Wabende blends music and Sikand’s poetry to serenade nature

University of Nairobi’s Travelling Theatre actors, musicians and dancers perform the nature musical Peace and Love, at Chandaria Performing Arts Centre on June 1, 2023. PHOTO | COURTESY

Peace and Love was first staged several years back by Prevail Arts when the focus of the show was primarily the poetry of Joan Sikand, who is better known as an environmental activist than a poet.

This past weekend, Peace and Love: A Nature Musical was re-staged by the University of Nairobi Travelling Theatre under the direction of Professor Kimingichi Wabende, who is also head of UoN’s Theatre Department. But there was little comparison between the two shows other than their both being based on Sikand’s poetry.

“Professor Wabende had thought of renaming the show ‘Serenading Nature’,” Dr Josephine Ojiambo, President of the Rotary Club of Nairobi, told BDLife shortly before the opening night on June 1. But apparently, out of respect for the poet, he stuck with the original name.

Whatever the title, this highly experimental production was as much a product of Sikand’s imagination as it was of Wabende’s. One reason for this is that the professor selected different poems from Prevail to highlight in his production.

“It’s true that I was given all four of Joan’s poetry books [Meditations, Makonde, Mind – A Sacred Place, and Sunflower] from which I selected the poems I needed to shape the story I wanted us to tell,” Wabende told BDLife.

After that, he wove the poetry together with music, song, and dance, which is why one can consider them both to be responsible for producing the show that could have been called ‘Serenading Nature’.

But the second act tells stories about the animals, from the tortoise, elephant, swan, and python to the lion, vulture, impala, and buffalo. Working closely with his choreographer, Dennis Magero, Wabende used Sikand’s lines to dramatise the animals’ lives using dance, drama, music, and make-up. Not an easy feat, but the dozen or so dancers were agile, adept, and quick to follow the choreographer’s lead.

It was tricky since it could have been seen not as an effective experiment but as a mystifying mosaic of words and moves that didn’t make much sense. This is where the acting came in as all the ‘poets’ transformed poems into heartfelt soliloquies.

Not that they had ever met the poet before opening night when she was briefly introduced to both the cast and audience. But all of the poetic voices in the show seemed to share Sikand’s passion for conservation and for saving the wildlife from the hardship they are currently enduring from poachers, so-called progress, and even the SGR railway, which cuts straight through corridors that were previously protected exclusively for the wildlife.

University of Nairobi’s Travelling Theatre actors, musicians and dancers perform the nature musical Peace and Love, at Chandaria Performing Arts Centre on June 1, 2023. PHOTO | COURTESY

The vocalists also held their own, although none were professionally trained. What they had were songs that were at once familiar and relevant to the subject matter and mostly indigenous. The live music provided by the band (made up of a keyboard, guitars, and drums) kept the rhythm flowing and upbeat, even when the language of Sikand sometimes seemed abstract, impressionistic, and oblique.

Nonetheless, one couldn’t help envying Sikand for having books of her poetry not only published (something we know is not easy since most major publishers have a hard time even thinking about publishing a volume of poetry) but also having her poetry performed and translated into the language of music, dance, and drama.

Joan was fortunate to find her publisher in America. He read and loved her poetry and was happy to publish it. But the other blessing for her was to find Professor Wabende, who was prepared to pick up the challenge of producing Peace and Love.

To me, his was a major feat since it wasn’t easy to sift through all those poems and seize upon the ones that would work best in a ‘serenade to nature’. Still more impressive was his ability to weave the poetry together with these other artistic elements to come up with a show that will surely improve once the Traveling Theatre can get the costumes and set designs that had hoped to get.

University of Nairobi’s Travelling Theatre actors, musicians and dancers perform the nature musical Peace and Love, at Chandaria Performing Arts Centre on June 1, 2023. PHOTO | COURTESY

One major reason that Sikand was able to advance her poetry up to the stage that we saw in the UoN Towers was networking with other organisations, including Friends of Nairobi National Park, the Wildlife Foundation, and the Chandaria Foundation.  

The Rotary Club of Nairobi also assisted the poet by linking her up with Professor Wabende and the Traveling Theatre. All of these organisations played a part in assuring the success of Peace and Love. Only next time, I’m all for the title go back to being ‘Serenading Nature’ since the show does just that.

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