Season of good cheer has arrived

T’is the season for celebrations, anniversaries and festivities of all kinds.

There’s the Lamu Festival that’s now in progress at the Coast. Then there’s the brand new Sondeka Fest, billed as “Kenya’s first annual creative festival”, that’s a platform for all kinds of activities, performances and art markets.

It’s happening from November 29 to December 1 at The Greenhouse on Ngong Road.

For Christmas festivities, the Braeburn Theatre opened last night with The Christmas Cavalier.

Running this weekend and next, the typically British pantomime scripted by Richard Lloyd is set when Britain had a civil war that toppled the king and brought a hard-core Puritan named Cromwell to power.

Determined to stomp out Christmas festivities, Cromwell’s spies don’t expect to find such strong resistance and people power.

But go see the show to find out who wins — the spirit of Christmas or the austere Puritan.

LOTS TO CELEBRATE

Phoenix Players are also celebrating the season with a masterful musical, but don’t expect to see Christmas coming into the show.

Instead, Phoenix is celebrating Kenya @ 50 with an original script that’s steeped in period music, starting with pre-colonial songs all the way to the early Independence songs by Daudi Kabaka and Fadili Williams. There’ll also be pop music from all the five decades.

The script was devised by a theatrical troika made up of Phoenix MD David Opondoe, the show’s musical director Charles Oudo and Kenya@50’s director Tash Mitumba.

Last night’s premiere of Kenya @ 50 reminded me a bit of Joe de Graft’s Muntu, at least in its portrayal of pre-Independence history.

But the show is much more than a history lesson, especially with such a luminous cast that includes Joshua Mwai, Fridah Muhindi, Elton Mwambi and Brenda Moraa.

Sharing the stage with a live band, including drums, guitars, a keyboard and a saxophone, the cast of 12 will be quick-change artistes as the show will have a Spartan set design but costuming to coincide with the times.

But Phoenix isn’t the only one celebrating Kenya @ 50. The GoDown Art Centre is observing the Golden Jubilee with its seventh East African Arts Summit, which is also meant to celebrate the centre’s 10th anniversary.

Celebrations began on Thursday and run through tonight when there will be a concert at the GoDown.

Having invited guest artistes from all over the region, the summit will host friends from Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Rwanda as well as many of GoDown’s local friends, mainly artistes from a wide array of disciplines and genres.

Next week, it will be Kwani? that’s celebrating its 10th anniversary from Wednesday, November 27 to Saturday, the 30th.

On Wednesday, the Caine Award-winning Kenyan writer Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor will be feted as Kwani? launches her brand new “debut” novel, Dust, which is already receiving rave reviews from critics who’ve managed to get advance copies.

On Thursday, Kwani?’s 10th anniversary gala will be held at Westhouse where friends of Kwani Trust will reflect on 50 years of African literature and the place of contemporary writing in the broader scheme of things.

To honour half a century of African writing, one of the continent’s finest creative writers, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be lauded, and her book Americanah “launched” on the Kenyan literary scene next Friday night at Nairobi National Museum (in fact, the book has been on sale in leading Nairobi bookshops for several months).

TEMPTING COMEDIES

Finally, at the same time as Kwani? is celebrating 50 years of African literature, the Festival of Creative Arts will stage another one of its outrageously funny comedies entitled Temptations.

From November 28 till December 1st, Nick Ndeda and Serah Ndanu, among others, will take the Alliance Française stage in a show co-directed by Mbeki Mwalimu and Canadian thespian Esther Kamba.

One footnote I must add is that last weekend’s performance of flamenco guitar and dance by Ricardo Garcia and his team was a dazzling fusion of flamenco and contemporary Kenyan music and dance.

Filling the Kenya National Theatre to the brim last Sunday evening, their show was a festive feast and wonderful way to kick off the holiday season, with music, dance and the spirit of festive joy.