The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Theatre

  • IMAX partners Filmhouse to construct theatre

    IMAX partners Filmhouse to construct theatre

    IMAX Corporation and Filmhouse Cinemas, Nigeria’s largest theatre chain, on Wednesday, announced an agreement to construct an IMAX theatre in Lagos.

    The deal, announced at CineEurope, marks the first-ever IMAX agreement in Nigeria and West Africa. Nigeria now ranks as Africa’s largest economy. The agreement follows the company’s expansion in Africa. Within the past year, IMAX signed its first deal in Angola, adding four new theatres to its network in South Africa.

    “Our mission is to establish the best movie-going experience in Nigeria,” said Kene Mkparu, CEO, Filmhouse Cinemas. “IMAX will help us realize this goal by delivering an immersive and differentiated experience previously unavailable to Nigerian moviegoers. As we continue our aggressive expansion plans, IMAX will serve as an anchor attraction in our multiplex in Lagos, redefining the premium cinema experience in Nigeria. We are proud to be the first to introduce IMAX in the country and look forward to broadening its reach.”

    Andrew Cripps, President, IMAX, EMEA said the company is delighted with the agreement with Filmhouse Cinemas.

    “Recent reports project that Nigeria’s entertainment and media revenues will reach an estimated $8.5 billion by 2018 – more than doubling from 2013,” said Cripps.

    “As the biggest economy on the continent and a market that is extremely under-screened, we believe that together with Filmhouse we can seize the mutual growth opportunities that exist in Nigeria and bring the world’s most immersive cinematic experience to more audiences across the country.”

    IMAX, an innovator in entertainment technology, MAX is headquartered in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles, with offices in London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing. There are currently 943 IMAX theatres in 63 countries. While Filmhouse Cinemas Limited, with a vision to be the no.1 cinema brand in Nigeria has since December 2012 focused on rolling out 25 cinemas within the country over six-year period.

  • ‘Our theatre should brainwash the world’

    ‘Our theatre should brainwash the world’

    Edmond Enaibe became almost a household name when he acted the role of Teacher Chike in the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) soap titled After the Storm. This was in the 1990s and today he has risen to be one of the best directors, producers and actors in the theatre sector in Nigeria. In this chat with Edozie Udeze, Enaibe harps on the need for Nigerian artistes to use the vehicle of plays, films, dramas and scripts to project Nigeria well and rule the world of entertainment in the mold of Hollywood and more. Excerpts…

    Edmond Enaibe has certainly come a long way in the theatre firmament of Nigeria.  He is one of the most noticeable thespians and theatre arts practitioners in the theatre sector in the last twenty-five years or so.  A graduate of Theatre Arts from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, Osun State,  Enaibe is one of the best brains trained by the first generation of Nigerian theatre arts professors and academics.

    Today, he has grown to become a producer, a director and an ambassador of theatre of some sort.  He was the Teacher Chike in one of the best and most outstanding television soaps shown on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in the 90s.  “Yes, I must agree with you that my role as Teacher Chike was the break I needed to break into the theatre scene in Nigeria.  It was the first to put me in the proper limelight in my career.  But it was not my first role as an actor and as a theatre practitioner.  At Ife, I did Madam Tinubu, a play that fashioned out an outstanding model for theatre itself.  The play took place at the main bowl of the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos in the 1980s,” he said.

    Enaibe who is a stickler for thorough professionalism believes that once you are a theatre artiste, you can be the best you can in whatever circumstances you find yourself.  That was why even as a youth corper in Kwara State, he was confident enough to produce some stage dramas that beat the imagination of not only his employers but other youth corpers.  “Oh, I was able to do that based on the rigorous training we received in Ife.  One of those plays was a programme for the NTA, Ilorin.  Yet one of them was a play written by Jimmy Atte and directed by Yusuf.  This was in the early 1980s and it was such a warm feeling doing those things as a young man rearing to go” he said.

