A tale of two friends, two maids and two decades between them

A new play showing in Kampala attempts to dramatise the habits and characters of housemaids, who look after homes and children while the parents and owners are away.

My Maid And I, written and directed by Kaya Kagimu Mukasa under Arts Treasure production company, is a light-hearted play for the 2012 Christmas seasons.

My Maid And I was first staged on December 6 at Gatomato performance space. It showed at the National Theatre on December 7 and 14. It was at Tilapia Culture on December 8 and 15. The curtain will come down on the play at the Movement performance space on December 20 and 21.

It is held under Kaya’s latest form of theatre dubbed “Dinner Theatre” where the audience is treated to a meal before watching the play.

The play is about a conversation between two friends about housemaids; where they came from, how they communicate and how they think. The two friends make a comparison between Mukyala J, who was a housemaid a little more than 20 years ago, and Janet Namuddu, who is currently employed as a housemaid.

Kaya plays the roles of Janet Namuddu and Mukyala J. While Alice Lwanga takes on the roles of “I” the story teller, mother-in-law, Pastoli and Namuddu’s mother.

While Mukyala J tells the truth, Namuddu tells many lies. Mukyala J does her job well and is also a very practical person, who believes in solving problems as and when they occur.

Mukyala J asks for permission to go for her distant late auntie’s last funeral rites. She did not particularly like her auntie — because she would take most of the meat to her house during family gatherings — but she goes all the same just to make sure she is not cursed by her relatives.

On another occasion, Mukyala J asks for permission to visit her husband, Ntonio. She believes that he has done something to her co-wife, so she must sort that out. Mukyala J is at home with a co-wife but she can’t stand her husband marrying yet another wife!

Mukyala J threatens to lock the husband out of the house if he dares get a third co-wife. As she is trying to contain her polygamous husband, she is diverted towards dealing with her elder brother, who is selling off their father’s property.

Mukyala J, however, had one flaw. Whenever her boss brought in another housemaid to help her with the household chores, she would frustrate her out of the job.

On the other hand, Namuddu does things differently. She was married to a poor man. When they got some money and bought a cow, her mother-in-law told her husband to take on a second wife, which he did. This did not go down well with Namuddu. Unfortunately, her husband had an accident at work so he could not work to take care of his family.

Namuddu was then ordered by her tough-talking mother-in-law to go to the big city to work and send money to take care of her husband, co-wife and three children.

When she started working, Namuddu met Pastoli, who really liked the food she brought him from her workplace. In return for the meat, rice, chicken and sugar, Pastoli is willing to treat Namuddu to a “rolex” (chapati mixed with eggs, tomatoes and onions).

In order to spend time with Pastoli, Namuddu lied to her boss that she was going for her grandmother’s last funeral rites that would take seven days. Her boss can only allow her three days off. 

Namuddu has a habit of putting on her boss’s clothes, not to mention that she takes photographs, with Pastoli, wearing them. Her boss comes across a photograph of Namuddu putting on one of her lovely outfits. This leads to Namuddu’s sacking.

“By the end of the play, her boss still hasn’t worked out how her maid thinks. The play is a teaser. It is a case of misunderstanding the mind of a maid,” Kaya says.

“There are so many stories that people who have maids can tell which could keep a television or radio programme running for eternity; some are confusing, frustrating, funny, annoying, unbelievable, shocking… the list goes on and on. I have chosen a few aspects to deal with in this humourous drama,” Kaya observes.