Mala Aria – Premiere Stages at Kean – A Review
Addressing a serious health issue can be a stressful situation for those involved. It is rare to see a play take on a disease like malaria. However, a new play running at Premiere Stages at Kean is about this very topic. Mala Aria by Gloria Majule provides an opportunity to learn more about this disease and how it affects families. Although there are few cases of it reported yearly in the United States, it still needs to be taken seriously. In a number of African countries like Tanzania, one of the settings in the play, it is a different story. People live with the threat daily making it a more serious threat to human life.
Mala Aria is the winner of the Premiere Stages 2025 Premiere Play Festival. There is no doubt why this play won. It is a moving story that not only shows family love and relationships but it also helps develop an understanding of malaria and what it brings.
Gloria Majule recounts her background with the disease in the Playwright’s Notes found in the program for Mala Aria. Majule grew up in Tanzania. She and her sisters got malaria multiple times in her childhood. When she was in high school, her maternal grandmother died of malaria complications She says:
So the disease has been an integral part of my story. I wanted to imagine a protagonist who makes it their life mission to eradicate malaria. . . . I wrote Mala Aria to reckon with what it mean to live in a world where you can lose a loved one due to one mosquito bite, what it means to live in a world where a disease that should have been eradicated decades ago continues to devastate lives.
That quote gives a good view point of the origins of this play. Majule writes a compassionate yet determined look at how deadly malaria can be. There are dark moments but also hopeful ones as the tale unfolds.
The Story Told in Mala Aria
Jamil A.C. Mangan directs this show with a sensitivity to the importance of families, their connections, and the intensity with which malaria strikes. When the play opens, the family is gathered around an urn containing the ashes of the mother of the family, She died from malaria. Although very sad, the father, Baba Amazia, encourages his daughters to dance because he tells them, that is what their mother would have wanted. Eugene Nesmith, who plays Baba, does a superb job with his role. He shifts through many different emotions all in an effort to keep his family grounded and working for good things.
Her mother’s death strengthens Amazia’s resolve to work hard to eradicate malaria. Shiro Kihagi does a outstanding job of portraying the many difficulties her character faces and how forceful she must be. She is already enrolled as a research student studying in Tanzania to work on the disease. However, she wants to go to New York City to complete her PhD and continue on a much larger scale to study the disease. She has theories that she believes can work but she needs more research and support to prove them.
It is quite a battle that ensues between father and daughter on this point. Finally, Baba relents and allows her to go but only after she promises to return to Tanzania after her graduation and work there.
Nazira Cisse plays younger sister Kezia. Cisse plays her role with the loving compassion of a family member who feels the need to stay behind and care for her father. Her compassion extents to her sister as they talk via FaceTime. Kezia listens to her sister who is so busy in the lab but the two try to keep their bond going.
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Amazia works hard in the lab trying to develop a breed of the mosquito that could wipe out the ones carrying the malaria disease. She is on her way to achieving some success but the path is not always clear or open. She meets Jasmine played by Anita Welch Smith. Smith plays her part well with both understanding and concern. Amazia realizes she wants to love this woman in a way she could not do back in Tanzania. This divides Amazia from her father and she decides not to return home as previously promised.
Resolution
As is my style, I will stop here because I don’t want to give away the ending. However, be prepared for a several surprises along the way to the conclusion. Although sadness occurs, the play ends on a note of hope.
Questions about the need for a more comprehensive approaches to eradicating malaria continue to prevail and will leave you wondering why more has not happened. For me, seeing this play was a learning experience about the prevalence of malaria and the need for research to better handle it. Hopefully change will come soon.
Sets and Costumes
A change in the usual seating arrangement of the Premiere Stages set allows for a wider stage for this play. At times, there are two settings going at once: one in the home in Tanzania and one in a lab in New York City. Amazia and Jazmine’s bedroom is also a part of the main staging. But nothing overlaps because the staging is well designed to hold it all.
Costumes reflect both of the locations where the action is taking place. Very interesting art work is shown to connect the characters to Tanzania.
The professional design team includes Scenic Designer – David M. Barber, Costume Designer – Niiamar Felder, Lighting Designer – Zack Gage, and Sound Designer Tyler.Sautner. The creative team also includes Music Composer – Carter “Roc” Mangan Jr., Props Master – Mary Gragen and Scenic Artist – Camyron Chauffe. Karishma Bhagani – Dialect Coach and Brooke M. Haney – Intimacy Coordinator. Dale Smallwood is the Production Stage Manager.
Go to See Mala Aria
Mala Aria runs July 16-August 2 in the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center on the Kean University main campus in Union, N.J.
To purchase tickets, call the box office at 908-737-7469 or visit premierestagesatkean.com.