    As a young man trying to define his life, Enaibe at a point became a secondary school teacher.  This was in Ilorin where he taught for four years, before finding his way back to Lagos.  “When I came back to Lagos, I was employed as the Art Editor of the defunct Republic Newspaper.  I was there for a couple of years before I went in to become the Organizing Secretary of the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ)”

    After those years of experiments and experiences in the different fields other than acting, Enaibe decided to retrace his steps.  “At this time,” he said, his face wearing smiles of joy and fulfillment, “I decided to concentrate on my job as an actor.  Yes, talking about the Nigeria of the 60s and 70s, there was an evolution.  In those days there was one singular outlet to show programmes on TV. That was the NTA.  So, that, as it were, limited people’s choices of programmes or even where to produce more for viewers.  It was focused on the propaganda of trying to educate and entertain Nigerians.  Yet that was not even enough.  Years after our graduation, that was the situation and we were limited in terms of avenues to showcase our artistic values.”

    He admitted that the NTA had various programmes that were targeted at the people; programmes that really educated the people.  To him most of the issues raised by the NTA addressed most of the topical socio-political issues of those years.  “It was during this period that After the Storm in which I played the role of Teacher Chike came on.  It came after The Village Headmaster which was a thriller and which also held Nigerian TV viewers spellbound for years.  After that was Cock Crow at Dawn, then The Adio Family and so on.  Those were defining programmes on TV.  But today there is a proliferation of TV stations.  There are multiple programmes that have also taken viewership away from the central stations.”

    Not only that, there are many programmes today competing on the airspace in Nigeria, variety of such programmes have indeed become the spice of nature.  As an artiste, Enaibe feels that this epochal phenomenon is good for the sector.  It has not only created more avenues for artistes, there is more room for them to display their talents thereby making more money.  “Today, we have over forty television stations compared to when we had just one station with a network.  There are some programmes that are well-produced today, that can also be didactic.  We have good dramas, oh yes, but they do not directly address the issues of the country.  There are good drama presentations, fine acting though, with fine technical productions, but they do not address our immediate reality.  That is why you do not have the kind of impact the programmes like After the storm and Teacher Chike had on the psyche of the people in the past.”

    With the proliferation of TV stations, so to say, it also provided avenues for what Enaibe described as time for tom, dick and harry to begin to produce whatever pleases them.  “And they can muster money to go and pay for airtime, anything goes as programme.  And that is the direct result of what we have today.  But how do we now solve the problem?  It is very simple.  All we need to do is set standards.  Two, the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should be able to give us what and what cannot go on on TV.  All over the world standards are set, you have A, B, C and so on productions.  Now what quality of production should go on on our networks?  This has to be addressed so that we have what is good for the society,” he stressed.

    On the other hand, NBC should equally find a way to control most of the international programmes that have invaded Nigerian airspace.  “There has to be due process in terms of regulation.  But because we have deregulated, we have therefore compromised standard.  Although, TV is meant to entertain, it is meant to galvanise people into development.  The state of Nollywood today was possible because we saw the frustration we had then and tapped into it to give us stories based in our situation and problem.  They addressed mis-governance, economic kwashiorkor, social quagmire and all the ills that we had in the society.  So, people saw a way of not wanting to go out again.  They would sit at home to watch films and through them they saw Nigerian problems and other issues troubling the people.”

    In the years past, it was possible for thespians to go out to cinemas to watch films and dramas.  “Oh yes, we could go to Rainbow in Mushin and still come back without an incident or security problem.  You could go to Pen Cinema, Agege or gigs at Fela’s shrine or at Copacobana and other places.  All these have come to affect stage plays today due to the advent of home videos.  Yet stage is where you have true theatre; it is where you have real live theatre and feel the pulse of drama.  Theatre is not complete without live and stage plays.  And we need to make sure live theatre is brought back to the fore,” he decided.

