Vienyeji Pro Max: Adaptation delivers biting humour and valuable life lessons

Over three sold-out days last weekend, Nairobi’s Alliance Française Auditorium - with a modest seating capacity of 200 - played host to a rare theatrical phenomenon.

Not only were all five performances of Vienyeji Pro Max filled beyond capacity, but overflow audiences were also ushered into auxiliary rooms to watch the production via screen. By all measures, it marked the most attended staging of any Stuart Nash production at this venue to date.

“It was so full until we had people standing at the back and others having to watch it on a TV in an extra room,” Stuart says.

Directed by Stuart, Vienyeji Pro Max is another comical script that veers off from the usual hard-digest performances that are his trademark. It is yet another tassel to his cap of theatre experience.

The reason for the high numbers was Vienyeji Pro Max is a popular ancient French Play reenacted in a modern Kenyan setting.

It is this team that brought Mstinji, The Miser, Sirano wa Begeraki, Antigone and Mgonjwa Mwitu to Kenyan theatre lovers.

Written by Gadwill Odhiambo, the play has been adapted from Les Précieuses ridicules (The Pretentious Young Ladies) a 300-year-old act by the famous French playwright Molière.

It is a witty one-act that depicts the lives of two naïve young women Magdalene played by Terry Ngang’i and Cathy played by Nyawira Gichuhi and the relentless attempts by Uncle Georgy who is played by the seasoned Bilal Wanjau to attempt to marry them to a rich family.

Cathy and Magdalene played the role of two girls who in the Kenyan context would get labelled as “Vienyejis”, straight from the annals of a village; young, errant, naïve and with a mind of their own that detached from the realities of existence. They lived on their phones and had lives configured based on their social media fantasies.

Uncle Georgy played the uncle to Cathy and the father to Magdalene and in a way is their father figure who in an attempt to keep them in check, he sent Magdalene back to the village to prevent her from getting corrupted by a city swimming in its own murk.

Later, on he returned the two cousins to the city to marry them off to a rich family, to make a killing and to acquire a status and to guarantee them a good life as a bonus.

He got two young men from an old money kind of family for his two girls, but their cavalier-like appearance and mannerisms are not enough to woo them.

Their minds were accustomed to a stereotype of the right kind of man largely perpetuated by trends and digital practices. After their first snub, rich young men, hire the services of their gardener and security guard to play as the ideal men that the women want.

The play ends in poetic justice for the two young men, the truth comes to light, the facades fall off and the young women realise that they snubbed gold for ash.

With Stuart you can always expect a high sense of perfection and of course, a director that will only stop pacing when a play is done. He is one whose projects are to look out for.

Vienyeji Pro Max is a hallmark of the timelessness of good values, 300 years after Molière had written his original play for a Parisian context, it remains a stark reflection of modern Kenyan society, of the vanities of humanity and its irritable appeal for bling and flash over the inanities of human decency.

For most of the adaptations of Moliere that Stuart has directed, the consistency would be in the acts supporting the leads. These are so fundamental to the play in such a way that their absence would completely transform the scope of the act.

In Vienyeji Pro Max, we see this in Nkirote (played by Anne Kamau) who had a stellar show with her not-so-subtle quips and witticism. Her performance would serve to take pressure of the protagonists who by all means were solid in their depiction of “vienyejis”.

Making people laugh is a thankless job that never gets the merit it ought to. Doing it for an hour and a half while instilling values and still being able to rustle the crowd into cackling is a job well done, which is what Vienyeji Pro Max did.

Both Nyawira and Terry have five years of acting experience, but they carry themselves with the grace of seasoned veterans. Their onstage camaraderie was a work of art. It was seamless in execution and delivery. They were impeccably spot-on in their act.

In the play, Shine as we learn is a mirage and class in its prime nature is a minimalistic critter.

The pairing with Bilal was simply the final nail in the coffin of a play whose tour around the country should be looked forward to.

Speaking after the show, his excitement about the numbers and the reception of the act was hard to hide for Stuart.

“It is a director’s delight to see a show so well received and for me, it is no different with Vienyeji Pro Max. It’s very hard to convince people to set apart an hour on a weekend evening to come to watch a play and so I am grateful for the people that came. I am happy that people are finding time to come and be a part of the theatre industry. What is even more impressive is that this was the most attended of the whole series of Molière adaptations that have been staged at Alliance, we were even overbooked! I think the growth is a really good thing to witness,” he said.

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