Heartstrings Entertainment has gotten really good at constructing scripts that end with one-liner punch lines that are unexpected, practically unimaginable, and down-right shocking!
Speaking to
the company’s founder-director shortly after his show’s Sunday matinee, Sammy
mwangi told BDLife he wanted to get away from politics in ‘Hot Air’ since we have
had enough of political drama with the national elections over at last.
Yet as we know,
politics and the power games that go with it are everywhere. They are in the
church, in the home, and even in the bedroom as we can see in the latest
Heartstrings comedy staged last weekend at Alliance Francaise.
Esther Kahuha as Mama Morgan best illustrates
church politics as she nearly steals the show, playing the
hell-fire-and-brimstone kind of kinky Christian who is quick to judge and slow
to change her ways.
She’s a
terrible toughie who tells off her laid-back son Morgan (Fischer ) that he’s a
mess. It’s not the most loving message to share with her one son or tell her
husband. But this is her house so she feels she commands the pinnacle of power.
That’s how
she has the confidence to dictate who gets in and out of her domain. It is also
how she deems Morgan’s girlfriend Claire () a devil who is polluting the mind
and body of her son.
Morgan looks
helpless in light of his mother’s moralistic rant. She is freaked out by
girlfriend’s mention of miraa and clubbing. But more concerning is losing
control of the son she hopes will soon give her grandchildren. She is truly
obsessive about his getting a fresh fertile baby-maker. And when she believes
he finally finds one, she apparently doesn’t even care if Morgan gets married
or not. This reinforces the implicit message that Mama Morgan’s brand of
religion is full of hypocritical holes.
The politics
of home are also seen in the quiet, witty patriarch Baba Morgan (Timothy
Ndisii). He doesn’t look formidable except as a cool guy who avoids the hot air
wrath of his wife by not getting riled by her rants. He advises his son to do
the same: Treat your mom with respect but don’t take the noise seriously.
Dad’s ‘rules’
work, even as he watches his wife rudely insists that the demonized claire get
out immediately. She doesn’t want to go since she has karma on her side.
Despite being an active ‘clubber’ and miraa chewer who reveals Morgan’s secret
life to the mom and dad, Claire seems to meditate. She is also convinced ‘the
stars were aligned’ when she met Morgan. Here we have more politics and th. e
clash of religious perspectives. But again, Dad doesn’t get ruffled by any of
this as he as Patriarch is the quiet ruler of the home.
That’s the
message we ultimately discover in the punch line that appears at the end of the
show. The wonderful twist that makes Hot Air of interest to me is when Mama
Morgan’s family friend arrives, accompanied by her spouse and daughter. The
daughter (Bernice Nyethe??) is straight from the village and is to be hired by
Mama Morgan to do one job, namely to clean up the messes made by Morgan who is
messy by definition.
Here we will
see political clashes around the bedroom that go much deeper than merely
mopping and cleaning Junior’s toilet. But Mama Morgan strives to be politically
correct in appointing Bernice not a house ‘maid’ but a house manager who will
get paid relatively well and have that one task.
But then
when Claire comes back to see Morgan, who Bernice has already revealed her
interest in the guy, the new socalled manager is not pleased. Bernice’s
predatory nature already proves that gender isn’t the way to gauge the power of
a person’s intent.
That is why,
in the final scene, when we find a house manager transformed into a
mother-to-be, that’s the first shocker. From being a silly village peasant to
becoming a would-be grand dame who’s about to win the top political prize,
namely the house of Baba Morgan, Bernice’s command of power is just as scary as
Mama Morgan’s was. Only she carries no veneer of political or religious
correctness, She has simply slept with the right man. It was a strategic move
to cement her place in family jigsaw puzzle and allow her to say ‘everybody
out’ except the one who really counts in this political game: it's the
Patriarch, not the son who ultimately rules the day.
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