    All these proliferations can however be turned into positive development for Nigeria.  From within, the people can be mobilized and educated to use the positive fallouts of the home video to better the society.  “Let me give you a good example,” Enaibe remonstrated.  “The greatest myth of America today as a super world power was the sole creation of Hollywood.  You see, as a kid reading comics, I read Tarzan and I foolishly in my childish thinking believed that some Africans lived on trees.  I thought there was a jungle in Africa where people jumped from tree to tree.  That is the power of the media and that is what Nollywood has to do to help the Nigerian image a great deal.”

    In more ways than one therefore the proliferation can be used to our advantage.  Both for the export of culture and for the conviction of people around that Nigeria has something to say to the world, the numerous Nigerian films should begin now to tackle these issues.  “Both television and drama series should also address these issues.  It is not ordinary that Nigerian movies are seen world-wide.  Not ordinary that Nigerian culture is being assimilated world-wide.  Only in Zambia of recent one man was contesting in an election and he said he was an Igwe.  The people asked him the meaning of Igwe, and he said it is used to address big and rich people.  This was in Zambia.  Tell me, is this not cultural assimilation?  This can be used into re-orientating our country, our people into something much bigger and better.  From there we can move on.  All these zenophobic things in South Africa will be a thing of the past, by the time we sit down and believe in ourselves.  This can also help to move our country forward.”

    Enaibe and most of his generation of artistes, are often of the opinion that for any drama or play to be relevant, it has to address one problem or the other in the society.  “This is why we do not believe in doing art for art sake.  We do not believe that you should do a play and just do it for the sake of it.  Even Shakespeare addressed issues of his time, even he being the greatest artiste and playwright of all times.  In Hamlet, in Macbeth and such wonderful plays, he addressed deep human psychological issues about the human mind.”

    “Now the likes of Wole Soyinka and Femi Osofisan came with plays that harp on Nigerian problems.  What we are saying is that our writers have always written to address societal problems.  And this is what theatre is all about.  Osofisan uses the epic theatre dimension to mirror Nigerian problems.  Even the younger ones like Segun Adefila have been on the prowl.

    “Today most other writers that should be writing for the stage, also write for the screen which is even good for a healthy theatre development.  Adefila’s plays do not only open the truth on our faces, but slap it on your face so that you can go home thinking about it.  So, the social issues he and others address are ever alive on stage.  Yet, there are others who have not been writing the best for the society.”

    Over all, Enaibe’s roles in the TV satire, face-to-face and his role in the Baba Blue Vicks advertisement have put him on a sound footing among his peers and colleagues.  These roles have made him a known face wherever he goes.  Even within his neighbourhood in Ikorodu, Lagos, everybody knows him.  “Oh, I have come to accept that name Baba Blue.  There’s nothing I can do about it,” he said.

  • Easter Spectacle at National Theatre

    Easter Spectacle at National Theatre

    Remember Baba Sala (Moses Olaiya Adejumo) of the Orun Mooru fame? His large-size bow tie and bogus frame eye glasses? All this stood out last Sunday when his son, Emmanuel (Boy Sala), featured in a musical folk theatre performance Spectacle, reports Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME 

    Call it a truly rich musical folk-theatre you are correct. But if you also describe it as total theatre that speaks to all, you are not wrong. And true to its conceptual framework, National Troupe of Nigeria’s Spectacle offered Lagosians, especially fun-seekers another refreshing theatre performance that further promote unity among Nigerians fusing different artistic elements harmoniously to pass the timely message- unity and peace. From music to songs, dance, narratives, masks, chants and drama the Sunday bouquet witnessed seem less flow from one artistic element to another, thus offering a relaxed setting for the Easter celebration. Expectedly, the 90-minute four-part production attracted mostly teenagers, children, men and women including reverend fathers and sisters from the Catholic churches in Lagos. Venue was the Cinema Hall 2, National Theatre, Iganmu Lagos penultimate Sunday.

