Resurgent theatre in Nairobi

Asking whether there has been resurgence in Kenyan theatre in the last few years (or even months) may seem like a no-brainer to anyone who’s been watching the Nairobi cultural scene.

There’s a new stage production opening practically every weekend. Often there can be two or three shows opening simultaneously, one at the Alliance Francaise, another at Kenya National Theatre and a third either at the Professional Centre, at Braeburn School or even at the Louis Leakey Auditorium at Nairobi National Museum.

What’s more, there seems to be new theatre groups cropping up almost every month.

The latest one that I encountered recently was one called Wholesome Entertainment and they were staging an original script entitled The History Box: To Delete or Not to Delete by a relatively new Kenyan playwright called Seth Busolo.


That same weekend in May, another theatre company that was totally new to me opened with a two-header, both by another Kenyan script writer called Walter Sitati.

The group calling itself Hearts of Art premiered in The Ex-Man about a man who addresses the issue of gender equity in a most extraordinary way: he undergoes a form of surgery that until recently was unheard of in Kenya; it’s called ‘sex-reassignment surgery’ which leads to equally extraordinary consequences.

Sitati’s second script also tackles a provocative topic. Unforgiven addresses the subject of rape and how one victim copes with her unwanted child.

The Moi University graduate and his new group seem to reflect a trend that suggest Kenyan theatre is on the move.
 
Then again, the same daring dynamism can be seen in some of the more established theatre groups which have committed themselves to staging at least one production a month.


They include Phoenix Players, which has been consistently keeping up this pace since it reopened early in 2009.

Before that, there had been serious rumours floating around town that Phoenix was on its last legs.

Those rumours were effectively quashed by the ingenious intervention of Nairobi lawyer, Millicent Ogutu, who had vowed to keep the theatre running irrespective of the nay-sayers and inactive Board members whom she felt hadn’t bothered to fight to keep the facility alive.

Once Ogutu took charge of Phoenix, she managed to call back the Players’ long-time stage director George Mungai who instantly went to work resurrecting Phoenix, now as its creative director.

The other two troupes that have played an integral role in keeping theatre fans satisfied with new shows staged regularly at Alliance Francaise are Heartstrings Kenya and the Festival of the Creative Arts.


Both groups have a sizeable — even enviable — fan base. Both have devoted attendants who claim they never miss a show.

They love to be entertained and energised by the type of shows both groups tend to specialise in, namely lively comedies, adventure thrillers and indigenised scripts that come from abroad and get revised and injected with local colour.

Yet as much as one could assume all-of- the-above strongly suggest that Kenyans are witnessing a resurgence of local theatre, not everyone agrees.
read more: www.nation.co.ke/Features/DN2/