to find all of these women, many of whom initially had to be persuaded to come out into the open. Then she had to ensure that the quality of their work was strong enough to fit into a professional exhibition.

Not that many of the artists hadn’t exhibited before. Many had. “But I still had to ask one woman if she could recommend others, and then find out from those others if they knew even more women artists,” said Gemini who had been invited by Xhuuma Maseeti, who manages the UM Gallery, to curate an all-women’s show.

“I’ve managed the gallery from the beginning,” said Xhuuma, who initially started managing the gallery as a member of the Kenya National Visual Artists Association (KNVAA) in September of 2017.

“The Mall had been the one to approach KNVAA and ask us to host an art exhibition and establish a gallery,” Xhuuma continued. “But then the Association took it as a short-term thing and planned to shut down the gallery once the exhibition ended. But many artists wanted to continue with it. So, we have managed the gallery ever since,” he said.

“The Waterfront was also happy for us to stay on. They are essentially our Patron,” Xhuuma added.

What’s most remarkable about this show was not just the quantity of women artists represented in it. Most are young women in their 20s and 30s. Many are either students or recent graduates of art schools such as BIFA, Kenyatta University, and University of Nairobi. And a few, like Abigail, says she got her best art training right there in the Gallery which runs ‘interactive’ art classes every Saturday from 2 – 7pm.

“Our teachers are all volunteers,” says Xhuuma who observes that on weekends, there are as many as seven or eight volunteers who teach everything from painting and drawing to tie and dye, origami, and sculpture using papier mache.

 But apart from the numbers of women artists who’ve been able to show anywhere from one to five of their paintings or photographs. It’s also the quality of the work being shown that is impressive. One’s tempted to ask, where have all of these talented artists been hiding? Why haven’t we seen their artwork before?

Rather than question the past, it’s better to appreciate what’s been revealed at UM Gallery which is not only the fascinating diversity of subjects explored in the women’s art, everything from portraits and caricatures to surrealist and super-realist works to decorative and collage art.

What is also interesting is the way Xhuuma has decked out the space. He and his team as used tall sheets of criss-crossed metal wiring both to expand the space on which they could hang the art as well as to simplify the hanging itself. Then too, the moveable panels, standing upright within the huge hall they’ve been given by the Mall, are much lower than one usually sees.

“If you don’t like bending over to see the art that’s at the lower level of the panels, there will be a lot of the art that you might miss,” observed Betty Press, a professional photographer from US.

Personally, I liked the ability, thanks to the lower level of panels, to be able to see a wider range of artworks that had been hung thematically. Explaining the way the gallery is run democratically, in a non-elitist stye, Xhuuma says that artworks are not “segregated according to price range”, nor based on the background, profession, or notoriety of the artist.

“We see all artists as equal,” he adds. “And we are happy to connect artist and client since we don’t take commissions, although we do take donations, and we’re grateful if people want to donate art materials for the Saturday classes.

Throughout June, there have been other arts-related events happening at U.M., everything from spoken word poetry, live music and book launches like the June launch of MC Sharon’s ‘Alkebulanian in Alkebulan’.

 

 

LUNATIC EXPRESS STAGED AS DANCE AND AUGMENTED REALITY

 

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru (14 July 2022)

In recent times we have seen storytelling take on a variety of forms and genres. We’ve seen straight plays, everything from dramas and melodramas to comedies, fairy tales, and farce.

We’ve also seen a lot more musical theatre lately wherein music and dance play increasingly important roles in dramatizing tales ranging from Jesus Christ Superstar and Sarafina to Ngaahiki Ndeeda staged in both English and Kikuyu (and shortly, on July 29, it will open in Limuru where Kamariithu Theatre once was).

And just the other day, we saw stories like ‘Peter Pan’ (by the Academy of Dance{ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (by Dance Centre Kenya) portrayed purely through dance. We saw ballerinas on their toes using their whole bodies to signify fantasy tales filled with passion and set to symphonies by world-class composers.

We even listened to an award-winning audio-plays like ‘Song of the Humming bird’ that reminded us of the importance of listening to narrative as well as to nature’s beautiful sounds. It also reminded us of the environmental crisis that the humming bird and all of nature is being threatened by, namely extinction.

And just recently, we saw a whole new generation, structure and style of storytelling in ‘Raundi Mwenda’ which was staged for one night only at Kenya National Theatre.

A collaboration between Dance into Space, British Council, and the Repertory Theatre of Birmingham, the production combined everything from historical fiction and contemporary dance to digital technology, specifically augmented reality, ballet and straight storytelling as well.

