THEATRE REVIEW: Of ‘team mafisi’ and nuptials in 'Perfect Wedding 2'

Cast members Wanjiku Mburu (Mama Baha in Citizen TV's Machachari programme) who plays the room attendant Julie and Maina Olwenya (who plays the groom, Bill Kanja) in a promotional poster of the play Perfect Wedding 2. PHOTO| COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • "Hyena,” Tom calls him playfully when Bill recounts the story of finding himself in bed with a strange woman.
  • “My Fisi days are over,” responds Bill.
  • "Fisi days are never over, look at it as your last feast," responds Tom, to the delight of the audience as it plays on the common Kenyan phrase Team Mafisi which can be loosely translated as "Team of Hyenas", technically a playful term for men with roving eyes.

Perfect Wedding 2’s plot , in typical Festival of Creative Arts fashion, is a farce built around the wedding day of Bill Kanja (played by Nairobi Half Life’s Maina Olwenya) and his fiancée, played by Rosemary Waweru famous for her role as Maya in Citizen TV’s programme Tabasamu.

In the morning that he is supposed to get married, Bill finds himself in a hotel room, in bed with a woman he does not know!

Enter his best man, Tom, played by the evergreen Robert Agengo (of Kona and Mali) who walks into the hotel room just as Bill is waking up to the realisation that something detrimental to his wedding has just happened. He just does not know what.

"Hyena,” Tom calls him playfully when Bill recounts the story of finding himself in bed with a strange woman.

“My Fisi days are over,” responds Bill.

"Fisi days are never over, look at it as your last feast," responds Tom, to the delight of the audience as it plays on the common Kenyan phrase Team Mafisi which can be loosely translated as "Team of Hyenas", a playful term for men with roving eyes.

The plot is complicated further when the cheeky and extremely nosy room attendant Julie, played by Wanjiku Mburu (Mama Baha in Citizen TV's Machachari programme), walks into the mess.

But it is the bride’s arrival that sends them all into panic, with Bill going into a near-heart attack, Tom trying to cover up for his best friend, and the room attendant offering unsolicited advice and opinions in a cocktail of events that leaves the audience in stitches.

OUTSTANDING PERFOMANCE BY FISH MUTHAMAKI

Johnson ‘Fish Muthamaki’ Chege’s performance as Quincy, a gay man who is also the wedding events planner and the bride’s childhood friend, is particularly outstanding, showcasing his versatility as an actor in what was probably one of the most difficult roles in the play, given that he had to morph into a flirtatious, slightly overbearing gay man. Fish Muthamaki is a popular character in Kikuyu language plays.

Valentine Wambui stars in the play as well, as the strange woman in Bill’s bed, whose identity is the real twist in the plot!

The lighting in the play is well-controlled, and used to illuminate the scenes as they are happening (sometimes simultaneously) in both the hotel room’s living area and the bedroom on stage.

The script is a local n adaptation of British playwright Robin Hawdon’s play by the same tittle which cast and production team, led by producer Eliud Abuto and Esther Kamab, Fish Chege and Melvin Alus, workshopped and rewrote, introducing new characters (Like Quincy).

If there was one thing that the performance could stand to improve on, then it would be time management, as some scenes seemed to stretch out for too long in Friday's show. While it is typical for a first show to have its hitches, these still need to be controlled.

The show continues on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September, 3pm and 6pm at the refurbished Kenya National Theatre.

For tickets, call: 0726524124, 0728130134 and 0734524124