Trevor Aseri’s younger brother followed his passion to work at a mechanic’s workshop after high school since he did not meet academic requirements to join university.
As a fourth-year university student of finance, Aseri looks into the contrasting paths between him and his brother.
“Surprisingly, he has supported my entire campus life. He is the second breadwinner in the family after our mother. I am nearly graduating, and I don’t know if I will get a job,” Aseri opens up.
He ponders if he had also pursued what he loves doing immediately, things would be different for him. It inspired him to script Black AXE, a comedy-tragedy play that questions what success actually looks like.
Set against a carpentry workshop on the outskirts of Nairobi, Black AXE arrives on stage at Nimpa Theatre on April 25.
Written and directed by Trevor Aseri, it features four young men in their early twenties, played by Aseri, Fenwick Gabriel, John Solomon, and Adrienne Ogutu. They are intelligent and capable but work in a system that is stacked against them.
In the carpentry workshop run by the ruthless and corrupt Madilu, their ambitions are restrained.
Kai (played by Aseri) is a Form Four dropout who joins the workshop and becomes its most skilled and innovative worker. Street-smart and resourceful, he represents a kind of intelligence disregarded by formal systems. On the flip side, his desire for quick success leads him into gambling, a choice that leads to addiction.
It is Kai who first challenges the authority of Madilu (played by Geoffrey Muhia). He realises that he receives funds intended for their development and syphons them off. He also realises that the skills he has improved under exploitation can go toward entrepreneurship, and the other three men join him in exposing Madilu’s corruption.
“The story is about the youth standing up for themselves economically and choosing entrepreneurship and innovation even though it is not easy,” says Aseri.
As the art of carpentry represents innovation. The title of the play symbolises the struggles of a third-world economy that the African people go through.
“The carpentry workshop symbolises our current system of government. They get grants and loans in the name of development but end up stealing from Kenyans,” Aseri says.
The play examines the idea that hard work results in success by acknowledging the internal battles that the characters face. Some grapple with gambling addictions, others with the pressure of supporting families through the black tax.
“As much as the circumstances of the third-world economy affect them, they have their own struggles borne out of personal choices,” says Aseri.
Despite its heavy themes, Black AXE leans also as humorous as it is tragic.
“Somehow, tragedy is always comical in theatre. We get to portray the struggles of the young men in a comedic way so that we don’t have a whole sad play,” explains Aseri.
The cast and crew of the play are members of the Kenyatta University Drama Club, who are under the mentorship of playwright and director Derrick Waswa.