The Trial of Dedan Kimathi: Show featuring late Ngugi wa Thiong'o opens

A play featuring a recorded performance by the late Ngugi wa Thiong’o will start showing on June 19 at the Kenya National Theatre.

The show will run up to June 29th, with 12 shows over eight days.

The Nairobi Performing Arts Studio will stage The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (Gutuirwo kwa Dedan Kimathi) barely three weeks after the death of the literary legend. 

Theatre goers will get the chance to hear Ngugi’s distinctive voice on stage, narrating parts of the play.

Ngugi was heavily involved in the production of the play in the days leading up to his death, even lending his voice to narrate parts of the play.

The Trial of Dedan Kimathi written by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Githae Mugois set in the 1950s and follows Kimathi’s arrest and his execution. It blends courtroom scenes with flashbacks and dreamlike sequences that showcase the history of oppression and resilience of the Kenyan People.

In an interesting coincidence, the staging of the play themed freedom and justice in Nairobi comes at a time the country is seeing protests and heated debate demanding justice over the death of a blogger and teacher, Albert Ojwang, in police custody.

But the Nairobi Performing Arts Studio (NPAS) and the play’s director Stuart Nash are not strangers to interesting coincidences.

Last year in August, the production house staged South African musical Sarafina during the Gen Z protests. Sarafina tells the story of young people taking on apartheid in a desperate struggle.

Nash is quick to impress that these are just coincidences, as the plays are usually in rehearsals for months before they are shown. The preparations for The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, for instance, started in January, while Sarafina had been on the cards for nearly a year, and the dates were booked months before the protests. 

“We’ve had people ask if we decided to do (the plays) because of the events around it,” says Nash, saying this was not the case. 

He, however, adds that after the death of Ngugi wa Thiong’o and the subsequent coverage and interest around it, the troupe is anxious to deliver a great performance. 

Nash says the crew was hit hard by the news of Ngugi’s passing, especially since he had been speaking with them regularly, the last time being just five days before his death.

“Everybody was really sad, especially because we had spoken to him (that) Saturday,” says Nash, “he seemed jolly, he always sounded energetic on the phone.”

Ngugi was always enthusiastic about seeing his plays shown to the people on stage, lending the same kind of help in 2022 when NPAS staged another play of his, Ngaahika Ndenda (I will Marry When I Want).

The theatre production house has another Ngugi show planned, Mother Sing For Me (Maitu Njugira), which Nash says was proposed to them by the legend himself. 

He says they were fortunate to work with the author, who could help clarify or explain issues that were not clear. 

“I was privileged to be in that position (of working with Ngugi),” says the director. 

With The Trial of Dedan Kimathi this year, and Mother Sing For Me next year, that will be three shows based on Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s books in less than five years for NPAS.

An impressive feat, especially since Ngugi’s plays ordinarily feature a large cast and can be notoriously complicated to produce.  But taking on Ngugi’s plays was a natural progression forNash.

“After Sarafina in 2019, we were looking for something to do,” says Nash, and the late writer Margaretta wa Gacheru pointed them in Ngugi’s direction, and they kept going.

“How do you top Ngugi?” poses Nash.

After they did I Will Marry When I Want, Ngugi suggested that Mother Sing For Me be their next production, before they switched to The Trial of Dedan Kimathi in January this year. 

“I was worried that we did not have enough time to make it right,” Nash says of Mother Sing For Me,” Nash says, so in January he called Ngugi and changed the plan, taking on The Trial of Dedan Kimathi and pushing Mother Sing For Me to next year. 

The cast includes Mwaura Bilal as the titular character Dedan Kimathi, Stuart Nash (Shaw Henderson), Frank Kaguura (as Gatotia) and Joseph Halt (as Judge).