This comedy was staged by `The Friends Ensemble and Fanaka Arts Theatre' from Friday,8th November through to Sunday, 10th November 2013.
let me star by saying that this is a review of the last show and may not necessarily reflect the views of he show you attended. the play had a star studded cast comprising Sam Psenjen, Maggie Karanja, Joe Kinyua, Mwajuma Doreen, Joshua Mwai and thankfully new faces in the form of Yvonne Mwawuganga and Philip who must be lauded for their wonderful performances nonetheless.
The script, being a comedy ofcourse had the laughlines expected in a comedy. well, some of them worked while some o fthem fell flat with thier faces for lack of a better phrase. i must laud the delivery of these laugh lines by one Joe Kinyua. the most notable and memorable one being `I cant recall, I cnat recall'. Johua Mwai's character was lauded with these punchlines inn the script but the audience failed to notice most of them maybe ue to their delivery. the goood news is that, though the script looked rather taxing to pull off, the actors were able to give the audience a good laugh and worth their money at teh end of the day.
the actors were terrific. they all tried to do theri very best to do the script justice and all who were involved too. the co-operation to make this rather long, uneventful play to life was incerdible and they deserve a pat on teh head. the one who runs away wwith the prize however, is Veonica. ofcourse I know her personally but this is a reaction from the audience plus she did deliver all factors considered. she was the newest face in the cast, plus her character had a chance to display three personalities which were all executed beautifully- the seductress, the nun and the infiriated woman. however, I must point out the the caharacte of Fiona looked like she was holding back a litle too much. a little more vigour and sductivity on her part would have helped lif her character a great deal. the character of Hon Sepele seemed to weigh too much on Joshua Mwai an he looked like he was struggling a great deal to pull off thisb character.
the lighting on this production looked so amateur. in my opinion, there was a lot more that could have been done with the lighting bearing in mind that the auditorioum has the resources to provide an lite lighting system for a production. white light throught the production did very little to enance the execution of teh play. the last scene wwas a romantic scene depite it being in the night yet it is the exact time that the technician decided to put a bright whwite light. sadly, this is a sector that needs to be thoroughly worked out in the future. the sound was also poor to say the least save for the loud doorbell and the telephoine ring whic at some point was also late or missing. music is supposed to enhance the happenongs on stage, the music playing for this play was the same music played at Aliiance for every other production. I honest;y wish that teh music would have been more deliberate and able to arouse the mood of the actors.
In my opinion, the costuming was above average.
The overall stagecraft was below par for a production of this magnitude. the stage manage should have taken her/his work with a little more zeal. the set should be more convincing and definitely way more aesthetically appealing. it was a senator's house but brought out the illusion of a rich bachelor's house rather than that of a senator complete with military secuiriy. the bedroom set looked like a makeshift set after the real one was lost or burnt. at the very least, it would have had at least a lampside stand and more properly arranged.
the audience reception was generally positive. all in all, i beleieve there is a lot of room for improvement especially on the production sie specifically the lighting, sound and the overll set design.thank you for proving that there is talent in Kenya.
All the best and God bless you all,God bless art.
Monday 11 November 2013
Tuesday 29 October 2013
hsband caught in the net
this hilarious part two of `run for your wife' was performed at alliance last weekend. i wat to believe that due toits very humourous nature, they decided to use a star studded cast for this play. as usual, the friends ensemble delivered the play doing it justice. Psenjen, Maggie, Joe, kevo, all gave their best and ultimatey delivered a wonderful play which deserved the standing ovation it received.
Thursday 26 September 2013
actors monologue challenge5
despite the heavy presence of police at the westagate, the tension gripping Nairobi due to terrorism and the loss of Ruhalia Adatia, the organizer of amc Eddie still went ahead and hosted a succesful AMC 5 AT mICHAEL jOSEPH cENTER on 24th Sept. Brian O golla was present to defend his title though he handed it over on a silver platter rather than defend it. fresh, raw talent ewas the order of the day and this time round it was not a waljk in the park. the competition was stiff. well, after 10 exciting performances with omly 3 ;ladies the judges handed over the list of winners. webo james came out first with Sarah M Akinyi coming in an impressive 2nd. Diana came in 3rd with the only other lady Yvonne Wanjiku gettting a special mention from Millicent Ogutu due to her killer smile. all in all, this is an erxciting, educative and interactive event that no well meaning actor should miss out. kusod to the judges, kudos to the perforrmance, kudos to the audience. this is a good trend and i pray that the next challenge only gets bigger and better.
Wednesday 25 September 2013
FCA'S 'FATAL ATTRACTION' performed at KNT on 21st Sept,2013 at 3.00pm.