Loosely based on story of the Lunatic Express, the train the British decided to create linking Mombasa and Kampala. Raundi Mwenda (or Crazy Trip) explores the story of the railway, both as an historic event and a symbol of colonialism. It takes us on a journey from pre-colonial times up to the present day. Events are revealed as sound and light combine with dance, augmented reality that flashed images of slithering snakes morphing into a railway train shaped just as the prophets had foreseen.

 

 

There were lots of cryptic elements in the production, starting with a ragged old man (Steenie Njoroge) slowly pushing a grocery cart full of unidentifiable objects across the back of the stage. Meanwhile, in juxtaposition to the aged beggar, a lively team of contemporary dancers came on stage, waving and stretching their arms. Their characters were unclear but perhaps they were land surveyors preparing the path for the railway. Otherwise, why were they there?

The show had a shaky start when the lights went off and there was a lapse before a spotlight came on, undecided on what diameter of light to flash on an empty stage. Then, finally some sound switched on. After that, there was smooth sailing.

Once the show took off, there was clarity in the angry figure of Joseph Wairimu enacting lines from the Peter Kimani novel, Dance of the Jacaranda. He made clear that the locals were displeased with their treatment by colonizers who came, pretending to  be friendly while planning how to rob the Africans of their lands and their freedom.

After that, the dancers came in, miming the historical narrative, period by period up until the present day.

Ultimately, one had to appreciate the experimental character of the show, both because the Birmingham people had never worked with Kenyans in Dance into Space before. Nonetheless, one feels there needed to be more rehearsals and more collaboration on the script which basically related the conventional story as told from a Western perspective and not paying much heed to the plight of the workers who were often mauled by the notorious lions of Tsavo.

That Western perspective was best expressed by two beautiful Kenyan dancers, she dressed in an elegant gown and the man in a suit that might have been a tuxedo. Either way, their dance was graceful but reflective of a Western lifestyle that suggested either that the Africans associated with the railway were made over into black ‘Wazungu’ or that Britons were enjoying their transplanted Western ways into Kenya in high style.

The ending of ‘Raundi Mwenda’ was particularly confusing. The young dancers were having fun, dancing in current dance style. But that was how the show stopped.  There seemed to be no resolution and nothing clear about what the message of the production was.

Perhaps that was the point, but at least we must have seen some reference to our new SGR train designed by the Chinese which, as it is turning out to be yet another style of ‘Lunatic Express.’

 

 

HEARTSTRINGS HUSTLES IN THE NAME OF A WORTHY CAUSE

 By Margaretta wa Gacheru (written 10 July 2022)

 No doubt, Heartstrings meant well in wanting to raise funds for their fellow actor, the late Maina Olwenya who recently passed on. After all, Maina was meant to be acting in the comedy, ‘In Whose Hands’ that we just saw at Alliance Francaise this past weekend. His death was sudden, and came as a shock to us all. Tributes for his contribution to Kenyan film and theatre have been pouring into social media as the grief felt over Olwenya’s death has hit many like a ton of bricks.

Nonetheless, the irony of Heartstrings’ devising a play in which four hustlers are busy raising billions in donor funding for a ‘worthy cause’ is peculiar. The request for audiences to contribute to Maina’s funeral expenses is sound.  Not so, the quartet in the play who picked up on a popular photograph of a starving child who was so weak, emaciated, and malnourished that the vultures were already circling the kid. One bird in particular looked prepared to pick the little meat remaining on the boy’s bare bones.

The four are clever hustler-con artists who look like they have made an art out of tapping into donor funding. Their appeals go out especially to Westerners, many of whom still hold the unfortunate stereotype that their donations will help the ‘starving children of Africa.’

The four are masters of the media as we see in the first few moments of the play when the MC, Pastor Baba (Tim Ndissi) introduces the other three. They’re recording their success story, framing a narrative that will appear to account for all the billions raised to revive the life of a child who was literally saved through their Foundation’s well-funded efforts.

Such shrew operators as these have literally made a fortune, setting up the Cornelius Foundation, named after the orphaned child (Fischer Maina) who they have not only resurrected from a near-death. He also became their cash cow in the process.

It began when the Pastor found the child and brought him to Dr. Silver (Paul Ogola) who revives him medically by feeding and hydrating him intravenously, and cleansing the boy’s blood. After that, they introduce him to Mama (Adelyne Wairimu) who had an orphanage that raises the boy who they ensure never wants for anything except perhaps an exercise of his own responsibility. Finally, there’s the ill-tempered Professor (Paul Ogutu) who looked after his education.

All four are beneficiaries of the boy’s upbringing. But their greed has gotten the best of them, and they are making an appeal to expand their Foundation. What they don’t expect is for the boy, now 25, to revise his social status and come out from under their control.

