The fire at Ndere Centre. The Ugandan creatives and the
incredible team of the Kampala International Theatre Festival, 3rd
edition.
Antu Yacob and her Mourning Sun cast fanned the flames with
their exceptional and tremendous talent. I moderated the conversation after the
play and I was stilled by the enormity of their gift.
Antu Yacob/Facebook photo |
Mourning Sun, composed of two acts in Ethiopia and U. S. A
respectively, is a well-woven fictional story of Biftu, acted by
Jevonnah Mayo, raised in traditional Ethiopia and faced with a far-fetched
dream of young love. Her mother, caught in between protecting her daughter
while living to society's expectations, organizes for an arranged
marriage to an elderly man. The result is the loss of two children, her
daughter who disappears into indifference and listlessness and her grandchild
who never lived to see a day. In addition, Biftu suffers from the ordeal of
obstetric fistula, her condition aggravated by the lack of remedy for
her. She feels cursed, understandably. Biftu's sister, the more
defiant and outspoken one, acted by Fadoua Hanine, is the antidote the
play needs to relieve the audience of the stigma women and girls go through in
systematic oppressive societies.
Cast/Kampala International Theatre Festival photo |
When Biftu finally arrives in America, she finds
restitution in the bizarre yet comfortable encounter of a sex addict whose
recovery is through prescribed medical marijuana. Trudy, acted by John
Keller, provides a pivotal point in Biftu's journey.
Each cast member plays multiple roles which any audience can
marvel at. Temesgen Tocruray plays a doctor, taxi driver, the
Ethiopian elderly who marries Biftu, each of whose accents are played to
perfection. Charles Everett likewise plays several Ethiopian characters and a
typical Black American struggling to find his own identity.
Antu Yacob has a remarkable gift of stressing pertinent society
issues through theatre.
The stage set-up with U.S scenes could have improved. It would
also have been more appropriate to introduce the moderator by name, with a
brief introduction. The Kampala International Theatre Festival held an
entire cocktail of excellence like Black, a play written by Sanyu
Kisaka, Two Faces by Sammy Wetala, Doreen Baingana's Tropical
Fish, acted by Rehema Nanfuka, Kawuna by Kemiyondo Coutinho,
The Surrogate by Achiro Patricia and lots more artists like Kagayi Peter,
William Musonda from Zambia, Barzakh a play from Lebanon and Giovanni Ortega from the U.S.
Rehema Nanfuka/ KITF photo |
Scene from Sanyu Kisaka's Black/KITF photo |
Congratulations to Deborah Asiimwe the Director of Uganda's
largest international theatre festival.
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