The play Think like a Kenyan. Act like a lady by Heartstring Kenya has 8 final shows remaining.
Dates: December 13-18, 2011
Venue: Alliance
Tickets: Kshs 500
Theatre: Pirates of Nairobi Dam (The Musical), Nov. 25-Dec. 18 2011 @ Phoenix Players-Professional Centre
Phoenix Players Present: Pirates of Nairobi Dam adapted from Gilbert & Sullivan, directed by George Mungai, musical direction by Kaz
Opening: November 25, 2011
Dates: November 25-December 18, 2011
Tickets: Ksh. 500 (Book Online: http://mpesaticketing.com/)
Student nights: Every Thursday. Buy 1 ticket @ Ksh. 300 and get 1 Free.
Telephone Contacts: +254 20 221 2661 or 222 5506, Cellphone: +254 729 913 425
Email: info@phoenixtheatre.co.ke
Web: www.phoenixtheatre.co.ke
SYNOPSIS
Last performed on the Phoenix Stage in 1988, PIRATES is one of the better-known works from the indomitable pair of Gilbert and Sullivan.
It tells the story of a band of pirates [in this case Nairobi ones!] on their usual ‘prowl of pillage’. One of their own- Frederick- has come to the end of his ‘contract’ as a Pirate- having mistakenly been apprenticed to them by his Nanny- Ruth- who, being from a region where ‘L’ and ‘R’ are one and the same- took ‘PILOT’ to mean ‘PIRATE’ and thus sealed Fredrick’s fate as a young lad.
The Pirates want Fred to take Ruth with him…his only knowledge of a woman is indeed Ruth- who tells him she’s as good as it gets. Only for them to stumble onto a bevy of maidens frolicking at the shores of the Dam.
They are daughters to a widowed retired Major General. On realizing the Pirates are bent on making brides of his daughters, he spins a woeful tale of him being an orphan- a story which melts the hardened hearts of the rogue pirates, and they let him go.
Fred, meanwhile, is informed of a small hitch to his being released from the pirates, and has to return to their ranks. He spills the beans regarding the General’s story and they return to revenge for being duped. A bunch of lazy policemen is on their trail…
This is a family show- light story, melodious music, great talent!
Play: Death and the Estate, Dec 11-13 2011 @ National Theatre
The play will be staged at the Kenya National Theatre from the 9th to the 11th of December 2011.
Five shows have been planned altogether. The first is on the 9th of December at 6:30PM. Two more shows are set to run on the 10th and 11th of December, at 2PM and 6:30PM. Tickets are Ksh. 500 and available at all Savannah Coffee Lounge Outlets.
This is a thriller written and directed by this year’s Maisha Screenwriters Lab winner – Maurice Kokonya. Ebenezer, a wealthy, respectable and renowned man dies living behind a selfish and highly opinionated wife, Margaret, and a spoilt daughter, Mary fighting for his Estate. As if that isn’t enough, there is a portion involved believed to grant one eternal life. The play unfolds as everyone from the estate workers, to the family lawyer to the clergyman scrambles to find the portion and get the Estate.
Theatre Performance: Fritz Lang-The Decision, Nov. 25 2011 @ Goethe
Fritz Lang: The Decision is a monologue from and with Stephan Bruckmeier.
Date: November, 25 2011
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Time: 7pm
Entrance: Free
Stephan Bruckmeier was born in Vienna, he is an internationally recognized director, actor, author and stage designer. Since 2009 Stephan has worked in the slums of Nairobi and is one of the founders of the Slum Theatre Festival.
The play is based on a novel by Agnès Michaux in which she describes the last hours of the German movie director and producer Fritz Lang before he went into exile. He was very critical of the Hitler-regime and a co-founder of the “Anti-Nazi-League”. After leaving Germany in 1933, Lang lived in Paris for a few months before he finally immigrated to the USA. The author conveys the inner conflicts and disruption of Lang as she summarizes events of several months into a few hours.
Stephan’s realization of the novel deals with questions concerning decisions and inner conflicts like “Should I stay in Germany and risk my life or should I leave Germany and lose my job?”.
Kenya Puppetry Theatre Platform 2011, Nov 19 2011 @ Kenya National Theatre
Programme
11.00 am Bunraku – The puppet with there (3) puppeteers
Bunraku is based on the traditional Japanese puppet theater form founded in Osaka in 1684 whereby three puppeteers manipulate one puppet. The performance is fused with a mixture of contemporary African puppet theatre technique and music
Sahara is a Bunraku puppet manipulated by three puppeteers; he is a mute puppet male of gender and in the mid 60s in age.
The major objective of this performance is to entertain and educate on issues touching on the life of every individual on a daily basis on issues like corruption, poverty, hunger etc. The show starts when Safari is asleep on stage; he wakes up from sleep and narrates a story about long time ago
Performance style
Bunraku puppet is complete puppet performance manipulated by three puppeteers. This is a performance intending to capture a variety of styles of puppet in combination with light simulations and sound tracks. In the safari performance styles included are the Bunraku puppet itself, mask dance and shadow puppet
Duration: 30 minutes.