It’s a shock to the gang of four. But they don’t disclose their displeasure to Cornelius (who now wants to start a donor-funded foundation of his own).  Like every hustler, they are fast on their feet. They are quick to readjust their ‘Cornelius narrative’ based on the changing circumstances. What makes them shut down their recording fast is Cornelius’s admission that he has a girlfriend, Laura (Bernice Nthenya), and he's been with her for the last five years!

Laura and Corny have just moved to a new home. They swear their undying love for one another up until three of the four-some show up at their flat. Laura hasn’t a clue about her sweetheart’s past, so when they show up, she immediately revolts against these pushy patriarchal men.

Laura is a fighter, and refuses the Quartet’s scheme to get Corny married off fast (even though they technically don’t know about her pregnancy). Dr Silver tells her plainly that she needs to cooperate so they can revise Corny’s narrative.

But Laura is more than ‘fiesty’. She can’t escape getting forced to marry Corny the following day. But when he seems to side with the wazees and put her in second place, she is furious. Her departure is imminent, up until Corny makes his first independent decision. It’s to choose her over them.

They’re crestfallen for a moment, but once a scruffy-looking street child appears, they immediately see new prospects for fundraising—another child who needs a total makeover and fresh start. Now they are back in the business of raising billions to save the needy suffering ones in Africa.     

It’s a game we see played every day, a style of sophisticated white collar corruption that Heartstrings mirrors well in their play.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

                                      

 

 

 

SUDANESE ELDER COMES TO CIRCLE ART

 

OTAYBI DEBUTS IN NAIROBI AT CIRCLE ART

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 10 July 2022)

Nairobi has been blessed with an abundance of brilliant Sudanese artists, most of whom have graduated from excellent art colleges and universities in Khartoum. All of them have their own approach to fine art, only that one can invariably tell that they have received some extra special inspiration having come from Sudan.

Whether it’s the teaching, tradition, temperature or convergence of the Blue and White Nile at the place where they have all gone to school, they all are striking for their unique approach to their subjects. That includes everyone from El Tayeb Dawelbait and Salah El Mur to Abushariaa Ahmed and Rashid Diab to name a few.

Mohamed Adella Otaybi is no exception, apart from his having only arrived in Kenya recently. He has never found time to come here before, although he’s been featured in previous Circle Art shows as one of the gifted Sudanese artists. He came now specifically to attend the opening of his first solo exhibition in Nairobi at Circle Art Gallery.

Entitled ‘The Lost Paradise’, the artist quotes the British poet John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost as the inspiration for his title. “It’s a story about how Adam and Eve fall from heaven to hell,” Otaybi tells BD Life a few minutes before guests and potential patrons start streaming in for the opening.

Asked how that story relates to him and his exhibition, he explains how his wife passed on tragically eight years ago, and he’s experienced hell without her. “She continues to be my source of inspiration and this exhibition is dedicated to her,” he says.

That might explain why we can see so many women in this show. Yet he insists the exhibition is not solely about her. However, his largest and most illustrative painting, entitled ‘The Lost Paradise’ gives a hint of how she has fueled his imagination even in her absence. It’s got a musician playing a beautiful guitar-like instrument, a long-nosed muse right beside the guitarist and above them lies a woman atop a bright yellow wall who could easily represent his wife, or at least her silent presence in his life.

Otaybi describes one of his paintings, entitled ‘Flying Fish’ as “surrealist” which is a term that might apply to all of his paintings. In this case, the flying fish is balanced atop a man’s head, His ‘Untitled II (Bird Woman)’ replaces a bird’s beak with a woman’s head. And in ‘The Mirror’, he’s replaced a man’s head with the beak and head of a bird.

As there seem to be two mirrors in that painting, not one, he explains that when we look in a mirror, we often see someone who doesn’t look the way we imagine ourselves to be.

Yet much of Otaybi’s art has a feeling of whimsy and almost childlike playfulness to it. One sees it in works like ‘Playing Cat’, ‘Homeless Cat’, and ‘Aggressive Birds’. Animals often feature in his works, as in ‘The Horse’, ‘Bull and Dove’, ‘Two Fishes’ and one of my favorites pieces, ‘She and the Sea’ where a woman relaxes at the shore while above her a family of fish swim by.

The other reason his art has a childlike quality is because his paintings tend to be flat in the sense of lacking a three-dimensional perspective. In ‘She and the Sea’ for instance, the fish are literally above the woman, stacked as it were. Yet he leaves it to your imagination to see where they are and even see the horizon line in the distance.

