Behind every smile lies a life torn apart by tragedy….
Written by the legendary John Sibi-Okumu, directed by the renowned theatre director Stuart Nash starring multi-award winning actor Wakio Mzenge, Elements is a ground-breaking solo theatrical piece about a woman confronting the traumas that shaped her life, where one woman plays 12 characters – in a library setting.
The play delves into the life of Dana, a successful woman who conceals deep scars, while presenting a composed exterior. She battles issues of identity stemming from her multi-ethnicity, in the quest to find herself. Dana struggles to find a footing in a society that doesn’t know where to place her.
The audience meets Dana when she is remembering the death of her son, a year ago. This remembering triggers a past that has haunted her, releasing the grief and trauma that she has experienced earlier in her life.
This is a story of unspoken childhood wounds, of sacrifices in the name of love, of strength shaped in solitude. We realize through Dana’s story that silence doesn’t mean absence of pain, it means carrying pain with grace, navigating grief with dignity, and surviving.
Mzenge uses the power of imagination to create all of her key characters as well as their props and action, bringing them to life for the audience. As Mzenge told Business Daily,
We have isolated [the have-it-all women] so that there is no one to speak about their challenges or express their vulnerabilities”.
Elements is a celebration of resilience, of this quiet power that keeps a woman going. It is for every woman who has felt the weight of their silence.
John Sibi-Okumu is an actor and journalist best known for KTN’s political analyis programme The Summit. He has written a number of previous plays including the well-received: Role Play – A Journey Into The Kenyan Psyche and Minister…Karibu!
Wakio Mzenge is a voice, stage and screen actor and founder of BTM Storytellers. She has featured in numerous of Kenya’s highly celebrated shows including: Showmax’s County 49, in the lead role of Governor Nerimah and MNET’s 2 time award winning Swahili telenovela Selina as Mama Selina. Her stage plays include pieces such as Biko Zulu’s Breathe 1, 2 and 3, Freefall and Decompress plus Heartstrings Kenya’s Enough is Enough and This is Kenya.
Stuart Nash has most recently directed The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, Sarafina!, Scrooge, and I Will Marry When I Want.
Elements is playing at the McMillan Library with 5 shows on 15, 16 and 17 August. Book tickets on KenyaBuzz.