PAWA254; A BRIGHT NEW THEATRE VENUE FOR FATUMA'S VOICE & 'HATE BY SHAKESPEARE'

Social media serves Kenyan thespians, poets, musicians & social critics well

Enzi Band singers during the play ‘‘Fatuma’s Voice.’’ Phoros by Margaretta wa Gacheru

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Posted  Thursday, June 19   2014 at  16:30 on Business Daily

In Summary

• The evidence could not have been clearer this past weekend when two separate events were staged at PAWA254, one attracting an audience that was not only full to overflowing, but its members were fully engaged in the performances.

The role of social media in Kenya’s performing arts can no longer be ignored.

To say it’s playing an extremely powerful role is not overstating the fact that productions that are advertised online, either on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, email, blogs or even What’s App — are the shows that attract the widest audiences.

The evidence could not have been clearer this past weekend when two separate events were staged at PAWA254, one attracting an audience that was not only full to overflowing, but its members were fully engaged in the performances.

The other followed on the heels of the first, but hadn’t been promoted through social media. I think that’s at least partly why it attracted a fraction of the audience size.

That was a pity since both shows were originals, although one was primarily poetry while the other was a fresh ‘‘take’’ on the British Bard Shakespeare.

Nuru Bahati serves as the weekly Moderator at the Friday nite Fatuma's Voice at PAWA254 pix by margaretta

Both amounted to powerful performances by all Kenyan artists (apart from the Canadian director /playwright of Hate by Shakespeare, Robin Denault, playing a small but significant part.)

Both Fatuma’s Voice and Hate by Shakespeare were in a sense giving ‘‘premiere’’ performances at PAWA254, the venue started by Boniface Mwangi which has managed to meet the needs of a youthful audience who are keenly interested in the creative arts (both performing and visual) and who have largely grown up knowing nothing other than social media as their primary means of communication, information-gathering and entertainment-viewing.

In one sense, it’s not fair to compare Fatuma’s Voice and Hate by Shakespeare since it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Both are artistic performances, but Fatuma has been running every week since it was launched in July 2013 while Hate was a one-off production (with a sort of ‘‘dress rehearsal’’ staged the week before at Karen Country Club).

And when I say that both were premiere performances, that is strictly true for Denault’s Hate by Shakespeare, (in contrast to his earlier script staged late last year entitled Love by Shakespeare, both of which adapt three of the Bard’s plays that relate best to either one of the single themes, be it love or hate).

But Fatuma’s Voice ‘‘premiered’’ in the sense that the poetry was original, written by the performing poets. And the evening itself was also unique since every week addresses a different theme so that the line-up of performances is also a once-off show.

Fatuma’s Voice was started by the Kenyan poet Chris Mukasa who says the project was primarily aimed at giving a “voice to the voiceless” which has largely meant that a multitude of young Kenyans have used Fatuma to share their artistic insight on the chosen theme of the week.

But Mukasa adds that the repertoire of young performers now includes every one from acapella singers and modern dancers to stand-up comedians, poets and even political commentators like the KTN-TV investigative reporter Mohammed Ali.

Mr Ali spoke his mind last Friday night to an attentive audience which loved his candid stand-up approach to covering hot topics of the day.

In contrast, Hate by Shakespeare perhaps should have stuck with its initial impulse to stage its Kenyan premiere at the Phoenix Theatre.

“When the unexpected ensued and there was a reshuffling of productions we were allotted very little time or space for both rehearsing and performing our play,” explained Robin Denault who drew quite a substantial crowd to Phoenix when the same cast staged Love by Shakespeare.
Last Friday night, the theme of Fatuma’s Voice was insecurity (tonight’s topic is the ‘‘gutter press’’). Among the artistes who performed were poets Kevo Kym, Gcho Pevu and Tear Drops as well as musicians with the Enzi Band, and Ali, the KTN anchor man of Jicho Pevu who was the evening’s guest speaker.

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Darkest plays

Hate by Shakespeare was based on three of Shakespeare’s darkest plays, namely Richard III, Henry V and Macbeth.

Starring Samson Pjensen, Chao Mwatela, Jack Gitonga and Charles Oudo who played the role of Richard, the treacherous murdering king; the other three (plus Denault playing the Voice in Richard’s ear) played a number of Shakespearean characters with aplomb and dramatic flair.

Denault did a great job selecting four outstanding actors, but because Hate was staged with the cast standing behind podiums with their scripts in hand (after the style of Chamber Theatre) the actors were constrained from moving freely around the stage.

And without that freedom of movement, one couldn’t help feeling the production would have been far more intriguing if they’d had the mobility they needed to fully dramatise the words and feelings that Shakespeare requires.