Namasagali rekindles dance, drama glory

By Emmauel Ssejjengo

The old students of Namasagali College have made it their annual “party” to have a production at National Theatre every year.

Last weekend, they staged Any Cow Will Do, a production that carried all the hallmarks of the college’s past glory.

The staging had that naughtiness of a high school  production — the high energy and that innocent endeavour to impress. Yes, and they still did the curtain-call like it used to happen.

It was orderly and it introduced characters in order of roles, not appearance. That is just what such a simple play, written and directed by Kwezi Kaganda, needed. It is a play about love and infatuation.

A son leaves home to go and study abroad. While away, his rich and traditional father prepares a collection of brides for him. The son will not have the arranged polygamous marriages and chooses a modern woman.

The household, and the chiefdom, which the father rules, go in disarray. Love is put to a test. That is just how simple the play is, soft on the plot but smart in dialogue.  But some of these old boy and girls still have the „ flame for the stage in them. Roy Tumwizere, who plays the son, is one such person.

Over the years, he has certainly put on more „ ab than you can ‡ find on a dancer’s body. But how he swings and sways with ease! He had stage poise and made up for his clumsiness in dialogue and movement by accentuated facial expressions. Hearts skipped a beat when he almost dropped dance partner, Joan Ntabadde.

The Hostel’s Matthew Nabwiso and Eleanor Nansibo Nabwiso featured but with their inaudibility, it was evident that the screen had taken its toll. When you go Namasagali you cannot go back. Nansibo married an old boy from the school so she is one of them, by relation.

The play returns in October and hopefully then, we shall not ask the frequently asked question over the weekend: where are the old boys who featured in earlier productions?