Emmanuel Ssejjengo
5 February 2008
Kampala — BEFORE launching Kipapayo: tit 4 tat at Bat Valley Theatre, the playwright (Mariam Ndagire) wished the The New Vision did not refer to her play as shallow. "It is what the people want," she said. She was spot-on. It is shallowness of mature people dragging their feet like spoilt children that excited the audience last weekend. No wonder the posters advertised the play like it was a boxing fight; "Eagles (Production) vs Afri-talent." Annoyingly, the audience kept cheering artistes even before they performed.
In the matters of artistry, the question that arose was: What next? Many of the sub-stories in the play remain incomplete. What happened to that beautiful, well-behaved but mistreated wife (Ruth Kalibbala) of Kabugu (Patricko Mujuka)?
Much of the play preaches the gospel that love was invented to caress poor people. Kibirinage (Mesach Ssemakula), a broke chap who has one shirt and can only afford doughnuts for his girlfriend (Jennifer Kabanda), fights off one rich man after another. But when he finally loses out (to Fred Maiso), love gets blind. Maiso is introduced as a rich man, but he appears as a clown, offering presents which Kabanda and Stencia Mayanja carry off like empty boxes.
This gives the impression that love is blind, bogus and can be bought at a mall. His love song, Ekimuli kya Rosa, is misplaced. For how do you love before you know where the love is directed?
It is a play of wealth, love and lust. It is not proper to love for the sake of money. But it is also stupid to marry the poor.
Five years of the Eagles' Production and Afri talent group producing such musicals has made the musicians multi-talented. Such is the skill Ssemakula and Grace Ssekamate exhibit. But some, like Sophie Nantongo (as Namuyoba), Ronald Mayinja (as Gayiira), need more tutoring.
However, the two groups had different births and the merger tells the difference. Eagles' Production was a result of a construction, individual artists coming together. Afri talent was a result of a deconstruction; different talents broke away from major groups (especially Black Pearls) to form other groups. So, the musicians from Eagles' Production were hardly separable from their characters. Ssemakula acted his past as a poor boy.
Mayinja acted his present as a landlord. Yet the likes of John Segawa, Abby Mukiibi, Kabanda, Mujuka, Ndagire had art that is worth glorification. However, the disregard for time keeping was a complete turn-off. The play is running for three weeks.
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