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‘Radio Play’ holds audiences spell bound

Friday July 01 2016
RT0630LIFESTYLEC

A scene of the ‘Radio Play’. The play is set in an urban setting, introducing the audience to a normal radio production day. PHOTO | ANDREW KAZIBWE

What exactly takes place in the studio, away from the polished and scripted radio broadcasts? This is what Radio Play, a 55-minute theatre production written by Elizabeth Senja Sparkman, Amizero Campangie and directed by Wesley Ruzibiza humorously addresses.

First staged at Kigali’s Goethe Institut in 2014, Radio Play featured among the Kreative Kigali, an emerging all arts platform organised by Impact Hub Kigali on June 25.

The play stars radio hosts Elizabeth Senja Sparkman as Lady Hibou, Herve Kimenyi as Dj Larks, Elianne Umuhire as the office cleaner, but in some scenes doubles as a caller, and a minister too, while Michael Sengazi takes on various acts from politicians, caller, police constable and others.

The play is set in an urban setting, introducing the audience to behind-the-scene action during a normal radio production day. It starts with the broadcast studio, all the way to public guests hosted and phone-in interactions, educating the audience on the goings-on. In some of the scenes, the audience is drawn into presenters’ ways of life as and how they prepare for shows.

The play shows how DJ Larks, a news anchor, makes sure that news is embellished with lies or given a twist to please those in power. Amidst the radio programmes are commercial breaks, humorous advertisements, which indeed make one take a wild guess at what they might be selling, as most are from big firms, and are coated with a lot of deceit— a reflection of what indeed dominates today’s advertising market, where the ads exceed reality in the services or goods received.

Lady Hibou, a radio host, who does the night shift, helps reveal how society holds vast secrets through the radio phone-ins. Most callers in this play are dramatic and seem naïve.

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Having successfully premiered in 2014 in Kigali, Radio Play has since been acted in the region starting with Burundi’s Buja Sans Tabou Festival and Kampala International Theatre Festival in 2014. It was later taken to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, twice in Nairobi, Kenya at the StoryMoja Hay Festival last year and in Kinshasa, DRC early June.

The play has a Rwandan cast, making most audiences think that it is a reflection of the Rwandan society, which isn’t the case according to Spackman.

Many countries have at one point fallen victim of similar situations, in Rwanda, too, especially before and during the 1994 Genocide.

Another unique aspect about this play is how its flexibly shown to both the Francophone and Anglophone audiences. Last year, when it hit Nairobi stages, it featured Sitawa Namwalie and Mugambi Nthiga, all renowned Kenyan actors.

Drawing inspiration from radio, which has for long interested her, Spackman, also a lecturer at the University of Rwanda, says the ‘use of radio,’ still stays relevant in society despite emerging competition with social media.

She is delighted by how the audience embraces the play, “We have taken incidents from all over the world, not only from Africa, which so far has drawn the audience’s reaction,” she said.