    Despite starting one hour behind schedule, the production took off with the presentation of 20-minute folk songs drawn from the East and Southsouth regions of Nigeria. Emmanuel Adejumo led 10-man musical ensemble was not only a thriller, but a flash back to old school music and dance steps. His attire also brought back memories of his father’s dress code: giant bow tie, bogus frame eye glass and a tobacco pipe to match.

    A slice of contemporary dance performance by couple dancers sent the audience into frenzy as the dancers thrilled everyone to a breathtaking aerobic show. In between performances such as contemporary music, duets and traditional music ensemble were rib-cracking jokes by Mallam Spencer.

    But the final part- Ajodun, which was the main menu of Spectacle did not fall short of the essence- colourful celebration laced with drumming, singing and dancing. At the centre of the stage is a giant Sator drum from Badagry that serves as common instrument for the drummers.

    Apart from the harmonious blend of diverse cultural heritage, Spectacle enjoys rich costumes and smooth rendition of the different songs.

    Artistic Director National Troupe of Nigeria, Mr. Akin Adejuwon, who was reacting ostensibly to the political situation in the country, said government has no space for vacuum and that Nigeria must move forward. He noted that National Troupe of Nigeria would continually improve the content of its programme in order to serve Nigeria better. “We hope to take some iconic theater performances outside for presentation,” he added while commending the audience for their support over the years.

    Spectacle is a musical folk-theatre in four parts. The thematic thrust is a national unity. However, the conceptual framework does not lie in the exposition of lyrics paying lip service to the unity of the people, but in the unification of dissimilar artistic backgrounds and materials into harmonious art form within real-time creative space.

    The two-fold concept of the creative unity lies in the fusion of the different artistic elements in performance- the unity of the elements of the African performative stage on one hand and on the other hand, the wholesome representation of our diverse cultural heritage on the national stage through the use of music, songs, dance, narratives, masks, chants etc.

  • A generous, joyous and romantic eccentricity at the molten core of theatre and life

    A generous, joyous and romantic eccentricity at the molten core of theatre and life

    (For Dapo Adelugba, 1939-2014: egbon, teacher and mentor)

    WHEN the text message came to me from Femi Osofisan informing me that we had lost him, I screamed back a response that carried the full weight of the devastating shock that I felt: : “WHEN and HOW did he die?” Femi replied simply: “check your email”. And I did and found not one, but two emails. One was from Siji, the late Emeritus Professor’s brother and a friend of more than half a century; his email stoically accepted the inevitable and gave thanks for a life that had been prodigious in service to the nation and humanity. The other email was from Jahman Anikulapo that had been forwarded to me by Femi himself; this email hinted at a death that could easily have been avoided by observance of the most elementary protocols of professionalism in medical practice in our country. I think I shall always and forever be caught between the inscriptions in these two emails. One: “gbese ni’ku; ko s’eni ti ko ni lo” (“death is a debt that we all owe and none shall leave this life alive”). Two: the terribly and monstrously backward state of medical practice in Nigeria has itself become the bedrock of the banal “inevitability” of death in our country. In many other parts of the contemporary world, while death’s “inevitability” has not been obliterated, it has been enormously constrained, almost to the point of redundancy.

    The bitterness of these opening observations in this tribute has a very concrete and particular basis. Sometime late last year, I had had a series of conversations with Siji and Femi and others on how we might all work together to smoothen the relocation of Professor Adelugba to Ibadan. He had finally “retired” from his post-retirement contract with Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. For a while he had stayed on in Zaria but had then moved to Lagos. But anyone who knows the slightest thing about him knows that Ibadan is his spiritual home. And it is the one place that has the largest concentration of those with whom he had experienced the happiest, most memorable and productive years of his professional and personal life. At any rate, it was with a great, optimistic expectation that I “conspired” with others late last year to welcome “Uncle D” back to Ibadan. I looked forward to resuming old, unfinished discussions with him; and I was excited by anticipation of new topics of discourse that we would almost certainly engage in. As recently as last week as I began to prepare for my annual seven-week visit home every December, this long-awaited anticipation of linking up again with “Uncle D” was high on the list of pleasures that my visit home would yield. This is the emotional context for that response that I screamed back to Femi when I received his email informing me of Professor Adelugba’s death: “WHEN and HOW did he die?”

