Virginia Mando, Liz Kaimuri,Sabina Stadler, Kate Kole,Wangari Gioche
sing a chorus in "My Mum My Queen". PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU
By Margaretta wa Gacheru
Race is rarely a topic explored by local playwrights,
apart from early writers like Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Mugo whose
‘‘Trial of Dedan Kimathi’’ addressed racism as part of a colonial
package to be challenged and defeated.
Robin Denault is a Canadian playwright who’s lived among us
for several years and had a bird’s eye view into the international donor
aid world. It was this experience that gave him the creative fodder to
write ‘‘Aid or Nothing’’.
Opening tonight in its world premier at Phoenix
Players, ‘‘Aid or Nothing’’ features just three characters—one white aid
worker who’s bloodied and bruised at the outset of the play and two
Africans, one a policeman (played by Samson Psenjen), the other a fellow
aid worker (Maina Olwenya).
The mystery revolves around how the white man got
so battered and who was involved. Found by a roadside by the police man,
the white man apparently has no recollection of how he got into such a
state. But through a police interrogation and a series of flashbacks, we
ultimately get to the bottom of the matter.
One thing that makes ‘‘Aid or Nothing’’ a promising
play to go and see is that both Mr Psenjen and Mr Maina had a hand is
revising the dialogue to ensure it reflects Kenyans’ style of speaking
the Queen’s English.
We haven’t seen either of these two actors
scriptwriting, but from the sounds of what they did for ‘‘Aid or
Nothing’’, it feels like they both should find time to write scripts. Mr
Denault is actually on his way out of the country to meet his wife in
South Africa, but he wanted first to see how his play would resonant
among Kenyans.
Having worked with Mr Psenjen in the past when he
wrote his two adaptations of Shakespearean themes, the synergy between
them is palpable as the playwright also plays the role of the expat aid
worker and his old Kenyan friend plays the police man.
Flashbacks will be the times when Mr Olwenya comes
into the play, enabling us to see what sort of relations exist between
the local and the international aid workers.
For instance, are the privileges enjoyed by these globe-trotting do-gooders enjoyed on comparable terms by the locals?
As we rarely get an intimate view on this world which operates in and outside Nairobi, it should be a fascinating performance.
After all we have hundreds of aid workers flying
regularly in and out of town, either to South Sudan, Mogadishu or Daadab
refugee camp among other needy hot spots; yet we know little about
their private lives, especially how they relate to Africans and in turn,
how they are perceived by the Kenyans they get up close and personal
with.
‘‘Aid or Nothing’’ runs from tonight through May
24th, so it could be well worth seeing. I for one don’t like to miss Mr
Psenjen on stage as he’s one of the most seasoned stage actors .
Meanwhile, this coming Sunday ‘‘My Mum My Queen,’’
will be in theatre just case anyone has forgotten; so to celebrate the
role of mothers in our lives, Seth Busolo has just drafted another
original script entitled ‘‘My Mum, My Queen.’’
Being staged for one day only, this coming Sunday
at the National Museum, it’s a pity that Mr Busolo can’t take a risk and
stage his show on days other than the one being celebrated.
For not only is the show filled with the highs and
lows of motherhood, the joys, sorrow and personal pains of being the
parent who knew that child nine months before anyone else did.
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