A musical production on African cultures titled Legends Kings and Kingdoms will be showing at the Muson center from December 22nd to 26th.
The stage plays which focus on Africa heroes who passed through earth and left their indelible marks. Such as Sango – King of the Old Oyo Empire, Nana Yaa Asantewa of the Ashanti Kingdom, Queen Nefretiti – Wife of Akhenaton of Egypt, Queen Amina of Zazzau and Shaka – King of Zulu.
A play directed and produced by Ayo Ajayi and Gbenga Yusuf.
Ayo Ajayi speaking at the press conference said “the journey started sometimes in February 2018 when Gbenga and I had a conversation about how we can really contribute to promotion of Arts and Culture in Africa.”
“Rather than just lip singing it as it is today. We came up with the idea of Legends and our first stop was the Muson Center, because we believe in this institution is the foremost and most effective center for the promotion of Arts. We were not disappointed because they opened their doors to us.”
“We also contacted a young friend whose job was to listen to our story, pick brains and come up with an excellent script, emphasis on excellent. He also failed to disappoint.” Ajayi said
He further said “The next hurdle was to create musical idioms that are synonymous with the cultures and era these Legends represent without getting stuck in the past, these was quite challenging but was achieved.”
According to Gbenga Yusuf, who is also a co-producer of the movie, it is all about love for culture and history.
“It is a story about love and about coming together of different African heroes to save the universe similar to what what Marvin does.
“There is no story in the world that have brought these heroes together, just like avengers, black panther coming together to achieve a goal .” Gbenga said.
Stressing the inspiration that led to the project, Gbenga said ‘The major inspiration was avengers, if they can sell their idea to us let us take our own to them too”
Kelvinmary Ndukwe one of the actor in this project, revealed “I played the role of Sezangakhona in the previous edition of this project now I am playing the role of Shaka Zulu.”
While speaking on his challenges he said “fitting into this new role accurately has not been easy, the previous actor who played this role has this unique accent like that of Black Panther which am trying to adjust to. It has not been easy for me but am improving.”
“Trying to act like the previous Shaka Zulu is not an easy task for me and also the dance, I’m not a good dancer but I just have to do what is required for the success of the play.”
Mojisola Kediri, another actor in the project, playing the role of a Ghanaian legend Yaa Asantewa, said “Legend is a fantastic project and I am proud to be a part of this project from the music ,dance, costumes and style of play everything is just spectacular.”
The actor said we should be expecting a different person in this play, “stepping into this character took a lot from me, I am in my 30s, but I have to act the role of a 60 year old woman, I even have to sound and speak Ghanaian language. So expect to see a different version of me.”
“It took me 3month to fit into this character especially for the fact that i need to act older that my age.”
For Uche Chika Elumelu, who played the role of Amina of Zazzau in the project “This play has so much of glamour it is not about what you can see. It is about what you can feel and also pass across hidden information.”
The project, sponsored by MTN and the Muson Center, is a family show and has no age restrictions.