Going into this play, as usual I expected rib cracking laughter as did so many of their plays ellicit in their audience.well, the paly had a super cast lined up for the afternoon. these included Andrew Muthure, Veronica Waceke, Maryanne Nungo, Kinyua, Ciko, Bilal Mwaura. all these are seasoned actors and they did not disappoint. well, the play was not entirely as hilarious as i am used to but they did take care of that having described their play as a thriller-comedy.well, let me get to my point and do my job.
the audience was not as full as usual mainly due to the tension that had gripped the country at that time but a sizeable audience still turned up. the play began a few minutes late. the set was immaculately and meticulously set up complete with cabinets, framed photographs vases and all. one would not have missed to tell that it was a house and who exactly it belonged to even if he/she came into the play late. this arrangement and immaculate display of stagecraft also aided the story a great deal.
the story is about two greedy couples plus their equally greedy neighbour who would go to great lenghts even murder to get their hands on a hefty inheritance. they however fail miserably as the person they were trying to get rid of outsmarts them in the end and ends up leaving to go claim the jackport.or should i say, she had outsmarted all of them right from the beginning?
andrew who pllays max, the husband to the first recipient of the inheritance brings out his pat pretty well but could benoticed that he was not in his element. he kept adlibing on and on but thumbs up since the play ran smoothly nevertheless. his relaxed mood on stage was very apparent that one could not help enjoying this performance.
maryanne who plays Mary does not disappoint. she is a hard headed a wife as can be but even these ones occasionally let down their guard which she easily switches to and from when needed. her stage presence could not be missed even to a not so theatre loving person. she seems very comfortable on stage too at one time sending the audience into ripples of laughter when, when running across the stage she clasps her breasts as if preventing them from falling.her ability to cascade from one emotional scale to the other is remarkable
as for edgar, being played by bilal, what do i say? i have seen him in quite a few performances and i must say he worked on this character and he delivered. i have my reservations about his performance during the last part of the play when it looks like he sobered up or did he? i saw that he temporaliry lost his character before regaining it later.
ciku who plays Janet brought out her part as the dumb wife quite beautifully. even in the end when she appears to be the victor, her switchto now the villain in the story is remarkable. personally, ciku actually played this part of her character with much ease than the first part though she did put in a good effort.
Joe Kinyua_ what a character you decided to give George. was George a victim of stroke or was he simply a scared pupy infront of his controlling wife? i think both. so, kudos for maintaining whatever it was u were doing with your hands and keeping up with the farce of being afraid of your wife. i say farce becaus when it came to killing poor suzzane, we saw a transformed George albeit momentarily. i think you merely enjoyed having a tough woman around you and in a strange way the two of you actually loved one anotther.
suzzy- something was definitely off with verduring this show. what? I haveno idea. she looked like an amateur on stage, looked nervous. this performance by vero was more of obligatory thhan actually performing for the love of acting.enoughabout the acting.
i \the directing was unique and one could distinctly tell that this directing had an individual taste to it. by the way, it was directed by Andrew Muthure. the actors flowed through their lines effortlessly and expertly save of course for Vero. the lighting worked well for this play. the mood was emphasized using soundtrack which was relevant. the costuming may i say was up to speed and they even remembered to change to indicate a anew day though i would have preferred dimming of lights too to indicate early morning. the props used were up to standard to and the actors did well to co-operate on stage.
did i mention there was a blackout during the last quarter of the play? the improvisation by the actors made the audience keep watching the play even forgetting about the balckout.
the audience reaction to the play was a positive ones with Edgar and Mary rating as the best performers for the evening.Coming from the play,I had no cracked ribs but had certainly been entertained, it was thrilling alright.
.kudos and keep up!
the audience was not as full as usual mainly due to the tension that had gripped the country at that time but a sizeable audience still turned up. the play began a few minutes late. the set was immaculately and meticulously set up complete with cabinets, framed photographs vases and all. one would not have missed to tell that it was a house and who exactly it belonged to even if he/she came into the play late. this arrangement and immaculate display of stagecraft also aided the story a great deal.
the story is about two greedy couples plus their equally greedy neighbour who would go to great lenghts even murder to get their hands on a hefty inheritance. they however fail miserably as the person they were trying to get rid of outsmarts them in the end and ends up leaving to go claim the jackport.or should i say, she had outsmarted all of them right from the beginning?
andrew who pllays max, the husband to the first recipient of the inheritance brings out his pat pretty well but could benoticed that he was not in his element. he kept adlibing on and on but thumbs up since the play ran smoothly nevertheless. his relaxed mood on stage was very apparent that one could not help enjoying this performance.
