Kenyan Youth Thrills Germans With Their Fair Trade Play in Bochum

Hope Theatre Nairobi, has been in Germany for the last month. It’s their third time touring Germany.

I wrote about them last year, Meet the Hope Theatre in Frankfurt and Stuttgart. I didn’t get to watch any of their shows last year, which included their “Spätzle or Ugali” and “The Dream of Getting a Job”. This year they are back and their play this time is on “Fair Trade”.

I watched their play in Bochum this past week on Thursday, and they were amazing ;). The plays were hilarious and the music was soooo nostalgic from famous hits like Malaika to traditional ones and even to their own songs. The dancing took me waaaaaay back, they did one song we had performed in primary school for drama festival. It’s a great show, and it’s well suited for both the adults and the children. You can bring along your babies and even the teens, I’m sure they’ll enjoy it.

Some parts are in German, but most of it is in English. The German parts generally translate the English parts in summary for those who might have missed the story in English.

My only complaint was the English, man……it was very denglish. I wish someone had corrected some of those denglish statements during the script-writing. Another wish would have been to allow the actors/actresses, make some exclamations in their normal language whichever that would have been whether English, Swahili or Sheng. Translating natural exclamations made some scenes very mechanical. Anyhu, the plays were generally well done and very convincing.

Eeehh, did I comment on the Dancing Queen? Weeeee, this you got to see. Suzzy the dancing queen can dance…….

And this one guy, I’m sure I’ve seen him on Churchill Raw before. I don’t know his name, but he did some moving poem on Churchill Raw last year. Is it the same guy or I’m I mistaking the guy for someone else?

They still have shows in Köln and Stuttgart, namely:

4th & 5th at the Alte Feuerwache Köln, Melchiorstrasse 3, 50670 Köln

10th-13th April 2014 at the Fair Handeln Messe in Stuttgart

The group was started by an Austrian film and theatre director, Stephan Bruckmeier in 2009. The group is made up of youth who’ve lived in different slums in Kenya.