In her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Laura Mulvey argues that a film audience derives pleasure from this art form by identifying with to the characters on screen (Mulvey, 3). Like cinema, theater isolates the audience, making the confrontation strictly between them and the world of the story in the darkroom. It becomes very natural for the audience to be overwhelmed with emotions and for the boundaries between theater and real life to blur. The effectiveness of political theater relies on its ability to capitalize on the audience's sympathy and emotional connection to the cause being presented. Presenting the issue as an intellectual argument is not enough. Theater and cinema are quite powerful when they cause an unsettling emotional disturbance in the audience. Because the audience has projected their own understanding of themselves onto the main protagonists, when these characters are attacked, the audience is also distressed. Likewise, they will feel a shared responsibility in combating the problem exposed. In support of this notion, Ngugi wa Thiong'o's play, I'll Marry When I Want, achieves the agenda of political theater through a process of identifying characters with the audience and then transforming those characters to reveal the premises of oppression that surround them. This structure compels the public to act in response to the issues exposed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In order to include the public in the political struggle, the initial characterization presented must be accessible. The audience should be able to effortlessly identify with the way the characters express themselves; a relationship that Wa Thiong'o specifically struggles to achieve in I'll Get Married When I Want. The main protagonists, Kiguunda and Wangeci, are poor farmers with a small plot of land. They are a loving family, despite their occasional quarrels, and struggle financially to make ends meet. Their humble position in society and their conflicts are very similar to those of most people and thus become an important common starting point. Characters like Kiguunda and Wangeci, as well as Gicaamba and Njooki, are unremarkable and far from perfect, but the strength of their nationalism and loyalty is still evident in their courageous defiance against the Kiois. This balance of flaws and virtues results in an even more human and vulnerable characterization that forces the audience to empathize with them. The way these characters express their feelings and ideas is also significant. In the re-enactment of Gicaamba and Njooki's marriage, when Ngugi uses language, the style is simple and unpretentious. In a society where theater was dominated by the works of George Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare, Wa Thiong'o took a unique approach to the aesthetic exemplification of language. His use of stylistic devices is very accessible and easily understandable to the audience. The imagery is generally that of nature and a primitive way of life, manifested in metaphors and similes referring to "gourds of honey", "hills and slopes" and "grains of millet" (Wa Thiong'o, 65-66). Through his extensive use of song and dance, the playwright finds a different but equally relevant avenue through which he can express his ideas and emotions. In the reconstruction of the wedding of Gicaamba and Njooki and in many other scenes, soloists, dancers and choirs join the actors in a musical number. Much like natural imagery, singing and dancing are a hallmark of performance art that iseasily understandable to the public, as they constitute an important part of their community rituals and activities and an integral means of communication. (Wa Thiong'o, 45 years old) By investing their sympathy and part of their own identity in the protagonists, the transition to adulthood and psychologically tainting the realization of these characters would thus deeply disturb the audience. By emphasizing this process in the storyline, the emotion conveyed by the last scene is also significant in presenting this transformation. After crying over the fact that Gathoni is now pregnant and working in a bar, Kiguunda destroys the photos and inscriptions, while Wangeci shouts at him to “Kill me now (…) then he can eat meat for dinner” (Wa Thiong'o, 110 years old). ). This is a shocking depiction of the family's current state – a far cry from the beginning of the story where they were portrayed as calm and supportive. The concept of virginity and marriage is also a primitivist symbol and motif in the play. A woman's virginity is her most precious treasure; it is also a metaphorical symbol of Kenya's liberation from oppression. Youth and purity of virginity are also a motif of Kenya's primitivist notion of cultural integrity and traditional values. The motif is established by the phrase “I will marry when I want”, sung by a drunkard then by Kiguunda, coupled with the words “as long as all the padres are still alive… as long as all the nuns are still alive” (3 ). The imagery of chaplains and nuns signifies purity, and the term "still" suggests the regressive nature of this virtue. The symbol insinuates that sovereignty and the prerogative to marry freely can only be achieved while Kenya is still in its pure, primitivist and empowered position. Later, Thiong'o alludes to the fragility of innocence and virginity in the lyrics "Girl, lend me your precious treasures...and when you lose your head, you will never find it again" (12) . At the beginning of the play, Gathoni forcefully exclaims: “I will marry whenever I want!” » (16) and fled to Mombasa with Muhuuni in the heat of love. However, in the end, Gathoni is pregnant and abandoned by Muhuuni. Muhuuni tricked her into getting pregnant by telling her he would not marry a girl who is not pregnant because it could mean she is infertile. Thus, Gathoni not only loses her virginity, but also the prerogative to marry whenever she wishes because the situation would force her into a forced marriage at best. The audience's identity is invested in these characters' transformations, so they suffer these disappointments alongside Gathoni. Coupled with the grim images of Gathoni's emotional conflict and oppression, the audience is forced to sympathize with her and question a society that would allow such a deplorable abomination. Despite the emotional shock discussed above, the play does not in itself provide the solution to these problems, thus forcing the audience to find this solution throughout their lives. The theater presents the production and brings the audience straight back to reality where they left off before entering the theater. In I'll Marry When I Want, the conflict in Kiguunda's family and Gathoni's possible marriage to John Muhuuni are a metaphor for Kenya's colonial rule. The conflicts are condensed into accessible symbols of the country's political problems, even after its independence. An example is when the Kiois enter the room and one of them drops the title deed. Gicaamba ends up picking it up and hanging it up on the wall (42). The title deed is proof of Kiguunda's ownership of the land. Likewise, it is a symbol of freedom because., 1984.