On the Friday evening of July 11 at the Kenya National Theatre (KNT), Cyprian Osoro from the Crony Production guides us to their rehearsal room. We notice Kiota School students preparing for their show titled ‘Zawadi’ to be staged when dusk falls.
The rehearsal room soon fills the rest of the thespians from the Crony Production. A warm-up session follows. Then Cyprian, Ben Tekee, and Makena Kahuha get on stage to rehearse for ‘Happily Never After#, slated for July 25-27 at the KNT.
It’s a satirical comedy play set in a garage where a car mechanic and a client clash navigating relationships, classism and economic woes while subtly weaving in themes of police brutality, and political greed.
The garage setting brings together people from all walks of life, portraying both their shared experiences and distinctive.
Like all their previous shows, this one has no script. There’s a book that details the story’s structure, and that’s it. This day, the rehearsal is led by Nick Kwach and Dennis Njenga, who brief them on the scene’s action that prompts the actors to begin enacting unscripted dialogues.
Nick continues to add comedic lines from time to time to complement those of the actors while the room erupts into laughter.
This is a team effort, one in which members boost each other creatively to flesh out storylines and wittily timed dialogues that reflect current events. This year they have staged House of Lies, She Said No and It’s Not You, It’s Me to packed seats at the KNT auditorium.
The Crony Production’s leadership are directors Nick, Cyprian, Dennis, Victor Nyaata and Betty Nyatuga. As the story goes, they took their first steps in stage work portraying set book plays while at Theatrix Art Ensemble since 2014.
Then in 2021, they put on the play Mkisii ni Mkisii which breathed life into a new production, Crony Production. To date, they have staged over 30 shows at the KNT, Alliance Française Nairobi, and Braeburn Gitanga Road and have worked with a total of 50 actors.
“We weren’t able to pay ourselves as directors for our first five shows. What has worked for us is consistency and entertaining our audiences,” Cyprian says.
Besides their company amassing a huge social media following, they are individually have established careers thus bringing their own crowds to the shows.
“Each one of us is a brand, and when we come together, we become theatre avengers,” Nick expresses.
While they manage to pour more than one million Kenyan shillings into each production, they say investors fear taking chances at theatre. They also said that the exorbitant pricing of theatres spaces has most theatre companies flock to the KNT for their fair cost, thus narrowing down availability of theatre stages.
“We haven’t been able to take our plays to various counties due to logistic issues and funding. Further, we hope that the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife facilitates advertising of theatre shows in airports as recommended activities for tourists,” says Nick.
Nick recounts that one of their highlights was presenting an exclusive play for the former Second Lady of Ghana, Hajia Samira Bawumia, titled Two Lies Make a Right in 2023 at the KNT.
They hint that three more shows are in the works as they also purpose to go beyond theatre stages, diving into a new comedic style and business.