The play ‘For better or worse’ is a marriage full of dust

Marriage, its up and downs, fidelity and infidelity is a theme many theatre lovers in Nairobi will confess is a tad too common in the local theatres.

Yet John Kami dares write us another script on the very topic. We are quite tempted to tell him as much but change our minds instantly upon watching his latest play For Better or Worse that has been showing at the Phoenix Theatre this past week. Kami silences us by the interesting and very fresh perspective he gives to marriage.

The play tells the tale of the marriage of Mr Frank Juma (John Kinywa) and his wife Norma (Veronica Waceke) whose union, having run out of love, is held loosely in place by the children they have. Each spouse feels they have lost their partner, but none can tell exactly when real love exited and left a painful routine of marital roles  just like Elvis Presley sang in I’ve Lost You.

Jacob Otieno, the director, obviously did a great job of piecing the fragments of the past to the patches of present and we, the audience are taken on a bumpy back and forth trip smoothly, almost imperceptibly.

Even so, as the play unfolds, one gets the impression that the scriptwriter fell into the old stereotypical trap that portrays the woman as a devoted, happiness-sacrificing partner who cares too much whereas the husband is a reckless drunk with miniature moral bearing.

One is tempted, as the play progresses, to rename the play ‘For Worse or Worse’, for the marriage seems never to see a day of peace or laughter. The ice just never thaws.

The cast Joe Kinyua and Veronica Waceke outdo themselves with their fine and seasoned acting during the hour and a half that keeps the audience on the edges of their plush seats. The set, homely and simple, is sadly, the only cosy thing in that home. But the marriage is full of the dust of suspicion.