I was lucky enough, while visiting Nairobi last week, to see the Phoenix Players perform Dario Fo’s farce, The Virtuous Burglar. This is a richly entertaining short farce in the best tradition of the genre: a burglar arrives at a well-appointed residence, only to be telephoned by his wife, anxious about his well-being. The burglar, having assuaged her fears, is then disturbed by the man of the house unexpectedly returning with his mistress. An absurd telephone conversation then ensues between the man and the Burglar’s wife…. and the chain of coincidences continues with the return of the man’s wife…. The humour is savage, and shows us how fragile our world of manners and polite conventions can be when we are at risk of exposure.
This farce is close to my heart, as I have twice performed it (and once directed it) in amateur productions in Harare and Kampala. Perhaps inevitably in my eyes, the Phoenix production left a lot to be desired. First, the production was one-paced. The best farce relies on the creation of a breathless pace, interspersed by sudden silences as the characters scramble for ever-more-improbable explanations of their behaviour, and this production lacked the changes in pace necessary to make the most of the intrinsic comedy of the situation. Second, the device of positioning the Burglar’s wife behind a backlit screen was poorly executed. Third, while the acting was in general, especially among the principal characters, competent, there was little warmth in the interaction between the characters on stage.
Having said that, it is wonderful that the Phoenix Theatre continues to flourish and bring quality drama to the Nairobi audience. It is almost unique in Africa to find repertory theatre, but the resilience of the Phoenix in the face of competition from TV and cinema is testament to the unalloyed pleasure still derived by audiences from live performance in the company of others. Long may it last!
No comments:
Post a Comment