“Sudan is a land that is very multicultural, very diverse,” Otaybi says. “I like to take elements from all of these cultures and include them in my art,” he adds.

One can see this in his including music and the drumming ‘Dervish’, his ‘Reclining Woman’ following a tradition set centuries ago and pursued by everyone from Picasso and Klimt to Henry Moore, in his calligraphic elements seen in works like ‘Splendor in the Moon’ and ‘The Horse’ and even in the oval shape of some of his faces which he says acknowledges the African mask.

In the end, one most easily appreciates Otaybi’s art as being colorful, imaginative, and highly decorative. His ‘Bird Woman’ is beautifully plumed in red, pink, purple, black, and white. Yet it’s the turquoise blue sky that engages your eye, even as you can’t ignore all the tiny symbols and designs that punctuate the painting.

There’s also a sense of yearning in Otaybi’s art, possibly for the wife he lost eight years ago.

 

 

ETHIOPIAN CHURCH IN KILELESHWA BEAUTIED BY ARTIST

 

THREE YEARS FILLING A CHURCH WITH BIBLICAL BOUNTY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Stepping barefoot into the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church in Kileleshwa is like wandering into a medieval wonderland filled with brightly-painted icons of Ethiopian saints and prophets as well as Scriptural stories from both the Old and New Testaments.

There are ‘signs and wonders’ everywhere. All painted in dazzling colors, one can see Biblical scenes covering every wall, from the vaulted ceilings to the carpeted tile floors.

BDLife had been forewarned by a friend that the artist responsible for all of these wonderful works was a young Ethiopian woman.  But upon meeting the petite painter, Emebet Alemu, one can hardly believe that this soft-spoken woman is the one who’s created all of the majestic iconography filling this large church hall. But we didn’t have to take her word for it.

“I still have one more row of paintings to put up,” she says, referring to the lower back wall. “I’ll be happy to show you them,” she says as she quickly disappears.

Returning in minutes, she carries a slew of large rolled canvases which she cradles in her arms. Quickly unrolling them, one by one, she reveals more prophets and one magnificent painting of the angel Gabriel, who played such a large role in the New Testament. All are painted in the same unmistakable style as those we see covering the church walls.

“I’m almost done,” says this 36-year-old artist (who could pass for 22) who adds that she has been painting at the church for the past three years.

“I actually live elsewhere but once I started on this project, I found it was much easier to stay here and work throughout,” says Emebet who was given her own space on the church grounds for painting by the church’s pastor Keshi Andimichael Hadera.

Once she’s done, she plans to return to her own studio where she’ll be preparing for her first solo exhibition which she hopes to have at Nairobi National Museum.

“Lydia [Galavu, curator of NNM’s creativity gallery] came here to see my work at the church, and said she’d like me to have an exhibition

there,” she adds.

Born and bought up in the Orthodox Ethiopian church in Addis Ababa, Emebet clearly studied her Bible well since the Pastor left her to the broad strokes of her original outline of what she planned to paint in acrylics on canvas to cover his church’s walls. It is her imaginative interpretation of the life, crucifixion, and ascension of Jesus that one can see cover the long wall that your eyes rest upon as you walk (barefooted) into the church and gaze straight ahead. There one sees panel by panel, the birth of the baby, the baptism of Jesus, with his numerous instances of healing scattered all around the walls. We also see him on a donkey entering into Jerusalem where he will eventually attend his Last Supper, a dramatic event that covers more than half the back wall in a modified Leonardo style. Jesus’ ascension takes place above that evening meal with him being accompanied by winged angels.

And beneath the disciples and Jesus are a long line of Ethiopian prophets and saints who Emebet cannot enumerate for me, but there are clearly many. What is equally amazing about her paintings is that the subject matter ranges between both the Old and New Testaments. She features Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego together with a ‘fourth man’, a larger than life ‘son of God’ who’d been sent to save the three. She doesn’t forget Moses who has a staff in hand that has a snake’s head at the top of the rod. And she even has a panel devoted to Saint George slaying the dragon, even though George doesn’t actually figure anywhere in the Bible. He’s said to have pre-Christian origins but gained legendary status during the Crusades. Side by side of George, she painted a panel of the angel Michael who did battle against another dragon on the babe’s behalf in the book of Revelation.

And in addition to her painting several images of Mary and the baby Jesus, Emebet has also created one panel devoted solely to Mary where she is surrounded by several angels, suggestive of how pure her soul and spirit had to be in order for her to give birth to the babe understood to be the son of God.

When she’s done, I can’t be sure the church will welcome the publicity Emebet’s artistry deserves. But if, one day the church gains UNESCO status, I won’t be surprised.