maryanne who plays Mary does not disappoint. she is a hard headed a wife as can be but even these ones occasionally let down their guard which she easily switches to and from when needed. her stage presence could not be missed even to a not so theatre loving person. she seems very comfortable on stage too at one time sending the audience into ripples of laughter when, when running across the stage she clasps her breasts as if preventing them from falling.her ability to cascade from one emotional scale to the other is remarkable
as for edgar, being played by bilal, what do i say? i have seen him in quite a few performances and i must say he worked on this character and he delivered. i have my reservations about his performance during the last part of the play when it looks like he sobered up or did he? i saw that he temporaliry lost his character before regaining it later.
ciku who plays Janet brought out her part as the dumb wife quite beautifully. even in the end when she appears to be the victor, her switchto now the villain in the story is remarkable. personally, ciku actually played this part of her character with much ease than the first part though she did put in a good effort.
Joe Kinyua_ what a character you decided to give George. was George a victim of stroke or was he simply a scared pupy infront of his controlling wife? i think both. so, kudos for maintaining whatever it was u were doing with your hands and keeping up with the farce of being afraid of your wife. i say farce becaus when it came to killing poor suzzane, we saw a transformed George albeit momentarily. i think you merely enjoyed having a tough woman around you and in a strange way the two of you actually loved one anotther.
suzzy- something was definitely off with verduring this show. what? I haveno idea. she looked like an amateur on stage, looked nervous. this performance by vero was more of obligatory thhan actually performing for the love of acting.enoughabout the acting.
i \the directing was unique and one could distinctly tell that this directing had an individual taste to it. by the way, it was directed by Andrew Muthure. the actors flowed through their lines effortlessly and expertly save of course for Vero. the lighting worked well for this play. the mood was emphasized using soundtrack which was relevant. the costuming may i say was up to speed and they even remembered to change to indicate a anew day though i would have preferred dimming of lights too to indicate early morning. the props used were up to standard to and the actors did well to co-operate on stage.
did i mention there was a blackout during the last quarter of the play? the improvisation by the actors made the audience keep watching the play even forgetting about the balckout.
the audience reaction to the play was a positive ones with Edgar and Mary rating as the best performers for the evening.Coming from the play,I had no cracked ribs but had certainly been entertained, it was thrilling alright.
.kudos and keep up!
Thursday 19 September 2013
i think i killed my boss review
this is a hilarious, simple and straightforward theatrical performance. written and directed by a budding female playwright and upcoming director Mwa-voo. the play is set in a typical kenyan office complete with a lazy receptionist, a discontent accountant and a fairly hands on manager.it begins with the ceo/ manager paying a visit to the accountant who may as well see him dead for ll he cares since the consatnt rumblings about his wealth from the manager seem to get into his nerves. in a dramatic unfolding of events, the manager walks into the accountants office and actually collapses and dies. the accountant, Charles is lfet to wonder and ponder about his next move since he is somewhat responsible for the death of his boss, what with him praying frantically that God kill him just minutes before he walked into his office. the frenzy that ensues after that when Charles' wife walks into Charles trying to hide his boss's body is most entertaining. almost everybody including the boss' personal secretary, a hawker and even the boss's wife is sucked into the drama that is getting rid of the manger's body. in the end, it is proven that nobody killed him,he had a chronic disease and that he was bound to die anyway.
the delivery of this play is almost perfect save for some weak characters like the boss's secretary Rehema who was fidgeting throught the performance. delivery of lines was also fairly good. the humour in the play was brought out well as the audience kept falling into long fits of laughter throught the whole play. i would feel that the play was really dragged especially the last part which involved the inspector of police carrying out his investigation. i feel that this last part should either have been long enough thereby cutting the play at the beggining or a different ending be employed altogether. i must however agree that the playwright or the director definitely tried to better the ending as opposed to the first time the play was staged. the characters were also worked on brillliantly as they were built on well. we shall not talk about the lighting beacuse given the venue and the resources available, the set was splendid.
there is always fro improvement,that is why we -me and you- are artists.no?
the delivery of this play is almost perfect save for some weak characters like the boss's secretary Rehema who was fidgeting throught the performance. delivery of lines was also fairly good. the humour in the play was brought out well as the audience kept falling into long fits of laughter throught the whole play. i would feel that the play was really dragged especially the last part which involved the inspector of police carrying out his investigation. i feel that this last part should either have been long enough thereby cutting the play at the beggining or a different ending be employed altogether. i must however agree that the playwright or the director definitely tried to better the ending as opposed to the first time the play was staged. the characters were also worked on brillliantly as they were built on well. we shall not talk about the lighting beacuse given the venue and the resources available, the set was splendid.
there is always fro improvement,that is why we -me and you- are artists.no?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)