Last week came and passed swiftly, unusual for the weeks I was used to for as long as I remember. It looked at times like coming out triumphant from addiction, while at times, it seemed like merely succumbing to a new brand of narcotic. I was arguing with myself whether it was a routine per se, as it entailed nothing other than only going to a theatre but at increasingly higher rates.

I believed it was time to face up to one of my New Year’s resolutions to attend art and creative endeavours in Addis Abeba, especially each and every theatre show, and write a note of my impression on the same. At the same time, I was consciously attempting to distance myself from digital gadgets – thus, going into the internet at the least and avoiding screen time altogether at the most. There was nothing better to help with my resolution than a feast of theatre at the historical Hager Fikir Theatre.

The shows at the theatre (and the National Theatre) were, “Latew bale Tidar,” “Yegna Sefer,” “Gazetegnaw,” “Bado Eigir,” “Negeru Ayqomim,” and “Yegud Qen.” From the list, Yegud Qen commanded, though with a relatively expensive fee, an absolutely enthusiastic full auditorium to witness the return to the stage of a career that had a depressing twist from a dazzling success. It went to decline through addiction and to distance from the stage, while the self-disciplined others looked after themselves and expanded their bank balances. It was a show worth attending as Tesfu Birhane pleased all who revered him with a renewed vigour in his warming role in the semi-improvisational piece, which really had life only on the stage and demanded his service.

I hope I never end up being a “grok," a “Stranger in a Strange Land,” with theatre. It is “macroscopic,” according to Katy Borner, an expert in information visualisation, or displaying large amounts of data in ways that allow us to unlock the hidden meaning. The internet, for its part, provides a rising flood of information, our brains cannot digest it all and our tools, like search engines, remain too primitive to synthesise patterns and trends at a scale that will transform our civilisation.