3.00 pm The Last Man Standing
The Last Man Standing Puppetry Performance is an out-of-the ordinary performance from the world of the dead and the living. It is a tale of a brave wildebeest called Mara and recounted by Bones (Mara’s Carcass) in the year 2070. A letter written by the Mask in 2010 is warning people of the pending danger caused by climate change years before the wildebeest were wiped away. Mara goes through the most trying moments in her life, ending up as the last carcass – (BONES). This is a story that will take the audience through the life cycle of a wildebeest, times of struggle, bravery, famine, life and death.
Technique:
Performance is a multi-disciplinary, multi – cultural performance from two worlds (dead and living) deviating from the conventional theatrical presentations, yet at the same time incorporating existing modern and traditional theatrical genres together with other art elements such as puppets, objects, figures, architecture, installation, dance and music.
Duration: 50 minutes
5.00 pm Atieno – Story of a young African girl
“Atieno” in Kenyan literature is symbolic of the girl who goes through a lot of suffering and tribulations more so due to society’s structures, attitudes and perceptions towards the Girl. Perhaps Atieno will represent he contemporary African girl who is at the crossroads between education, development, relationship marriage and career. Atieno is the story of a young Girl brought up by her grandmother who lives by the edge of the forest, they live normal lives continuing with their daily chores as an ordinary village family. Through deceit and trickery a young Man, Obi takes atieno away from her home into a strange land filled with evil monsters and creatures. Atieno goes through a lot of tribulations in this strange land. She finally manages to free herself and reach even greater heights through self talent search and ends up back to her grieving grandmother
Performance style
The play utilizes puppetry as its main discourse. Through fusion of different types of puppetry techniques that include, object theatre, contemporary masks, rod puppet spectacle and black theatre techniques. The performance is accompanied by poetry, traditional and contemporary music.
Duration: 40 minutes
Poetry by: Sonnia Gitome
XYZ SCREENINGS DURING INTERVALS!
Tickets:
200/- per show
500/- all shows
Contact: Tony 0733527595, Kyalo 0723871274
Play: Here Comes the Groom, Nov 12-13 2011 @ Kenya National Theatre
Wholesome Entertainment Presents: HERE COMES THE GROOM
WHAT: A humorous Romantic and authentic Kenyan play
WHERE: Kenya National Theater
DATES: Saturday November 12th, and Sunday November 13th
TIME: 3pm and 6pm,on both days
COST: Kshs 500
TICKETS: @ Wakestar Bookshop Koinange Street next to Bata, From November 1st
Or buy via MPESA call. 0725 040 951
CONCEPTUALISED BY:Seth Busolo,Daisy Busolo,Justin Karunguru and Sarah Rimbui
WRITTEN BY:Seth Busolo.
PRODUCER: Daisy Busolo & Hilda Kuria
DIRECTED BY: Sarah Rimbui
SPONSORED BY: Elle Interiors Designers, Anchor Hair and Barber shop, Ndugu Karanja and Blue Graphics
HERE COMES THE GROOM – SYNOPSIS
Jessica begins to have second thoughts about her wedding, after a hurried engagement to her overly nice fiancé Tom. Her attempts to pull away leads to more drama, as Tom becomes “nicer and nicer.”
To make matters worse Jessica feels that her Bestmaid-Joyce is trying to steal the show, Joe the bestman is too concerned about cutting costs, while the grooms relatives from shaggz are making unreasonable demands … and in the midst of all this Joyce hires an unconventional wedding planner-
-Wedding drama isn’t always about the Bride.
Play: Death and the Maiden, Nov 4-19 2011 @ Phoenix Players
Death & The Maiden opens this Friday 4th of November and runs until Saturday 19th Nov 2011.
Tickets: Opening Night Ksh: 1500 : Other Days: Adults Ksh. 500, Students: Ksh. 300
Book Online: http://mpesaticketing.com/
Phoenix Players in conjunction with the Arts Canvas Present:
Death & The Maiden
By Ariel Dorfman
Directed By Mumbi Kaigwa
SYNOPSIS
A man’s car breaks down on the highway and he’s given a lift home by a friendly stranger. The man is an ambitious young lawyer who is returning home to his wife filled with the news of his appointment to the President’s newly-formed Human Rights Commission. The wife Paulina, a former medical student, had her university education cut short when she was picked up and tortured by the State Police for her activism.
The man’s wife, believing she recognises in the stranger the voice of the man who tortured her and ruined her life, kidnaps him and decides to put him on trial in the couple’s living room. This play draws from actual events in Chile in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the period following the removal of the dictator Augusto Pinochet from power.
The country in which the protagonists are living is in an uneasy transition
to democracy and deciding how to punish the human rights violations of an outgoing regime. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? In light of ongoing discussions on the implementation of the new Constitution and our ongoing transition as a nation, we hope that this performance will provide an opportunity for dialogue and debate on issues of restitution, reconciliation, truth and justice.
Tel: +254 20 221 2661 or 222 5506 Cell: +254 729 913 425
Email: info@phoenixtheatre.co.ke Web: www.phoenixtheatre.co.ke
