The Sound of Music, Kampala style

A few months ago, auditions for The Sound of Music were mentioned in the staff-room. Rumour had it, that you only had to turn up to the audition to be offered a part as a singing nun. The hysteria started to build over the next few days as friends debated what song they should use and practised their scales in the lunch hour. I almost got carried away, but thankfully friends from far and wide warned me not to when I updated my Facebook with a comment about trying out for the chorus. It was agreed that somebody had to be in the audience! Luckily, some of my friends are far more musically talented than I am, and they were offered parts.
As time went on, I was very relieved that my inner-diva did not suddenly emerge! There was talk of four-part harmonies in Latin and what’s more, these brave souls had to sit in Kampala traffic three or more times a week to rehearse. My friends came into school with sore throats and tired eyes, but they worked on through it all.
So how was it? I have to say, that if the stage version of ‘Allo ‘Allo ever comes to Kampala, then there will be some serious competition for the roles – the accents were fairly comical. I am not sure what Hitler would have made of the Ugandan Nazis either. A friend of mine who has a reputation for being a little bit cheeky was perfectly cast as the naughty nun. Then we come to the Von Trapp family – well we know that the Captain must have travelled around a fair bit as he had sired children from the UK, Canada, the USA, Uganda and who knows where else! I am sure that the amount of lipstick the male characters wore would have been frowned upon in German occupied Austria too. The nuns apparently broke their vows of poverty and abstinence to have a couple of tipples backstage! This is truly amateur dramatics Kampala style! Well done to all of you I know who took part – you did a great job and I really enjoyed it. Nakasero Hill sure was alive with the sound of music.