New play features kings and leaders in the Bible
The cast of "Voices From The Bible: Kings and Leaders" on stage at Braeburn Garden Estate, Nairobi's performing arts centre on July 16, 2022.
What you need to know:
- The objective is to create conversations about how their leadership qualities or lack thereof play into where the country, and even the world, is right now.
- The monologues held 10 performances over two weekends, staged from July 15 to 24, at Braeburn Garden City, Nairobi’s performing arts centre.
Five months after staging the highly rated “Spread Your Garment Over Me”, a play about certain women mentioned in the Bible, ChemiChemi Players are back with a look at the role of men in society and leadership.
The cast features stellar actors Steve Katingima, Elsaphan Njora, Mugambi Nthiga, Kevin “K1” Maina, Justin Mirichii, Sam Psenjen, William Mwangi and Samuel “Samuregz” Murega.
The second edition of “Voices of The Bible: Kings and Leaders edition has explicitly focused on different leaders and kings in the Bible, taking a look at a moment in their life when they showcased either good or bad leadership qualities.
The objective is to create conversations about how their leadership qualities or lack thereof play into where the country, and even the world, is right now.
Who were they, what drove them and what made them the type of leaders they were or not?
The monologues held 10 performances over two weekends, staged from July 15 to 24, at Braeburn Garden City, Nairobi’s performing arts centre.
Bible characters
“We picked 14 characters. It’s nice to go with some known (David and Solomon) and some unknown kings (like Jehoshaphat) in order to give people more insight than just the one guy that’s always talked about. But then we have Adam because he was the first man who was involved in the first sin that put us in the morass of problems we’re in today. We also have disciples Matthew (the tax collector) and John, high priest and judge Eli and Gideon, and prophet Jeremiah who were leaders in their own rights as they grew into it,” says Dr Julisa Rowe, ChemiChemi’s founder.
Elsaphan Njora plays Adam but it is his filler role as Prophet Micaiah that stood out for him.
“In the Bible, there are so many names we ignore. The other prophets were trying to play to King Ahab’s tune but Micaiah stayed true to what God had told him. It’s a very difficult position to be in where you have a leader who is maybe erratic or is prone to causing harm to anyone who doesn’t say what he wants and that’s the position that God has put you in,” Elsaphan laughs out.
Njora has attended a few of Dr Rowe’s acting classes, including two with his father, and says they helped him in expressing himself through characters.
That’s why he was on board to take on his roles when she approached him for this play.
“There are not too many drama schools here. So, when Dr Rowe calls you to take up a role, it feels like you’re going back to school to take up a paper like a data manager has to go back to take certain classes when the systems change. You come in feeling like this actor who has the experience, but then see other actors doing their monologues and you humble yourself and go back to the drawing board,” he adds.
Steve Katingima says he had heard actors speak highly of Dr Rowe and that’s why he decided to take part in the play. He plays Eli, a tragic story, and John, a hopeful one.
“It was an opportunity to get back into theatre after three years. I resonate with the characters because it speaks to me in my own journey as a man, and a father and speaks to the situations in which we currently live. Is there hope that can be derived in certain spaces, especially for man? And we’re not sugar-coating anything. It’s timely, considering the difficult economic times we’re facing and focus on mental health, in which the man is a victim and needs a space to find solutions or be heard,” says the veteran actor of almost 20 years, adding that as much as the monologues would be therapy for those who watch the monologues, it has also been therapeutic to him.
Mugambi Nthiga first worked with Dr Rowe as a student, coming right out of university in 2005, and has worked with her numerously in different capacities, including directing her, since then.
“She has academic knowledge of the stage of theatre and ethno-drama. We don’t usually have the opportunity to work with someone of her experience. As actors, a lot of us are self-taught and sort of go on “vibes”. I also appreciate the fact that we’re given the space to be adventurous and do things we haven’t done before. The 21st Century is an era where we get to redefine masculinity, and what being a man is. It’s not what it was five years ago. Anything that helps me make a commentary on what it means to be a man right now is something I love to do,” says the filmmaker.
“The Bible is a book of real people; it's telling a truth about humanity. The truth is people haven't changed in the generations since; emotionally and psychologically we have the same needs. The over-taxation and corrupt governance still plague us. We’ll have more Voices of Women in the Bible. We took “Spread Your Garment Over Me” to Mamlaka Chapel, Kenya Theatre Festival wants us to do a portion of it there, and a partnership we have in Denmark wants us to take it there. We could go on tour,” says Dr Rowe on the project's trajectory, with another performance scheduled at Mamlaka Hill, City Campus, Nairobi tomorrow from 4 pm.