New giants emerge at universities drama festival
What you need to know:
The play is scripted and directed by Munene wa Mumbi and produced by Prof Ken Waundo.
It was followed by Laikipia University’s Intrigues, with Muranga University College next with Redemption. Kirinyaga University followed.
MKU were also winners in the solo verse and modern dance category.
This year’s universities drama festival is seeing the emergence of new artistic giants. In the just-concluded regional Aberdare Region Colleges and Universities Drama Festival held at Laikipia University at the weekend, Mount Kenya University, Thika campus, presented an insightful piece: A Cocktail of Pain.
The tragi-comedy highlights the plight of teachers, with one chemistry tutor selling chemicals from the school lab to bogus preachers to aid in their miracle crusades.
The teacher says he has taught for 22 years, that many of his students have become prominent people, and that he has nothing to show for it.
Drama unfolds when he is evicted from the school compound with nowhere to settle with his six children.
Then the chemical he had supplied to a preacher kills people in a crusade and he finds himself in the news.
The play is superbly woven and directed. The acting is mature and befitting of the academic level of the students. The cast comprises Vincent Muli, Sam Oduong’ and Winnie Dhallow. All are very credible.
The play is scripted and directed by Munene wa Mumbi and produced by Prof Ken Waundo.
It was followed by Laikipia University’s Intrigues, with Muranga University College next with Redemption. Kirinyaga University followed.
MKU were also winners in the solo verse and modern dance category.
Laikipa University were second in the play category. Their play, Intrigues, was produced by Prof F.K Lelo and directed by Dr Wendo Nabea and Benson Obwanga.
The play is a satire on Governor Antonija who leases his County Game Park to Madam Pingpangpong from Eastern Peninsula.
Nairobi Institute of Business Studies carried the day in the colleges category with The Prostitute, a play scripted and directed by Samuel Sowedi on social morality and vice. It scooped all the major awards — Best Production, Most Creative Play, Best Costume and Decor, best National Cohesion and Integration theme, as well as best producer and director, among others.
In the film section, Mount Kenya University presented My Heat will Go while St Paul’s University screened Robbin, The Kinsman Redeemer.
