Sarafina: A mega show and exciting coincidence

The Nairobi Performing Arts Studio and Stuart Nash are not new to big shows and 'Sarafina' is as big as they come. This, especially given the climate of defiance and agitation driven by young people, mirroring the actions in 'Sarafina'; young, angry people on one hand and a violently brutal State on the other.

The show, directed by Nash, will be showing at the Kenya National Theatre (KNT) this month from August 15th to 25th. This will be the first show back on stage as KNT reopens after a year of renovations.

The production features a great cast, with Lorna Lemi as Sarafina, Wakio Mzenge (Mary Masembuko), Peter Pish Kago (Sabela), Gadwill Odhiambo (Crocodile) and Hellen Mtawali as Mama Sarafina. Others are Daniel Lee as Lieutenant and Dominic Mutemi (Principal) and  Marvin Kibicho (Preacher).

Their previous productions of 'Sarafina' have featured Brenda Wairimu and Sheila Munyiva as the lead character, Sarafina.

The show will be coming back after five years, last staged in 2019, but Nash says this is a whole new production.

But why now?

"We started rehearsing in July last year, and then in September, we were told that the theatre was closing for refurbishment. We were supposed to do it earlier this year, but the theatre took longer than expected," says Nash.

He adds that they had to wait for KNT to be ready since it was the only stage with the capacity they needed.

"I feel that Kenya National Theatre has got some technical abilities that no other theatre has got," he says.

His biggest fear is that people will think that they are taking advantage of the current situation of youth-led agitation.

"It's absolutely by chance that these two events have coincided. We planned to do it last year, but I'm sure there are going to be people thinking that we suddenly decided to put it on because of what's happening at the moment. But it wasn't that at all. These were actually the first dates that we could get," he says.

It is a coincidence that he thinks can play either way.

"I guess in one way, it's good, but in another way, I hope it doesn't look like we're inciting or something because it's not that at all, it was just they happen to come up at the same time, but then you know, it's also like a once in a career thing to happen. Couldn't plan (for) these events, obviously," he says.

The new show features an all-new cast. Nash says it is because he wanted to do something different. The only people from the previous 'Sarafina' production is himself, the stage manager and her assistant and the person in charge of music.

"It's not the same version. The sets are all different," he says.

He quickly brushes aside the question that they are staging Sarafina again so soon.

"It's not so soon, about five years. If you if we were in, say the UK, and the equivalent show there, which will be something like Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, if it closed, it will be coming back every two or three years. Because there's always an audience for these shows. And there's a reason why they're popular. They're good," he says.

He adds that after the last 'Sarafina' show, there was quite a demand from those who had missed it.

Stuart Nash's productions usually feature a huge cast, and he seems to take on plays that might be difficult to produce for many people.

" I'd never really produced and directed a smaller show, in Kenya anyway. So the first show that I did under Nairobi Performing Arts Studio was the 'Jesus Christ Superstar' that had 35 people in the orchestra, a massive set and like 35 people in the cast. And all the shows I've done up until I did 'Mstinji' with Alliance Francaise, which was based on 'L'Avare' by Moliere that only had well 12 people in and it felt like such a small affair. I felt like I never wanted to do a musical again because it was 12 people on one set.

"Now when you get into a musical there are so many more complications. Musicals traditionally have bigger sets and bigger casts. (You have to worry about) where's the music coming from? And then that inherently has other knock-on effects like all the microphones or the sound equipment that you have that you don't have to worry about with the play," he says.

Despite all these, however, he is most at home with these types of productions. The show they are working on now, 'Sarafina', has a cast of 35, with another 30 people in the stage crew.

"When we we shot the commercial about three weeks ago we ordered 80 plates of food. There was one show, it might have been 'Sarafina' actually when we were ordering 122 plates of food every day," he says.

Does he seek a challenge with his shows?

"I just like just like doing big shows. I mean, I like doing small shows, but I don't know it's just something I fell into because when I was acting in the UK, the shows that I tended to do were bigger. It's something that comes naturally to me," says Nash.

He says shows based on plays like Ngugi wa Thiong'o's and other big names offer a unique chance.

"I feel like in my career in Kenya I have had I've had opportunities to do things that I can't imagine how they would arise, in the UK for example. The fact of being able to direct a show that the author was arrested and put in prison for a year and it's never been done in English and had not been done for 45 years."

But he agrees that he might be playing it a little safe by going for plays he says have a "Built-in audience."

"They're all brands (names like Sarafina, Ngugi or Francis Imbuga's 'Betrayal in the City') that come with a built-in audience. I think if we're going to have a big budget, which these shows are, then it needs to come with some kind of buffer in terms of an audience. I think spending you know, three and a half million on a completely unknown play by a completely unknown writer. That would be tricky," he says.

But with their past shows, his worry now is that they have built a certain kind of expectation among their audience.

"They expect a big set a big cast, that wow factor. I think if we did a show and just had two chairs on stage... It's very difficult," he says.

In the past, they have done several remarkable shows. In 2022, the Nairobi Performing Arts Studio staged Ngugi wa Thiong'o's 'Ngaahika Ndenda' and are working on doing a production of another Ngugi work, 'Mother Sing for Me' and a theatre adaptation of the film 'Nairobi Half-Life'. Nash was also the producer behind the Citizen TV-backed production 'Shamba la Wanyama' that was barred last year and cancelled before it aired.

Nash says adapting such a big production for theatre is a mixed bag of fortunes.

"Sarafina is not that different because it started off as a stage play. People don't know that, they just think it was just filmed. Yes, it took some adaptation, and trial and error, but it had that kind of built-in theatrical field already. So we're doing a stage version of 'Nairobi Half-Life'. So that will be a complete adaptation of the film. Juliani is writing the songs for that."

What should the audience expect from 'Sarafina'?

"It will be very impressive. I think the sets show off the ability of the Kenyan National Theatre," says Nash.

He thinks it is a heady mix when art and life work together.