Brenda Wairimu is Sarafina in new musical at national theatre
Actress Brenda Wairimu. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The show is based on the original film, which tells the story of a young black student struggling to fight apartheid in South Africa.
- The film is centred on students involved in the Soweto riots, opposing the use of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools.
In 1992 the world was introduced to a young South African actress, Leleti Khumalo, when she played the lead role in the acclaimed film "Sarafina", a high school student who survived arrest and torture to lead her classmates in a musical celebration of the life of Nelson Mandela.
Brenda Wairimu will be reprising that role, playing Sarafina, when the musical opens at the Kenya National Theatre (KNT).
The show is based on the original film, which tells the story of a young black student struggling to fight apartheid in South Africa. The film is centred on students involved in the Soweto riots, opposing the use of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools.
KNT has seen a revamp of diverse musical artistes, comedians, actors and actresses lately. Over the last couple of months, however, musicals have been introduced under the leadership of Stuart Nash who is the director at the theatre.
Mr Nash partnered with KNT and Kenya Cultural Centre to start Nairobi Performing Arts Studio (NPAS) which is a performing arts academy set up to train actors, singers and dancers. The school, which instructs in all the three arts, also has a production course and is behind such productions like "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Grease" and now "Sarafina".
“We are trying to embrace the theatre and bring in some audiences from the 80s to 90s, hence the reason I wanted to do something which was popular in Kenya,” said Nash.
He added that the musical will be darker, unlike the original film and people who will watch it will be shocked.
Brenda Wairimu said that when Nash called her to be Sarafina, she was first hesitant because she could not sing. He convinced her to go and try. “When I went for rehearsals is when it hit me. You jump and learn to fly as you fall down.”
The musical also has other big names like Hellen Mtawali, Gilad, Patrick Oketch and Mkamzee Mwatela as Mary Masembuko. According to Nash they are also working on another musical called "Chicago" which will be in November and December. Tickets for the show are between sh1,200 for advance and sh1,500 at the gate. It will run from July 12 to 15 and then from July 20 to 22.
