After Mikuyu
(A work in progress presentation by Bilimankhwe Arts)
Oval House Theatre, London

Ursula Strauss
posted 6 October 2006

After Mikuyu is part of Oval House Theatre's FiRST BiTES programme and the Southern Africa Theatre Season which has been livening up this part of London. Mikuyu is a notorious prison in Malawi in which poet and academic Jack Mapange was detained without charge for just over three and a half years. After Mikuyu uses Mapange's story as inspiration, whilst looking back on Malawi's history from a more liberated and joyful position.

The play exploits well the comic and tragic aspects of living under the 'President for Life', Hastings Banda. Banda's regime lends itself to mickey-taking: the fly-whisk, entourage and banning of the Simon and Garfunkel song 'Cecilia' (as Cecilia was the name of Banda's powerful mistress), are presented in full absurdity, without discounting the fear and bullying just below the surface. Mapange's poems are imaginatively incorporated into the texture of the play: the swaying crowd during the reciting of the poem, 'Travelling in London Tubes' is a particularly nice touch. However, as is often the case with poetry in the theatre, the recitation was better managed by some of the actors than others.

Throughout the play, sound, whether music, song or spoken noises, is used in place of dialogue. This technique allows the audience to be a part of building the meaning of what is presented. The scene in which an unfair trial is conducted in non-specific sounds with only the occasional word, such as the judge's premature cries of 'Guilty!', is a satirical triumph.

A lively debate after the play seemed to take for granted the role of the play in reminding Malawians of their own history, and of the abuses that occurred under Banda's reign which certainly didn't affect all the population. Yet its depiction of a state where continual monitoring of the population is the norm holds important messages for British society as well.

The play, however, is definitely still a work in progress. Sometimes too much is made of a good thing, and scenes or songs go on a bit beyond the necessary making of their point. It is in need of an overarching narrative to hold it all together - at the moment, the use of Jack Mapange's poems and story is not quite gelling with other elements of the production. One wants more time devoted to what happened to Jack, and for this to be a part of the larger presentation of a nation walking on eggshells.

Despite this, it is always energetic and attention-grabbing, and I look forward to seeing the play once finalised.

Single performance.