Jere (acted by Bilal Mwaura) (left) and Mosese (Martin Kigondu) intention pistols at Boss (Raymond Ofula) in Betrayal within the Metropolis theatre efficiency at Kenya Nationwide Theatre on March 11, 2023. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU | NMG

It was refreshing to see how a lot manufacturing might be improved and radically reworked in a single week.

It was as if by magic Betrayal within the Metropolis, staged during the last two weekends at Kenya Nationwide Theatre, went from being a slow-going play that was over three hours lengthy to change into a vigorous satire on town within the Nineteen Eighties throughout the darkest days of Daniel arap Moi.

Imbuga was superb in his capacity to craft a script that subtlety satirised everybody, from the scholars, civil servants, and sycophants to the politicians, jail guards, and demigods like Boss (Raymond Ofula).

However the present’s producers, Nairobi Performing Arts Studio (NPAS) additionally deserve some credit score.

They managed to do it partially as a result of the present had such a superb solid whose members might simply adapt to the thorough-going adjustments launched on the eleventh hour.

Raymond Ofula starring as Boss in Nairobi Performing Arts Studio play of Francis Imbuga’s “Betrayal In The Metropolis” staged at Kenya Nationwide Theatre from March 2 to 12. PHOTO | THOMAS RAJULA | NMG

What modified was all the things from the play taking off extra rapidly with Jusper’s dad and mom (Wakio Nzenge and Omondi Ngota) already on the grave website of their pupil activist son Adike moderately than lumbering in whereas weeping and wailing.

Additionally modified have been the prolonged mad rants of everybody from Jusper (Francis Ouma Faiz) to Mulili (Ibrahim Muchemi) and the loopy jail askari (Fish Chege).

All of them performed sensible crazies in their very own approach, however every of them carried on the primary weekend simply barely too lengthy.

The trick for producer-director Stuart Nash was to determine how to not diminish the fervour expressed so powerfully by his solid whereas protecting it inside a tighter timeframe.

The primary one whose efficiency gained qualitatively from the adjustments launched was Wakio given her character, Jusper’s mom, Nina, deserved to grieve.

Her son had been shot by cops after their having been given the inexperienced gentle to shoot college students on sight.

What was worse was the way in which they’d desecrated his grave which meant it was unfit for the ceremony meant to appease the ancestors.

Then, when she heard Jusper had additionally been jailed for taking pictures certainly one of Boss’s hitmen, she is overwhelmed. Lastly, she manages to mood the wailing whereas retaining her ardour.

Ibrahim Muchemi starring as Mulili within the Nairobi Performing Arts Studio play of Francis Imbuga’s “Betrayal In The Metropolis” staged at Kenya Nationwide Theatre from March 2 to 12. PHOTO | THOMAS RAJULA | NMG

The person accountable for her grief, Mulili, additionally gave a superb efficiency. However his loopy approach of flaunting his energy (he being a cousin to Boss) was simply merciless and malicious.

He embodied an arbitrary Idi Amin type of bumping folks off that led ultimately to justifying Jusper’s last act within the play.

It was Mulili who was accountable (with Boss) for not solely killing college students but in addition Jusper’s dad and mom and sister Regina (Joan Wangui).

However even Mulili’s drunken rants needed to be trimmed. Sadly, there was one explosive struggle that broke out between Mulili and his fellow civil servant Kabito (Dominic Mutembi) which led to Kabito’s sudden demise and serves as an illustration of the sort of heinous energy (full of self-serving lies) that Mulili used with Boss to the detriment of the Kenyan folks.

Then the jail guard that Fish performed was one other small man who had a inexperienced gentle on cruelty that compelled him to deal with prisoners like scum.

However he was one other one who required a trim in time. But he performed such a comedic caricature on the night time I watched final weekend that the viewers beloved him for his amusing mockery of the true man.

Then, as soon as these adjustments have been in place the tempo of the play picked up, and it was a lot simpler to see that Betrayal wasn’t solely about insanity and the way it had change into a silent pandemic throughout the darkish days of Moi. It was additionally about energy.

Within the final scene we see that ultimately, Imbuga’s message stays ambiguous relating to politics and the means of creating adjustments in Kenyan society.

Nevertheless, he prefers non-violence over the coup d’etats that Jusper might need wished. However that ambiguity is diminished considerably within the final scene when Jere (Bilal Mwaura) and Mosese (Martin Kigondu) suggest a Gandhi-style method to coping with Boss.

They’re two of the prisoners locked up by Boss. But they’re additionally actors within the play Betrayal within the Metropolis which Jusper has been lucid sufficient to write down and adequate to stage earlier than the pinnacle of state, throughout a costume rehearsal he attends.

From left: Andrew Muthure as Tumbo, Joan Wambui as Regina and Faiz Francis Ouma as Jusper in Nairobi Performing Arts Studio play of Francis Imbuga’s “Betrayal In The Metropolis” staged at Kenya Nationwide Theatre from March 2 to 12. PHOTO | THOMAS RAJULA | NMG

Imbuga’s message stays elusive as much as the tip when Jusper is lastly given a gun by Mosese, and a gunshot might be heard. Mulili receives a deadly bullet and Jusper will get his revenge ultimately.

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