Witness Uganda at American Repertory Theatre

The Next Broadway Musical

by Tatianna Suriel

     

       “The experience of a life time” is usually just a phrase, but not for Griffin Matthews. His experience was so life changing that he decided to bring it back with him to New York, and later all around the United States in his musical Witness Uganda.

Griffin playing himself, showed the difficulties and amazements he came across while in Uganda. Griffin is a gay African-American from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who at the time was an aspiring actor, and collected unemployment; which to the Ugandans was a dream come true.

            When Griffin traveled to Uganda after being kicked out of the church choir for being homosexual, he decided to empty his bank account to travel halfway across the world to build schools for an organization.  It turned out after being there that this religious organization did not actually use the schools to educate kids, they had to pay for tuition, and many could not afford it so they were not even in school. Griffin disobeyed authority and attempted to teach his new Ugandan friends. Eventually he was shut down but knew he couldn’t give up on them, so he paid their way into boarding school and started an organization that obviously came with many more hassles than expected, The Uganda Project.

            The colorful and vibrant dancing and singing through the whole play added to the amazing, beautiful rendition. The  African-styled dancing made the crowd feel like they were in Africa for moments at a time, as the scenes on airplanes made us feel as if we were on the plane with them.  Not to mention the moving stage that lit up and even elevated as they went onto the top of the mountain. Sitting so close to the stage, we felt immersed in the show since the dancers were right on the floor next to the stage. Also,  the tropical stage design brought out the warmth of the scenes as the warmth in their hearts and the warmth in Uganda.

            The orchestra was incredible. They made sure to cue in the ensemble on stage and were not shun off to the side like most musicals, but were a part of the scenery and a large part of the musical. The simple instruments like the violin, piano, drums, and guitar were capable of making the extraordinary African tribal sounds. It was astounding to see the violinist tap and use extraordinary ways to play the instrument as apposed to the usual soft strokes we are used to.

The musical ran emotions all through my body; as my heart sunk, as my laughter was so loud I could hear myself, as the tears rushed out, and as my smile was widened while making eye contact with the performers, or overall being overjoyed by my amazement in the performance. Comparable to a Broadway musical, I cannot continue to compliment this staggering performance that is definitely worth your while.