Drama Review: Let’s talk, Man to Man

“I love my man, but he loves Thighs,” Lukia cries out to her husband.

That is some of the grim humour in the play, Man to Man, which opened at Ndere Cultural Centre last weekend. It is a powerful drama that welcomes back Charles Mulekwa from a 20-year break from writing and staging plays.

Thighs is a name of bar, in which and around which all life happens.

Job (Brian Byamukama is a delight in this role), a teacher with minimal means, has to convince his wife Lukia (Patience Nakamanya) to go for his regular drink at the bar. There are tales of the past, warnings about the future and revelations about living in dire straits.

When Job goes to the bar, he finds his buddy, Innocent (Amon Nuwamanya) and Black (Gladys Onyeibot) and after one-too-many bottles, calamity befalls him as he ends up in a safe house. It is a tale of how enduring the human spirit can be in the face of betrayal and greed.

Mulekwa is saying things that many just whisper about - the senseless torture of suspects, whose crime is only saying something about the president of this unnamed country. The moment at the bar Job mentions that he went to primary school with the president, Job’s life and relationships take a tumble.

It is a play of possibilities; one that brings to light something that could happen to about anyone. The director has interpreted it that way, through her casting.

While Byamukama and Nuwamanya have strong presence, drawing in the audience, Nakamanya is a consistent reminder that this is an act. Not that she is detached, but rather defamiliarized; which is what sensible theatre is about.

For long, she is the one keeping tears from falling on cheeks in the audience, until the final act when Job leans onto Lukia on their bed.

Like the playwright, this drama is not a revelation, it is a re-affirmation that whether we turn away from our fears, they linger about like our own shadows.

This play works like a mini-skirt; exciting yet small: small in cast (only six characters), and there was little of that bone-and-blood stuff that makes you hear a pin drop and it is also small on stage props. Clearly, you can tell our attention was directed towards the dialogue.

Man to Man is still running at Ndere Cultural Centre on Saturday (August 5) and Sunday (August 6).