SHAKESPEARE
CLASSICS STAGED AT BROOKHOUSE
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 28 March 2018)
How
ambitious can any director be to stage three adapted Shakespeare plays in a
single evening! For even if they are adapted to suit a half-hour format, and
even if all three plays are drastically summarized and the English simplified, still,
Shakespeare’s storylines are not all that easy to follow.
But however
formidable the challenge of staging Shakespeare with actors whose ages range
from 10 to 12 years old (class 6 and 7), it didn’t daunt Michelle Forsyth, the
head of primary classes (also known as ’prep’) at Brookhouse School in Karen.
During the
school ‘Arts Week’, Ms Forsyth staged Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and A Midsummer
Night’s Dream last Tuesday night in the school’s beautiful auditorium. She was
assisted by Carmen McComic and Lynn Herderson for Midsummer Night and Christine
Patterson for Romeo and Juliet. But still, all three plays had to get the nod
of approval from Ms Forsyth.
Refreshingly,
the first play, Romeo and Juliet started exactly on time, and each play ran
precisely for 30 minutes with a brief ten minute intermission after Macbeth.
This in itself was a remarkable achievement since Nairobi plays still have that
tendency not to start on time.
All three
plays had massive casts; nonetheless, the leads who had the most substantial
parts were the best rehearsed and clearest in the articulation of their lines.
It was true of Romeo (Stephanie Kamau) and Juliet (Nolwazi Ndlovu), Macbeth
(Daniel Gichuru) and his naughty Lady (Solange Gathu) as well as King Duncan
(Ibrahim Mughal) and his son Malcolm (Elliot Plumbe), and in Midsummer Night’s
Dream, the clearest and most gracefully expressive was Puck (Arielle Plumbe).
Ms Forsyth
was wise not to bother with complicated sets, especially given the Bard’s tales
were allowed to move quickly from one scene and setting to the next without the
encumbrance of time-consuming set changes.
Nonetheless,
costuming was something that had been given some serious thought, as when King
Duncan (Ibrahim Mughal) came out in Macbeth draped in an elegant vesture that
was indeed fit for a king.
In all there
were over 80 children in Brookhouse’s Shakespearean plays this week, which in
itself was a feat in superlative school discipline. The one shortcoming in the
shows was an occasional problem of inaudibility, but that’s an issue easily
rectified as the youth have more opportunities on stage, which looks like a
real possibility from the looks of the school’s serious commitment to the
performing arts.
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