Witness Uganda at American Repertory Theatre

Should It Be Witnessed?

 by Talman Fortune

           

   

         Witness Uganda is a new musical co-created by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews. It tells the true story of Matthews’ trip to Uganda in the summer of 2005 and his experiences there and the relationships he created with the people he met. The play had a very unusual feel to it created by the odd mixture of American and African cultures. This musical was a fantastic example of the major cultural differences between Uganda and America but also how they are similar. Almost everything about this play was interesting, if not “good”, in some way or another from the music to the choreography to the set design, which are just a few examples of the many aspects of Witness Uganda.

            One fascinating aspect of this play was the switching between scenes, usually in plays/musicals the lights turn off and people move the set and props on and off the stage while the audience waits for the next scene to stars. Witness Uganda instead had the ensemble come out at the end of the previous scene and make any necessary set changes while singing a song that matched the mood of the play at the time. Speaking of the ensemble, they were used in a very different way from how they are used usually in musicals. Unlike a usual musical you would see where the ensemble plays miscellaneous parts while also singing in the background and doing whatever needs to be done, This ensemble however is used to transition and create an environment for the other characters.

            Witness Uganda, while being interesting overall, also seemed somewhat slow and tedious at some points. Many of the songs in the play were sung at times where the impact of the scene would have been greater if the scene was simply dialogue. There were many points where the songs created the mood and were a great help for the story, But many songs made the scene seem longer and more drawn out than it should have. Another problem with Witness Uganda was that some points of the plot, although probably altered from what really happened for dramatic effect, seemed very unlikely to happen in real life, and frankly just unbelievable. Some of these points included Ryan, Griffin’s best friend, randomly showing up at the abandoned library where he was teaching in Uganda, and Jacob faking getting kidnapped which the reasoning for was never fully explained.

            Overall Witness Uganda is an amusing musical which was entertaining to watch simply for the music and colorful movement and jokes if not for the plot and serious parts which seemed to be lacking at some points throughout the musical.