Kerala - Thrissur   

A lament on destruction of Nature

Thrissur: It is a subject familiar to us—destruction of Nature for modern development. The Kenyan play, ‘Sauti Kimya’ (Sounds in Silence), staged at the Second International Theatre Festival, is an eloquent tale of dissent, a lament on environmental degradation.

The play, directed by Keith Pearson, is non-linear. A nebulous plot knits together sequences and dialogue. It is a confluence of songs, dances, poetry and drama—a feast for the eyes and ears, as Nature is. The dramatist maintains that the play has been inspired by the Taita community’s concept of fight; it is a stage of resolution and reflection. The Taita people are a Kenyan ethnic group. The story is simple. A Kenyan park is being erased to raise a building complex.

Green concerns are patent in the opening dialogue itself. Wariara Atim, a character, says, “Our city, Nairobi has grown around our ears, grown at night while we were asleep...

When we woke up one morning five years ago, we couldn’t see the trees any longer. When we stretched our arms to the side, we felt hard stone and metal sheets. When we tried to breathe in the chill, bracing air of the upcountry morning, our lungs filled with diesel and our ears with traffic sounds...instead of the fluting of the birds. When we travel away from the city, all of the small towns are wrapped in a scarf of discarded platic, the white, green and blue of our supermarket chains.”

The drama also ponders over the effects of the ethnic violence that erupted in Kenya after the Presidential elections on December 27, 2007. As many as 275 people were killed, a few allegedly burnt alive when they sought refuge in a place of worship. The play raises the question: can we find silence amid the noise?

The soul of the show is singer Nina Ogot, whose songs are the foundation on which the dramatist constructs his work. You melt in the smoothness of her voice.

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