East African Travelling Theatre (EATT) presents A Matatu Named Desire, an East Africa-rooted adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ classic play A Streetcar Named Desire.
The group’s adaptation follows the text of the original play quite closely, exploring topics that are very relevant today, including toxic masculinity, domestic violence, and mental health. However the setting and characters’ back stories are centred around Nairobi environs.
Sisters Blanche and Stella grew up on a colonial tea plantation in the Nandi Hills. After independence, they immigrated to America with their father. Stella returned as soon as she was able, where she met and fell in love with Stanley Kamau, an ex-freedom fighter. Blanche remained until her life fell apart and she returned to Kenya to start over.
They play begins when Blanche arrives not just with a suitcase, but with a carefully curated version of herself, stitched together from old money manners, fading glamour, and an illusion of romance that doesn’t quite survive the city’s pace.
Stanley, by contrast, is all sharp edges and forward motion – a product of hustle culture, survival instincts, and a no-nonsense approach to life in a city that doesn’t wait for anyone. He sees through façades because he has to.
In a cramped, heat-filled household where privacy is a luxury, his suspicion of Blanche quickly hardens into something more deliberate: a need to expose what he believes is performance masquerading as truth.
Their opposing worldviews collide in a charged household filled with tension, suspicion, and unspoken desire. The urgent rhythms, pressures and hierarchies of Nairobi pulse beneath their interactions. What begins as discomfort escalates into a psychological tug-of-war. And as illusion meets reality head-on, Blanche’s grip begins to falter.
The stage setting of this production is minimal and employs experimental, physical theatre to great effect to explore the interior world of Blanche, Stella and Stanley.
Matatu Named Desire has been playing to secondary school audiences across East Africa, including Nairobi. Now they have opened up performances to a public audience in Nairobi for two nights only.
East African Travelling Theatre (EATT) is a performing arts initiative, currently producing staged adaptations of classic international plays with a local twist in Kenya and Tanzania. EATT aims to tell stories rooted in local culture, often utilizing local theatre spaces and focusing on local themes like matatu culture. The company started when a group of students who graduated from Braeburn International School Arusha, found themselves on an ‘unplanned’ gap year and decided to find a creative outlet for skill-building.
A Matatu Named Desire | Friday 20 and Saturday 21 March | 7pm | Austin Theatre, Braeburn Gitanga Rd.
Tickets available on Mookh.com.
