Cluttered inside the smaller stage of the Kenya Cultural Centre, commonly known as the Kenya National Theatre, Prevail Presents showcased their latest play, They That Have Missing Marks Shall Not Graduate, a comical and contained adventure into the defiant nature of change against the immovable force of bureaucracy. Prevail Presents, wrapping up a rather busy and successful year having staged two previous plays that nabbed Best Performance and Playwright nominations at the Kenya Theatre Awards, had to contend with crammed, sold-out crowds of their eager audience. The director and producer, Martin Kigondu, highlighted their desire to move out of the small space and enjoy bigger stages. For now, their mission was to entrance their audience with good laughter and the blissful trance of theatre.
Steering away from the more nuanced and deeply introspective thematic narratives they have made their name on, Missing Marks, as the title suggests, sinks their audience into the shared frustrations and headaches of institutionalised bureaucracy. Staged in a head of department office at a public university, one man’s pursuit to find his daughter’s missing marks breaks the monotonous nature of the office, giving the heavily cariturised characters their moments to break their audience in laughter. And there is plenty of laughter to go around, even the single chuckle from that one person Fred Mbogo, the writer, wrote the joke for. Infused with the chaotic and erratic mannerisms of comic theatre at its finest, and an inconsequential plot to build on, the narrative is written to amuse and defuse.
Limiting five-star actors to such a tiny stage produces the heightened skill that carries the show. As one of the characters puts it, they are here to represent the places they came from. And there are plenty of places represented. From Maina Njoka, the industrious rural Kikuyu farmer from Kimbimbi, played earnestly by Justin Mirichii, who can do no wrong this year to the sly, opinionated, and overworked part-time lecturer Mr. Kiprong, loudly played by Bilal Mwaura. On the opposite side, Justin Karunguru as the Acting Head of Department Dr. Joseph Bironda, wears the mantle of the self-absorbed and apathetic office man we can’t help but hate, and I can feel every one of his frustrations. On his heels are Angela Mwandanda as the underappreciated Dr. Friedah Mbula, a woman understanding her place in a male-dominated world, and Esther Kazungu as Sally, a secretary who knows, gracefully, when to mind her business. With sporadic screams, floor crawls, and a lot of shouting between them, the cast is the perfect ensemble to carry the play.
Between the laughter, however, there is little to endear Missing Marks. There is a bureaucratic haste between scenes, and its very limited runtime means there is little emotional entanglement. The thematic issues raised—revolutions, artistic appreciation, the state of our institutions, and female empowerment—are ‘gimmickly’ placed for comic juice and less for acknowledgement. With characters far removed from the emotional backdrop of the narrative, except Mirichii’s Maina, the old man who is ironically chained to the side, the play is allowed to float in and out of attention and a little time capsule for laughs as it relies heavily on the caricatures of its characters.
There is an appetite for these kinds of productions, light on tone and heavy on laughs, but the hesitation to break into its own identity means it forgoes any chance to be anything more. After the run Prevail Presents has had, it may be their preferred way to end the year on a light note. In the bigger stages that follow, I’d hope for more introspective narratives, and if they are comedic like Missing Marks, they last much longer to fully utilise the amazing acting of its stars.
They That Have Missing Marks Shall Not Graduate will be staged again at Ukumbi Mdogo at the Kenya National Theatre on 3 December.
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