Sunday April the 24th was one of the biggest days in the Kenya Cultural Center's calendar. The Kenya National Theatre and its precincts shockingly received close to 1000 people fighting for space to watch a Derick Waswa directed theatrical stage play, A Little Girl’s Worth. Actually, some people sat on the floor just so they could get value for their money.
Maybe the production team needed to have considered running the play for more than a day to accommodate all these people, because they sure knew that the show had sold out, if at all they were monitoring the sales insights on their end. One thing we can all agree with is that Derick Waswa has mastered the creative business acumen because his shows are always sold out. However, is it a fallacy to say that storytelling is where Waswa draws the line?
The play a Little Girl’s Worth was a great concept marred by numerous unworthy stories and commercials from the show’s sponsors. The unworthy stories diverted the main plot, causing a possibly one-hour play to extend close to 3 hours! As much as the host of the day, Hellen Waithera made it clear in her opening speech that the play would feature two act ones, two act twos and one summarized resolution, an audience member who is not privy to the playwriting lingua could not understand whatever that meant.
Story A – A Little Girl’s Worth
The most memorable thing about this story, and the other stories added to dilute it, was the dances! We all need to give a standing ovation to Joy Waria, the choreographer of all the dances in this production. The audience felt joyous whenever Alex, the protagonist showed up on stage with fellow dancers to enjoy his passion of singing and dancing, instead of sitting in a hospital theatre to perform surgeries on patients as his mum always wanted. That is the premise of story A.
Alex, an aspiring singer and a dancer is forced to become a pediatrician when his mother buys him a position at a pediatrics hospital. Alex has always wanted to pursue the arts but his powerful and connected mum Natalie crafts a deal with a pediatric hospital where her friend Hilda is a nurse.
the swelling of her inner organs after consuming burgers brought to her by her mum. Instead of considering the girls condition an emergency and attending to her urgently, Alex is busy dancing and singing with his fellow performers.
Alex confesses that he is not sure of how to attend to the girl because clearly, he is not a trained doctor, or pediatrician for that matter. This hospital scenario is where the play’s title comes from, as the narrator keeps asking, “Where is the little girl’s worth? Alex later faces charges of murder and negligence in a court of law.
Story B, C, D, etc. – Toxic masculinity, Women against patriarchy, commercials in-between
The other stories added to complement the A story spanned significant themes such as toxic masculinity, radical feminism, gender equality, parenting, and gender roles with a touch of PSAs about betting – one of the show’s sponsors is a giant local betting company and they must have a put a gun to the directors’ head to create mini PSAs in the play, at the expense of the audience’s precious time!
It was powerful to see female characters reclaiming their spaces and speaking outright against toxic masculinity and oppressive men who rape women, objectify them for sex and see them as beings who exist to serve them in all places including at home where the men think that these women belong in the kitchen. The female narrators in the show helped propel the narrative forward by voicing out these disturbing issues in a lyrical spoken word way while the actors enacted the scenarios. The cast was big and this is because the team comprised of performers who either strictly danced, or strictly acted, and a few who did both, such as Alex, his friends and colleagues.
The costume design for dancers was accurate as it matched the mood and the message communicated in every scene. However, there were glaring mistakes made for the costume design for characters in several crucial scenes. For instance, Alex’s mother Natalie rocks high heels and a trouser just a few minutes after giving birth! We understand her level of wokeness as an educated upper middle-class woman but child, is she that super of a woman?
It was also unbelievable to see a character dressed in a robe known to depict Swahili/Arab culture, yet the character quoted and recited Bible verses like a high priest and spoke no Kiswahili word.
If this was an intentional choice by the director, at least we should have seen the intentions, because it appeared that the character was just wearing a costume - cavalier shit intentions.
The living room design depicting Hilda’s home was impressive and complemented the artistic vision. However, it was out of place when it was the same design used to denote the court of law scene.
Sound was wavering between good and distorted, as some scenes had properly synchronized sound while in others, the cue was late. The director might have compromised a technical run, but there is always room for improvement. Most importantly, I believe almost everyone who came to watch the show had some form of relief in their life by the time the 3 hours had elapsed, especially due to the fact that there were several fresh jokes, great Kenyan classic tunes, and beautiful dances.
I hope the next one by Derick is going to be short and sweet. To the actors, dancers and the crew who put their all to show up on stage and behind the scenes, keep working hard.