Nothing Nuts about “Nuts”

….after Habesha (for those who’ve read my read my earlier post u know what I mean), the day was surely set up for what I thought was going to be an encore-like ending. The missus and I proceeded to the “now hallowed” grounds of Alliance Francais to catch “Nuts”,the much hyped play by Festival of Creative Arts.

 

I’d have to say from the word go it was a letdown (and this is putting it mildly). For a play that was billed as being “hilarious” it sure was a let down. Maybe my disappointment stems from the fact that having seen many of their previous plays, I have set the bar too high. Or maybe I have suddenly developed a subdued sense of humour (then there’d have to be an epidemic since the audience too was subdued).

 

I hope they read my post since I believe the fact that they were having two concurrent shows robbed them of many of their star performers. I certainly was looking forward to another of Derrick Amunga’s (If u watched Tausi back in the 90’s,he’s the “master sugu”) performances, only to have him slotted on the other play!!!

 

For something meant to be hilarious,this fell flat on its face..it was more like a courtroom drama with none of the attorneys being special. Too much was pinned on the lunatic antics of one “Charlene” and once this got too repetitive it was obvious there wasn’t much of comedy to go around.The casting of Mbeki Mwalimu as the judge was utterly wrong!!! Such great talent shouldn’t be condemned to a peripheral role and that lies squarely on the shoulders of the  play’s director. That said, Gilbert Lukalia gave an outstanding performance as Charlene’s step-father and in the process made up for the lack of comedy.

 

The missus was impressed (aren’t they all) and I guess all is well that ends well though…plus met kenyanpoet from the blogging community…so not a bad ending to the day at all.