LIQUID’S LATEST IS PERFIDY, ALL ABOUT BETRAYAL

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru (4.9.23)

Perfidy is a playground filled with silly people out to snatch a cut from a 12-million-shilling heist by one corrupt politician that too many folks already know about. It’s a slightly twisted story scripted by Peter Tosh for his Liquid Arts Production company to produce. For the troupe’s past few shows, Tosh had invited other scriptwriters, but he has his own style that his cast seems most comfortable with. A bit too comfortable in some cases, as there’s a bit too much slapstick-styled humor that goes over the top in a story that is itself filled with a bit too many grabby characters who keep coming back for cash. The gals, Atemi (Isabella Moraa) and Tena (Veronica Mwangi) are among the first to come looking for their friend Rehema’s hubby’s swiped cash. They are a bit too persistent, and even pushy aggressive to demand that Rehema (Maria Beja) must know about the money since it is already in the media. It is news everywhere that her spouse, a senior politician called Salim (Majestic Steve) is the one who most probably snatched the cash from his own campaign finance funds.

Why he would do it is nonsensical since those funds have been set aside especially for him. So, there is someone crazy in this scheme, and Salim himself wants to get to the bottom of it, because he is supposedly clean. Salim is meant to be our one well-groomed and honest man of integrity. Yet in this play, there are few if any who are not tainted and painted with the ‘corruption’ brush. Speaking to the playwright just before the show begins, Tosh tells BDLife that Perfidy means betrayal, and he sees betrayal all around Salim, and especially in society at large. The politicians betray the public, the public have also picked up the snatch attitude, represented by Tosh as a wolf (as per the wolf on his play poster). So, everyone in the play seems to be sniffing and roaming around Salim’s household, looking for their cut.

First, comes the Inspector Rashid (Sam Mwangi) of Police. Initially, it seems he has simply come to see Salim. But then you realize he hasn’t come to arrest him; he has come to get his cut. He doesn’t disclose this but Rehema isn’t welcoming, and he leaves. But then, her girlfriends show up. Their sniffing is the worst since their touch, touching of all the technology in Rehema’s house shows off their thirst for materialistic things. They go for the booze as well, and they dance laughingly, recalling for Rehema the days of their youthful delight when they were in college together. But she is pleased when they depart. Then come more low-level cops (Taliana Muna and Muciku Munyui) who are also looking for their share. They are prepared to play dirty to get what they want, but eventually, even they have to go. Finally, come Salim and his fellow politician Nduru (Eric Waweru). This is where it is not clear, because both politicians are apparently involved in the theft. But Salim blames the heist on Nduru. Why then can’t Salim simply return the money and claim there was a misunderstanding? No, he can’t do that. He even tries to hide the money (carried in two large tote bags) from Rehema who’s agitated about the whole thing. In the very end, we discover that of all the people who might’ve grabbed the cash, it was Rehema’s idea in the first place. She apparently made a deal with Nduru to grab the cash so her hubby would have sufficient funds to campaign for re-election. But then, who disclosed Salim as the crook? Not Rehema assumedly, and not Nduru. But then who?

In the end, the cash is still in limbo since Rehema seems okay with holding onto it after all. But the point of the play is made. You can’t even trust your loved ones not to betray you, which is ultimately what Rehema has done. So, beware of family and friends. In Kenya, ‘Perfidy’ looks like a sad but accurate portrayal of what people want and are prepared to look for and find, even if it involves cut-throat politics, fake news and propaganda, and even torture if required. Perhaps we Kenyans are watching too many Netflix films about corruption, or maybe we are just reading between the lines in our own papers and watching too much social media to sadly suspect criminality and corruption as the order of the day. Pole sana.