Honesty Lives On A Limb: The Freak Show

Sometimes the Theater scene needs a good kick in the ass. It can stagnate; become redundant and almost a parody of itself. Organized theater can be sidetracked to take the most morose of emotions and turn them into “I’m Sad!” center stage with jazz hands and a showbiz smile.

The best theater is and will always be the most honest. And for all of its faults the Freak Show (courtesy of the Freak Show Collective) is utterly and brutally honest. It’s in the audience’s face until they can’t help but pay attention. The stories are visceral, heart wrenching, gorgeous and impossible to ignore. Above all the entire cast brings the show down to a human set of problems, emotions, stereotypes and pain that is being overcome with every line let forth during the performance.

This is more than theater, its remembered reality being performed. These aren’t lines from a book, repeated in different tones for decades on the stage; this is a real story, or rather a series of them being presented with a certain degree of humbleness that comes off refreshingly honest. This is life lived out on the limb of a theater stage.

Without a traditional structure, the Freak Show is reliant on the impact of its individuals; a feat pulled off in a variety of mediums from solo dance to spoken word and skits turned song. With every twist in each individual tale or group piece, the audience sits in transfixed silence.

After the show the energy is palpable at the Alliance Francaise Auditorium. “It was amazing!” gushes Ellah Nyawira, the production manager, “It brought out all these different aspects of society and questioned the norms.”

As the audience and players spill out into the street, Freak Show cast member Wambui Wachira, an incredible singer who has faced stigma for her chronic asthma commented that “As a cast memeber, it takes a lot to stand there and tell everyone what we’ve gone through,” she explains, “and we have accepted ourselves.”

What may be Freak Show’s greatest strength is its attempt to reach out to the silently suffering who are going through similar circumstance as the cast. “It’s about creating awareness,” says Wachira, “It’s saying that you’re not alone, we are many!”

The stage should be a place that is safe for risk, a little public haven of acceptance. Beyond all other things Freak Show accepts this responsibility and runs with it straight against normalcy. It isn’t safe, politically correct, or pandering. It isn’t perfect and robotically polished. It’s a collective middle finger put up by the entirety of the performance of Freak Show against what others have defined them by and it’s exactly what Nairobi needs.

The Freak Show is playing at Alliance Francaise on the 5th, 6th and 7th of February at 7 PM.

Tickets are going for 500 Ksh and are available at Alliance Francaise and PAWA 254.
Inquiries can be emailed to freakshow.ke@gmail.com or via mobile phone to 0728611264.