Transparent narratives: a critique of style of theatre for social justice in Kenya

Abstract

Literary genres and intra-genre typologies have particular stylistic features that define them. Theatre for social justice bespeaks of a theatre programmed to achieve certain goals. We hypothesise that its special purpose has a bearing on the style it employs to accentuate its intent and affects its artistic merit. We will analyse Wakanyote Njuguna’s Before the Storm, Kithaka Wa Mberia’s Maua Kwenye Jua la Asubuhi and Kivutha Kibwana’s Kanzala and interrogate their unique stylistic endowments and performative peculiarities. We investigate whether these texts of theatre for social justice have infractions, what their nature is and what linguistic and extralinguistic forms have been infused in the theatre to advance its purpose and appraise the impact these have on the theatre.