From Beyond With
Screen Gems; the story of a Kenyan Acting Queen.
abu OKARI
“Do you have a minute?” No hi. No nothing.
“No! The show is about to begin. Maybe, after the show.”
With that she disappears into the auditorium. Three minutes
later, I am back to my seat, laughing while asking myself whether this woman,
Jackline, has the moral authority to question his lover’s decision to bring his
“mistress” to her house.
My approach must have been unorthodox. I just accosted her
on the stairs. That’s more like a stalker than a prospective interviewer. But
it didn’t matter. I was acting on impulse, trying to be journalistic, not
letting an opportunity for an interesting story slide away. So I pulled that
journalistic first, accosting your subject on her front door steps.
Jackline is an accomplished, polished, “successful”, middle
class lady. Not only does she know and fully understand her place in society,
she is also ambitious and goes for what she wants right from whatever will
occupy her dining table during dinner time to having no qualms dragging her
lover to bed under her husband’s nose. She hangs on a statement her husband
made, mind you he was joking for his own gain, alluding to having knowledge of
the affair and being cool with it to justify her actions. It sort of reminds me
of the Happy Valley set, of consorting girlfriends, wives and mistresses. At
the centre of it all, was the star lead act, Sir Josslyn Hay, popularly called
Lord Erroll, His girlfriend Diana and his then husband Sir Jock Broughton. He
claimed to bless the affair just before the brutal murder of Erroll. They never
have sweet endings; these matters of love and passion, they never have,
especially across invisible but strong red lines.
I am here to interview one of Kenya’s leading actors and
model, a trailblazer in her own way, and right. She has seen her career take
her across the continent and some bit of the world. In 2008, she was held up as a role model by Unilever
East Africa during a charity campaign targeting school girls that was dubbed professionals
make professionals. As I watch her on stage, I barely think of our could be
interview. She is enwrapped in her character. She’s given it life. It is real.
She is the character. She is playing Jackline, a character in French-Italian playwright
Marc Camoletti’s comedy, Happy Birthday.
This is not how I would have loved it to be. I am not
totally convinced that a short interview will enable me, or anyone for that matter,
to wrap my fingers around her {pun unintended}. But it is the only option I
have. So I make do. Forty minutes later, I am seated in the Phoenix theatre
with the lady who was playing Jackline. Off stage, she is called Lizz. Lizz
Njagah. Her “maybe after the show” has evolved into after the show, and now is
after the show.
“Phoenix is home. I like the intimacy of the theatre. I am
glad to be back home.” She says in response to my first question. {You see, I
was right in approaching her on the steps of her home, her artistic home}. She
is back into the country after a two year stint.
“I was formerly based in Lagos for two years.” Says Lizz.
Lagos is where the M-net Africa soap opera, Tinsel, in which she stars as Tare
Duke is shot on location. It is nice. It is always nice. But for now, she is
back home, literally and artistically, and her re-entry into stage acting takes
place where her foray into acting first took a professional angle , phoenix
players theatre. The Phoenix Players is the oldest repertory theatre in East
and Central Africa.
She was here, almost six years ago, on a KWAL sponsored
internship. This is where she honed her acting skills under the likes of the
late theatre great, Mr. James Falklands, Ian Mbugua and the current Phoenix
creative director, Mr. George Mungai. Other beneficiaries of the scholarship
included Lorna Irungu and news anchor Janet Kanini.
“There were standards, very high standards, and I am glad
they are still there.” She explains her choice of phoenix as the first stop in
Kenya’s creative circle after her return.
So does her move back into the country mark the end of her
spell at Tinsel? “Not at all.” Says she. “I will be juggling Tinsel with other
projects”. Her diary is already full. The beautiful and graceful lady who first
graced local shows like Makutano Junction and Kenya’s first ever Medical Drama,
“Saints”, before going on to star in Tinsel is already shooting for Makutano
Junction. “In fact, I will be on set tomorrow morning.” She tells me. “I am
also working on a reality show with my husband.” They are yet to decide on a
name for the show. Lizz wed filmmaker and Jitu Films CEO Alexandros
Konstantaras earlier this year in
Greece.
A zealous and prolific actress, she has been cast as a lead
character in three films. Two of them, The
Return of Lazarus and Pearls of
Africa, are set for release either later this year or early next year. Pearls of Africa was shot on location in Kenya while The Return of Lazarus, which she also produced, was shot on
location in Greece. You can catch the trailer of pearls of Africa at
A friend of mine features in the film. She never passes an
opportunity to tell anybody who cares to listen that she was in a movie with
Lizz Njagah. That is a little peek into how high some people regard her, and
there are many who look up to her. What does she have for them?
“Believe in yourself and in what you are doing. You should
never give up. I didn’t six years ago. Look at me now.”
Sure Lizz knows one or two things about not giving up. Six
years ago, things were different, very different. Her mother, understandably
for any parent, did not share her enthusiasm for her chosen career path. All
she wanted was her daughter to finish her studies and get a decent and well-paying
job. Not an unpredictable life as an actor where you never knew when, and if,
your next pay check will be due. So if she insisted on doing it, never should
she expect her mother to contribute towards what she never supported.
“So I had to scrounge for a while to make things work.” She
said scrounge, but I don’t like scrounge. I will use hustle instead. Many a times, she had to spend a night at
U.o.N with her sister or two other family members, because she lacked fare back
home.
Nothing lasts forever. Today she lacks nothing, at least in
matters transport. If she may lack, maybe fuel for her car, which is as
improbable as it is funny, and in that case, she can comfortably afford a cab,
or fare to any destination at any rate.
It is late. The theatre is deserted. I don’t want to ask
hard questions, I don’t have hard questions. I ask her what she likes doing.
She tells me she likes to read, I forget to ask her what her last or current
read was. She likes to sing too. She is the kind of girl you can find belting
out a tune at a karaoke joint. She likes hiking as well.
“I was in [Karura]
two weeks ago.”
“Really? I have been there too.”
“Nice place. Right?”
“Sure. Sure.”
I hope it is not our last interview. I hope, too, when I
interview her next, it will be for a bigger publication, with a wider audience.
Because she is big, and her reach is wide.
