The best play ever

On Saturday I went to see a play at a place called Pride Theatre, near Lumas Inn where I perform on Tuesdays. My friend Julie from National Theatre makes her living acting in the play, so I went to support her.

The theatre was packed, there were several hundred people there, and they were in hysterics through most of the play. It was probably the best play I have ever seen in my life, although I'm basing that entirely on the reaction of the audience, because the whole play was in Lugandan and I barely understood a word of it. During the interval one of the theatre staff took me backstage and Julie explained the story to me, and the second half made slightly more sense, although I was still completely lost. I left not knowing any of the character's names or even the name of the play. I was the only mzungu in the audience. I think it was pretty obvious I had no idea what was going on.

Despite not understanding the dialogue however, I enjoyed the low-budget sound effects and lighting, and the tension building music that cut in and out so abruptly it killed all the suspense.

So many things are done so half-assed here, it's funny how much lower people's standards are in Uganda. While often it's due to lack of money, I see so much that is just plain laziness, sometimes to an alarming degree. At the kindergarten, the benches that the kids sit on at lunch have rusty nails sticking out the backs of them. They've been like that for years. All it takes is a hammer to bend them down so they don't hurt the kids, but no one has bothered. I've been told by several people that they'll fetch me a hammer and it hasn't happened, even though they know what it's for. On Monday I'll just use a rock or something, and if that doesn't work I'll buy a hammer myself.

It's reflected in the music here too. Most of the music is recorded and performed with cheesy casio keyboard drums, and it's not like Africa is short on drummers. At the East African Music Festival, the day before I arrived, Axel told me that everyone performing just lip-synched to their cd. They didn't even pretend they were really singing, they started out their set by shouting "DJ! Track 4!" into the microphone. Every single artist! At a major music festival!

And of course there is the African time phenomenon. Nothing is ever on time, it's usually at least an hour late. Doesn't matter what it is. And every time I've developed film here the negatives have been scratched, and I've used three different processing centres now. I've had a couple of heated arguments with staff when I've refused to pay the full price.

I think this aspect of Ugandan culture is something that will have to change if they are to ever approach a Western standard of living. Maybe there's a piece to the puzzle that I'm missing, the laziness is a cultural by-product of poverty somehow. But I can't think of any excuse for those nails to have been sticking out of the kids benches for so long.