Kasigwa’s satire triumphed over censorship

In 1991, theatre goers thronged the auditorium to watch the most spoken about play of that year’s festival.

A dark, bespectacled and busy-looking man was darting up and across the stage, arranging this and that, checking that all was okay.

Then, he gave the thumbs-up and the bell was rung. The hall fell dead silent.

When the curtains were drawn, a grim picture of charcoal black and dirty wretches greeted the audience, performing in the most melancholy of styles on an elaborate backdrop of displacement, desolation and want.

The soundtrack heightened the sadness and, as the actors delivered their lines and performed in controlled agony at the loss of their land, one could observe that all action, even the adjudicators’ writing, had come to a standstill.

MASTER MANIPULATOR

Yet, more was to come. Fifteen minutes into the play, three poor characters drawn on the backdrop and wielding only a handful of belongings came to life, walked out of the backdrop and onto the stage. It was magic! The audience gasped at the genius of performance.

That man was Barnabas Nyambwani Kasigwa, and the actors on stage were students of Moi High School, Kabarak, delivering the play 'The Scum', which went on to win the top award in the National Drama Festival.

The annual ministry of Education’s Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festivals is undoubtedly one of Kenya’s most significant theatre forums.

One of those who contributed immensely to the quality of these festivals was the Uganda-born teacher and theatre practitioner Kasigwa. He succumbed to illness and passed away on the morning of August 17.

With his death, Kenya’s stage theatre and the schools drama festivals have lost a genius.

Kasigwa taught English and literature and also scripted and directed plays at Kaaga Girls High School in Meru and Moi High School, Kabarak.

By 2006, he had produced his 10th award-winning play at the festival. Some of his plays were published by Longman Kenya under the title An Anthology of East African Plays: The Scum, The Trials and Other Plays.

Kasigwa’s enduring genius as a playwright was his ability to pick  current issues and, using the language and imagery, create a piece of drama that helped give direction over those issues. He went for credibility in characters.

Even the Moi regime, so intolerant to criticism, found no problem with The Scum in the early 1990s, when land clashes first erupted. Kasigwa’s satire and sarcasm triumphed over censorship.

As a director, Kasigwa was adept at manipulating sounds, visuals, motions and space to bring out meaning clearly and in an entertaining manner.

CONFIDENT DIRECTOR

According to another great producer, Oliver Minishi, the playwright and principal of Kakamega High School, Kasigwa’s overall production style will remain an integral part of Kenya’s artistic backdrop that many directors will aspire for.

Kasigwa leaves behind Kenya the richer with a huge cadre of actors and actresses whose raw talent he carefully moulded.

Kasigwa’s talent was not limited to the schools festivals. This writer worked with Kasigwa several times at the Nakuru Players’ Theatre.

Together with other players, including Michael Kamunya, L. P. Barasa, Kamonjo Kiburi, Ndugu Omwaka and Yours Truly, Kasigwa pushed for access and favourable terms for local artists at the theatre.

As a theatre practitioner,  Kasigwa would not be distracted with the politics of production. He demanded complete and undivided commitment from his performers.

He was the most self-confident director I ever met.

Mr Oluoch-Madiang is a playwright, adjudicator and poet. Oliver Minishi, playwright and principal of Kakamega High School, contributed to this tribute.