Ngugi's Last Word: Literary icon to 'appear' on stage later next month

Actors from the Nairobi Performing Arts Studio rehearses for the performance of 'The Trial of Dedan Kimathi'. The production will be shown at the Kenya National Theatre from June 19 to 29th 2025. [Courtesy]

Ngugi wa Thiong'o was heavily involved in the production of a theatre show based on one of his plays in the last days of his life. He was happy that his work was still being shown on stage.

Starting June 19 to 29, theatregoers will be able to see, or at least hear Prof Ngugi on stage one last time at the Kenya National Theatre. Nairobi Performing Arts Studio will present his play The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (Gutuirwo kwa Dedan Kimathi), which he co-wrote with Prof Micere Mugo, who died on June 30, 2023.

The renowned author often engaged the cast and crew in conference calls from the US during production, answering questions, expressing excitement at what is going to be the first production of the iconic play in Kikuyu.

But the late literary legend will not only be there by virtue of being the author, he appears as a member of the cast, albeit via a pre-recorded audio, reading a section of the play.

"He's like an actor in the play," said the director Stuart Nash, who expressed sorrow at the death of the icon.

In their last engagement on Saturday, May 24, just days before he passed away on Wednesday, Ngugi mentioned that his health was "not great".

"He was very active within the production," said Nash, who had been scheduled to speak with the author again yesterday to check up on him and discuss a short video Ngugi had promised to do for the show.

He said Ngugi made the last call for updates on the production. "I was telling him about the set," said Nash, adding Ngugi was looking forward to the final product.

This is not unique to the production of The Trial of Dedan Kimathi. In 2002 when the same group staged his play Ngaahika Ndenda (I will Marry When I Want), Ngugi was again at hand, encouraging and answering questions from cast and crew.

At the time too, he did a short video encouraging the actors, saying: "I want to thank you very much for doing this and I hope that you enjoy performing it, and I hope your audience will equally enjoy your performance."

This production was significant and Ngugi was understandably upbeat: It was the first time in 45 years that the play was being performed comprehensively before a Kenyan audience. This performance was in English and Kikuyu.

Actors from the Nairobi Performing Arts Studio rehearses for the performance of 'The Trial of Dedan Kimathi'. The production will be shown at the Kenya National Theatre from June 19 to 29th 2025. [Courtesy]

The last time the play by Ngugi and Ngugi wa Mirii was staged was at Kamirithu Cultural Centre in 1977. Shortly after, it was banned and both authors arrested. Kamirithu was later demolished and both authors fled to exile.

That this production was being staged at the Kenyan National Theatre and later Limuru, home to the original production, was especially poignant. The Limuru performance was staged at the St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, a short distance away from Kamiirithu Polytechnic where the cultural centre once stood.

Nash, who also directed the show, said at the time: "Bringing Ngugi's most famous play home to where it was performed 45 years ago will be a memory that will stay with me forever. I'm really humbled to have had this opportunity."

He called it the highlight of his career.

At the time, the actors visited the site of Kamirithu centre and met some of the original cast.

In an article published in The Standard in April, 2022, as the rehearsals for Ngaahika Ndenda were going on, Ngugi wrote: "The play filters my understanding of Kenya's post-colonial condition, where greed, avarice and corruption by the political class was taking root and it anticipates the nightmare what has become something of a national affliction."

Actors from the Nairobi Performing Arts Studio rehearses for the performance of 'The Trial of Dedan Kimathi'. The production will be shown at the Kenya National Theatre from June 19 to 29th 2025. [Courtesy]

He touched on the 1977 performance and subsequent events. "The play's staging in 1977 was scuttled by the government and the community theatre in Kamirithu destroyed by armed policemen. I was consigned to the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison for one year, and subsequently prohibited from returning to my job at the University of Nairobi."

When the play went on stage decades later, one of the production's lead actors Nice Githinji spoke of how challenging it was switching form English to Kikuyu and back again.

"You see, sometimes we will do an English rehearsal and then in the middle you see people giggling, you realise you're speaking Kikuyu," she said at the time.

Other featured cast included Mwaura Bilal, Angel Waruinge, Martin Githinji, Martin Kigondu and Veronica Waceke.

Bilal is back in The Trial of Dedan Kimathi playing Dedan Kimathi, the lead character. Others include Nash (Shaw Henderson), Frank Kaguura (Gatotia) and Joseph Halt ( judge), not forgetting the distinctive voice of Ngugi himself.

The play is set in the 1950s and follows Kimathi's arrest and his execution, "blending courtroom scenes with flashbacks and dreamlike sequences that showcase the history of oppression and the resilience of the Kenyan People."

Nash says they are not stopping with The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, with the troupe next taking on another of Ngugi's works, Mother, Sing for Me next year.