Scene I — Some Months to Election
(Lights rise slowly. The stage is divided into multiple moving spaces. On one side; campaign posters, loudspeakers, dancing youth. On another; women queuing for water. On another; unfinished road construction abandoned halfway. Throughout the stage; political noise competes with ordinary suffering. Campaign songs overlap chaotically.)
Loudspeaker 1: “Forward development! Bado Tunasonga!”
Loudspeaker 2: “Protect our community!”
Loudspeaker 3: “Jobs for youth!”
Woman in Water Queue: We do not need songs. We need water in our homes.
(Mzee Kihoto enters slowly through the confusion.)
Mzee Kihoto: As elections approach…truth becomes difficult to hear. Too many microphones. Too many promises. Too many manufactured emotions. And slowly…the people stop asking; “What is correct?” Instead they ask, “Who is giving money?”
(Lights intensify.)
(Lights rise slowly. The stage is divided into multiple moving spaces. On one side; campaign posters, loudspeakers, dancing youth. On another; women queuing for water. On another; unfinished road construction abandoned halfway. Throughout the stage; political noise competes with ordinary suffering. Campaign songs overlap chaotically.)
Loudspeaker 1: “Forward development! Bado Tunasonga!”
Loudspeaker 2: “Protect our community!”
Loudspeaker 3: “Jobs for youth!”
Woman in Water Queue: We do not need songs. We need water in our homes.
(Mzee Kihoto enters slowly through the confusion.)
Mzee Kihoto: As elections approach…truth becomes difficult to hear. Too many microphones. Too many promises. Too many manufactured emotions. And slowly…the people stop asking; “What is correct?” Instead they ask, “Who is giving money?”
(Lights intensify.)
