Too Early For Birds returns to the stage this April with its ninth edition, \u2018Shawry for Trees: The Roots of a Revolutionary\u2019, a theatrical tribute to the life and legacy of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangar\u0129 Maathai.<\/p>\n
Running from April 10 to April 12, 2026, the production will feature five performances at Nairobi\u2019s 800-seater Jain Bhavan auditorium, marking another milestone for the acclaimed storytelling collective.<\/p>\n
The new edition centres on Maathai\u2019s extraordinary journey as an environmentalist, academic, politician and activist whose work reshaped Kenya\u2019s civic and ecological landscape.<\/p>\n
Drawing from her triumphs, controversies and defining moments, alongside chance encounters and twists of fate, the production seeks to humanise one of the country\u2019s most revered figures while celebrating her enduring influence.<\/p>\n
Fifteen years after her passing, the show offers audiences a chance to encounter her story anew, framed through art as a form of practice and resistance, much as biology was for Maathai herself.<\/p>\n
Rooted in Kenya\u2019s oral traditions, the production uses orature and contemporary performance to connect historical memory with present-day concerns.<\/p>\n
Many members of the creative team come from communities shaped by the grassroots movements Maathai helped inspire, including the women who planted trees and challenged authoritarian rule.<\/p>\n
Their approach, described as \u201cdigging to the roots of history,\u201d blends rigorous research with imaginative storytelling and what the team calls a touch of ancestral magic.<\/p>\n
Shawry for Trees is written by Abigail Arunga, Wacuka M\u0169ngai and Ras Mengesha, edited by Ndinda Kioko, and produced by Sheba Hirst, with marketing led by M\u0169tw\u0129ri Njag\u0129.<\/p>\n
It builds on the legacy of Too Early For Birds, which, since 2017, has reinterpreted Kenyan history for new generations, selling out more than 90 per cent of its performances.<\/p>\n
As with previous editions, this production aims not only to entertain but to preserve cultural heritage and inspire reflection on the values that continue to shape the nation.<\/p>\n
The post Too Early For Birds to pay tribute to Wangari Maathai in new play<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Too Early For Birds returns to the stage this April with its ninth edition, \u2018Shawry for Trees: The Roots of a Revolutionary\u2019, a theatrical tribute to the life and legacy of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangar\u0129 Maathai. Running from April 10 to April 12, 2026, the production will feature five performances at Nairobi\u2019s 800-seater Jain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}