Lagos Theatre Festival is usually filled with theatrical intrigues. This year’s edition was not an exception when children with various disabilities were made to mount the stage to entertain and thrill the audience. It was an apt moment to cherish as the children mimed, rapped, drummed, sang, danced and gyrated to the rhythm of sounds emanating in and around the stage. Edozie Udeze who watched them perform various acts on stage reports on how the show titled Against All Odds truly justified its title.
The stage drama was titled Against All Odds. And it was really apt to call it so. It was a set of Down syndrome and autism students from in and around Surulere, Lagos, who have been taught how to sing, dance and play musical instruments. It was indeed amazing to see them on stage, so gregarious, energetic and boisterous. They were so happy to come together to keep the audience amused with their artistic renditions. They were led by Uche Onah, an artiste and a specialist in handling children with disabilities. It was the occasion of the Lagos Theatre Festival held at the Freedom Park, Lagos, last week. Against all odds was made a compulsory watch. It ran thrice everyday just to encourage people to go and see how courageous the children were. The show really pulled the highest crowd with Onah ever ready and eager to pull new strings each time the show went on stage.
The show began with the birth of a baby girl. It was discovered that she had a deformity. The father couldn’t understand it. Yet she was taken to a special school, where, on a wheel chair, she learnt how to bake, how to play a drum. Even though she did not have the physical strength to concentrate, she nonetheless tried to prove her point. She was a delight to watch.
The play now took off from there. From one stage to another, they were made to dance, sing and mime. Onah and his other colleagues stood in front of them to lead them on. “They can’t remember easily”, Onah said. ‘So, what we do is to stand in their front and dance. They then follow all our movements. It is only then you can get them to perform their best’, he said in an interview.
As they danced, those who could not stand, swung around in their wheel chairs. Once the microphone was handed over to one of the boys, he began to rap, swinging from one end of the stage to the other. Full of energy and vibe, he sang almost incoherently while his colleagues played away on the drums and other instruments. This performance so thrilled the audience, that some even stood up to acknowledge the boy and urged him on.
Adorned in white tops and black trousers, they were good to watch. The costumes helped to accentuate their artistic beauty and excellence. There was no one in the audience who was not touched, almost moved to joyous tears. Those of them who were not audible at all, constantly clapped their hands, shaking their heads to the movements on stage. They clapped vigorously, smiling and urging others to join in the joy of the moment. The choreography and the uniformity of their movements were too wonderful to decode. Not even some able-bodied artistes could get it better, for choreography is one of the most difficult aspects of the theatre.
But they synchronized while the movements went on. The rapper named Daniel stole the show. He was everywhere and his sister is named Daniella. Both of them showed extra-ordinary artistic dexterity. It indeed proved that there is ability on disability. Part of what impressed everyone the most was how they handled the instruments on stage. After an interlude, they returned back to the stage to showcase some of their other talents. Some have been taught how to bake; how to make tie and dye adire. Some of them were made into T-Shirts and sold to the audience. The British Council that spear-headed the festival said it was a moment to cherish, time indeed to discover talents and promote those that needed to be promoted. No child should be denied the opportunity to aspire to be great or attain a great height in life. That is why it is imperative to offer them that rare opportunity to demonstrate what they are capable of doing.
In an interview, Uche Onah who runs the Nigeria Premire Disability Theatre Company, said it is meant to develop their talents. “It is a children development centre, located in Surulere, Lagos. Yes, I work with special children, school children. That’s why it is called a developmental centre. We have those with Down syndrome, we have autism and so on. But what I did today is to showcase their total ability in disability. We can learn one or two things from them to show that there is no total disability if you can handle them well. They have inner ability in them. You could see that on stage while they performed”, Onah explained.
To see them through, all you do is to guide and guard them. Onah further explained: “That’s exactly what it is. It is for them to show those inner abilities in them. Some of them cannot even talk but they can dance, they can jump, they can play the gong or the drum. It is only when you guide them over time that you’d discover these hidden talents. That’s what we do at the centre. It is good therefore to help them develop what is innate in them in order to make them happy.
Onah has been on this assignment for ten years, pushing on ahead to ensure that more children in these categories are offered the best by the society. He said: “I spend an hour with them twice a week. The children are brought from special schools around Surulere, Lagos. It is our duty then to take them through most of the exercises, put them in the proper frame of mind to get the lesson correctly. It is not really far from what they are taught in class, so that they wouldn’t need to begin anew. It helps us to know how to manage their thinking, how to help them focus on those things they have. We don’t have sponsors yet. We only use the meager resources we can gather from here and there to run the centre and help the children”.
Onah is a dancer, choreographer and stage artiste. This is why it is easier for him to handle the kids. “I am a member of Dance Guild of Nigeria. And what I teach them is professionally sound. It is not copied or artificial. It is the real thing and these wonderful children key in as soon as you let them into it. What we do now is the best we can offer them”, he said.
Other shows also took place at the festival. One of the most outstanding was Dear Mama. It is a play that eulogized the inherent beauty in a woman. Handled by ten young ladies on stage with a lead character they made it clear that the place of a mother in the world can never be over-emphasized. Dear Mama thrilled as the ladies danced joyous dances, telling the people how it is to have a pregnancy for 9 months, deliver the child and the celebrations begin.
But how much does the society try to tolerate and appreciate what the women do to continue with procreation? What role does the society also play to encourage people to have plenty of values for their mamas? On stage, the ladies demonstrated this to the full, swinging to and fro in form of dance and songs. It was not just hilarious, it was equally instructive to see how the young artistes mastered the sentiments of motherhood.
With about 600 performing artistes in place, coupled with over 100 performances, the Lagos Theatre Festival has come to symbolize peace, love and togetherness for Nigerian artists. In its 6th edition, the idea according to the British Council, is to prosper arts. It is to extend the popularity of theatre beyond gimmicks. This is why Nigerian artists, promoters, producers and playwrights are encouraged to do their things by themselves. It is now totally Nigerian in outlook, in content and in its presentation. S0, the thrill is endless.
It happens this time of the year except that it was postponed severally due to the elections. You needed to be there to witness the deep contents of Nigerian stories, handled by Nigerian artists and those who intend to be the best in no distant time. It was a moment when artists sat down together to discuss; exchange ideas on how to better the lot of the sector. Yet with over 200 viewing centres scattered here and there, Lagos Theatre Festival is now ranked among the best twenty of its kind world-over. It is the foremost in West Africa and will soon overtake more across Africa.
The shows lasted for 5 days, offering artists opportunities to showcase their talents, make money and reach out to the larger world. Those who still have fresh ideas to take to the stage have been asked to keep them afresh for the next edition. It is open to all the people who have things to say or present on stage
