Three troubled relationships walk into an old rundown church basement expecting resolve, only to face truths they can no longer avoid.
What We Don’t Say is a comedic drama stage production that examines the damage caused by communication breakdown. Presented by Doqflix Production, the play will be staged on April 25 at Braeburn Theatre on Gitanga Road.
Set entirely in the church basement, the story unravels during a chaotic group therapy session. Camila and Mike are a married couple whose relationship is hanging by a thread. Estranged sisters Tabitha and Sherry are joined by their enabling elder sibling Mary, exploring sibling rivalry and long-standing family resentment. Julius and Cyrus, a father and son, are locked in a generational standoff sparked by pride and the hunger for approval. They are all under the reluctant supervision of a therapist who is barely holding it together himself.
The script is structured around four recurring communication failures: defensiveness, character attacks, invalidation, and blame-shifting. The relationships portray these patterns differently, with every character dealing with their own vices, and these communication failures guide their behavior.
Camila’s and Mike’s marriage, which drives the storyline, is weighed down by emotional distance and secrecy. She suggested counseling in the hope of saving the marriage, but she gets frustrated by what she sees as Mike’s refusal to be honest. Mwende Kingori, who plays Camila, describes her as a woman who has carried pain in silence for too long.
“She has a lot to say to her partner that she doesn’t always get the courage or chance to say. The moment Mike speaks, she just gets irritated because to her he is still not honest,” Kingori says.
As the session grows more heated, she turns to be one of the loudest voices in the room and forces long-buried truths into the open. Kingori says Camila captures one of the play’s central contradictions: that people say the cruellest things when they are most desperate to be understood.
“There are comments she makes about Mike that she knows she doesn’t truly mean, but she says them because she knows they’ll hurt him,” she divulges.
Actor Sago Onyieni, who plays The Therapist, says the character represents hope for people desperate to repair broken relationships. The therapist enters the room confidently, sets ground rules and introduces exercises meant to encourage honesty. He listens more than he speaks and attempts to assert authority.
Tempers then flare up and painful issues come to the surface. Onyieni describes the character as patient and humorous but also someone who struggles under pressure.
“When things are hot, he makes excuses to go out and think what to say next,” he says.
That struggle between control and overwhelm depicts the mood of the play, where every chance at healing seems to trigger more conflict.
Through therapeutic exercises that consistently spiral into chaos, the characters are forced to face what they have spent years refusing to say. What starts off as comedy reveals deep grief and unresolved love hiding underneath the sharp wit and sarcasm.
Playwright Abigail Tey Munyao says that the production began with a title handed to her by producer Irene Mungai.
“She had a vision and shared it with me. The story itself is inspired by my background in studying psychology. Part of their stories was inspired by things I have witnessed in the people around me. When you put this in a group setting, you have chaos and disorder, but you also see other people’s problems that kind of put yours into a different perspective,” she says.
Munyao explains that the communication breakdown was chosen as the main conflict.
“If we clearly communicate our expectations, hurt, pain and joy, we won’t have relationships ending. An external conflict is an effect after the fact. I wanted to see what is causing this,” she says.
Though the subject matter is serious, the play leans into humour to keep the audience laughing while the stakes rise.
“I have a dark sense of humour. It seeps out. In a nutshell, the play shows that we end up hurting the ones we love when we don’t listen,” she says.
Photos: Courtesy