HOLIDAYS COMING WITH GREASE, PANTOMIME, NUTCRACKER, STORYTELLING

NO SHORTAGE OF GOOD THEATRE THIS SEASON

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted November 22, 2017)

This weekend and the next few, there will be no shortage of theatrical entertainment on show in Nairobi.

This past weekend will be a bit difficult to top since there were powerful performances throughout that time. They came from both Aperture Africa Productions staging ‘Robin Hood the Musical’ and from the Kenya International Theatre Festival where Kenyatta University students performed Francis Imbuga’s The Successor, Reagon Ochoo’s The Mirage and Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband has gone mad again. Meanwhile, troupes from Uganda and South Africa gave spine-tingling performances as well.

Nonetheless, the Nairobi Performing Arts Studio hasn’t let us down once since it came into being nearly two years back when the British director-actor Stuart Nash got together with Dr. Edwin Gichangi and decided to start up a theatre school at Kenya Cultural Centre.

Tonight ‘Grease’ the American rock musical opens at the Kenya National Theatre and it should be heaps of fun to watch. With the lead characters being played by Kaz Lucas and Elsaphan Njoka, the show can hardly go wrong. They both are sure-fire professionals who can sing, dance and act which are talents essential to making the show dazzle and delight. But so are the likes of Nice Githinji, Nick Ndeda and Ian Mbugua (who’s been a busy man, working on two shows at once!)

‘Grease’ will run through this Sunday night with matinees both weekend days. It will be back again December 8^th through 10^th after the word gets around that it’s a show you won’t want to miss!

Speaking of Ian Mbugua, he’s been working closely with Susan Bantu at Brookhouse School where he teaches Drama and she’s directing Tennessee Williams’ hard-core modern classic, ‘The Glass Menagerie’. The show opened Wednesday night at the school. It will run through Saturday night so you had best get tickets right away.

Then next weekend, Martin Kigondu’s Prevail Arts Productions returns to the Daystar University stage with Martin’s latest script, entitled ‘What Happens in the Night.’

This is another case of the word getting round after ‘What Happens’ was staged just once last month. So the director-producer and scriptwriter Martin had to comply with popular demand and bring the show back next Saturday, December 2^nd at 5pm.

The other important performance that should not be missed is by the doyenne of storytelling, Maimouna Jallow. She’ll perform in the finale of ‘Re-imagining Storytelling’ on Thursday night, November 30th from 8pm at The Alchemist in Wetlands.

Finally, Heartstrings opens December 6^th in ‘Nobody is Leaving’ at Alliance Francaise. 

PS. Pantomime this weekend at Braeburn School by Braeburn Players.

pps. Nutcracker the ballet coming next week too.