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.
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