IRREGARDLESS OF CRIME, CORRUPTION, AND GREED, LIFE GOES ON

 IRREGARDLESS A CHATTERBOX MASTERPIECE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted August 1, 20220

Irregardless is the sort of play which if it had been staged in another time would have been deemed ‘seditious’ and gotten the playwright sent to either Nyayo House or Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.

Why? Because it openly exposes so many flagrant disparities and inequities of Kenyan society today. If, for instance, it had been staged during the Moi era, J.J.. Jumbi, the playwright and founder of Chatterbox Productions, would have gotten in trouble for openly exploring all the promises made by politicians, including the President, that were never kept. That kind of criticism would have been seriously frowned upon.

Fortunately, we got through that time, so there’s a bit more latitude in how far the artists can go in criticizing their leaders.

Even more fortunate is the fact that J.J. knew how to mask his critical perspective in humor, metaphor, music, and caricature. That way we could laugh rather than weep when we watched the glaring contrasts between a poor woman in labor who needed special care at Kenyatta Hospital versus one waiting to deliver in a five-star hospital where women are treated like queens, not worthless whores.

Sometimes the script seemed to belabor a point longer than necessary for the audience to get the gist of what was happening. That was true of the matatu scene where a couple was being pulled between two matatu touts trying to lure prospective customers to their PSV with hyperbolic pleasures like five-course meals and a chakuzi steam bath.

As it turned out, the couple had different preferences which turned into an argument and a breakdown of their bond. Their differences of opinion, leading to the quick demise of their romantic bliss, reflects a real-time problem in Kenyan society. It’s the way relationships can come and go in such a fleeting manner that multiple problems can arise from expectations shattered and cultural traditions lost in the frenzy of families falling apart.

In fact, Irregardless has a serious side in spite of the hyperbolic humor, upbeat music, and well-choreographed scenes. It has to do with the way so many institutions seem to be falling apart before our eyes. It’s true in education where we saw students clamoring for simple things like sugar and uji, bread and milk. There should have been funds allocated for some of these amenities, and perhaps they were. But due to the greed of grabby bureaucrats and politicians, those funds often disappear. It’s called corruption.

It’s true of student leaders who we saw staging rallies critical of the system. But once they are targeted, nabbed, and taught to tow the party line (either through bribery or torture or both), they become effective sell-outs now representing the system. Again, we saw corruption in action.

We even saw it in the church where there were church leaders abusing their so-called ‘calling’ by becoming conmen who get rich quick in the name of Jesus Christ. They start their own mega-churches and claim their wealth derives from a divine source that people can trust. It’s a tragedy but it also reveals the way the church no longer provides a moral compass sustaining society’s need for hope in the future. Instead, what we’re seeing is a rise in crimes and suicides.

Chatterbox’s script offers a panoramic picture of the social problems facing Kenyans today. The stories are so timely that we even see a Wajackoyah character showing up in church claiming to be a moral man. Yet we see him teaming up with that ‘prosperity’ church leader who buys his wife expensive cars, claiming his woman is equally endowed with the divine power of God.

Irregardless lampoons nearly all the social institutions that have an impact on everyday Kenyans, from the schools and inflationary food prices to the health care system, the military and police, and the churches. They all of them have been corrupted. And poverty is the crowning crunch on people’s ability to cope.

So, while the hilarity and high spirits of Irregardless seem to make light of the plight people find themselves in, the reality of poverty, corruption, and inequality are all effectively portrayed in the Chatterbox comedy.

But even before we watched the show, one had to check out the play’s title since ‘irregardless’ isn’t really a legitimate word. It’s a term that gets used to mean ‘regardless’, but by its having a double-negative in the prefix, it defies the rules of grammar which makes it a fitting title for a play about the crumbling of the rule of law.