If you have been following the theatre scene in Uganda, by now you know that last week Africa’s theatre loyalty was in Uganda for the Kampala International Theatre Festival where a number of productions were not simply outstanding but tried to reinvent storytelling.
But then there was the closing day, with productions spread across venues such as Imperial Royale Hotel and the National Theatre. Many of the shows were thought provoking and out of the box – the Rwanda Records, a sound installation, studio and a concert at the same time that shared voices of different people from Rwanda telling their stories of being refugees or visiting their country for the first time.
Listening to the stories with rap and electronic music as a soundtrack was something you can’t take for granted.
Then there was Kenyan drama, Wash Her Tears, which took place at the National Theatre’s CICP, a beautiful play that one could argue deserved to be staged in the auditorium. Showing on Sunday, the play was staged exactly a day to the beginning of the 16 days of activism and it was in sync with the awareness.
This play is set against a backdrop of Kenya’s athletic world and explores the hidden struggle of female athletes facing gender based violence and the looming threat of femicide.
This play fulfills an advert singer and filmmaker Ann Nassanga Alias Afrie directed for the 16 Days of Activism which features athlete Halima Nakayi talking about representing her country on the track while running for her life at home. This production was powerful and definitely deserved more limelight.
But then there was the Big Boys of Shibale, another one from Kenya, a comical narration by two storytellers, Mark Wabwire and Allan Wasike that delves into the political and social dynamics of Shibale, a land that was vibrant, piggybacking off a successful sugar business.
At the beginning of the show, many of us, non Kenyans, thought Shibale and the Mumia Sugar Company were fictional.
However, after a few google searches later, we learned both Shibale and the company actually existed. The Mumia Sugar Company was the backbone of Shibale’s economy and when it collapsed, so did the town which majorly depended on the company for employment.
This gave the entire drama a new perspective.
The production focuses on individuals (read men) who by privilege, hard work, connections or bloodline became the most influential people in Shibale. Their success, regardless of the different work they were doing, was tied to a successful sugar company.
For instance, one was a singer, DJ and a preacher whose father was also a pastor. When the sugar company was successful, the offertory box used to fill up, when it collapsed, the box dipped and so did the church’s finances.
Thus the singer, DJ and preacher’s son had little money to play around with and since bars were becoming emptier because people were broke, he lost his gigs as a DJ.
The play basically explores what made the Big Boys of Shibale, the big boys and how they lost their status only to regain it through the least educated and most unsuspected of them.
That’s when they explore African politics, how it is a power move by rich people to get more influence and how voters switch on people they promise to vote for.
But above it all, the production mirrors how a society could easily go to war because of a dispute that only involves two people.
The show got a standing ovation at the National Theatre thanks to the wit and brilliant storytelling, plus, the improvisation where they kept referring to Kampala, Uganda and the festival, it was fun watching the whole thing unfold.