    In the death of Dapo Adelugba, the world of the arts, the humanities and, especially theatre in academia in our country and in Africa has lost one of its legendary pioneering figures. Absolutely, he was one of a kind. He was loved, he was revered by generations of his students with something approaching hero-worship. To those who were never directly his students, this always seemed mysterious. But nothing was as free of mystery as the foundation of the worshipful devotion of Uncle D’s hundreds, maybe thousands of students. For the simple but profoundly moving thing about this assertion is the fact that Adelugba made every single one of his students feel that she or he was important, was special. He gave equal attention, equal time and energy to every single student. Every paper that was ever written and submitted to him was read and graded with great care; and he made detailed commentary on every single paper submitted to him. As if that was not enough, he made himself available to every single student who wanted a personal one-on-one follow-up on top of the copious comments that he’d made on a paper. I testify that as a teacher myself, I have never met any teacher, any colleague that equaled Uncle D on this particular point.

    Indeed, when I was one of his undergraduate students in the late 1960s, I often marveled at this generosity that in my personal experience was unequalled. Typically, we were relatively few in our classes at that period of the history of higher education in Nigeria. For instance, in one of the most formative classes that I took with him which was on dramatic criticism, there were only about eight of us in the class. Imagine my surprise then when many decades later I read glowing testimonies affirming this same generosity from Adelugba’s students from another period when class size had more than quadrupled beyond what we were used to in my time at U.I. Only a tiny minority of the most conscientious teachers ever aspires to reach every single one of their students; far more remarkable is the fact that among this order of the elect among teachers, it is very rare to have what it takes to fulfill that noble aspiration. Uncle D was a scion of this order of the elect among teachers. He gave an unquantifiably large chunk of his life to his students. Since he was only human, this took a great toll on him, but this is not the occasion to dwell on this particular matter.

    Adelugba was of course not a saintly mentor who suffered fools and slackers among his students silently; he was not a guru presiding over an ashram of god-obsessed neophytes. He was a workaholic teacher and mentor who demanded from his students what he demanded of himself. He was quick to anger and he tended to express this anger tempestuously. Quite often, the cause of the anger was, to the offender, so slight, so inscrutable as to be quixotic. This was perhaps the basis of a reputation that over time he garnered as the chief exemplar of a defining eccentricity among U.I. Theatre Department professors and lecturers! But since he was the very embodiment of generosity, since he had a laughter that was unique in its affability and emotional resonance, no professor’s or lecturer’s “eccentricity” was more tolerable – and tolerated – than his.

    The vocation of teaching is of course not a contentless abstraction; as a teacher you school, you mentor students in a particular subject, a particular academic discipline: Physics or Chemistry; Mathematics or Sociology; History or Geography. In the case of drama, theatre and the arts as a composite academic discipline and practice in our country, it was part of his destiny that Adelugba shared the pioneering spotlight with other legendary figures like Geoff Axworthy, Wole Soyinka, Joel Adedeji, Demas Nwoko, Dexter Lyndersay and Ola Rotimi. These men – among whom only Soyinka and Nwoko are still with us – were/are all without exception endowed with great talent and equally great egos. I make this assertion absolutely without any sarcasm, any irony, any criticism. It is in the very nature of pioneers in all fields of endeavor to be driven, to be single-minded, to be eccentric. To this, add the significant fact that in the period when drama and theatre were being established as a composite academic discipline at U.I., there was very little sympathy, talk less of understanding among the powers that be in the academic pecking order of the university. Many of the most eminent and powerful professors at the time could not bring themselves to understand and lend their support to the move to transform the old School of Drama to a Department of Theatre Arts. Even when the transition eventually took place, the old antagonism, the old philistine condescension towards the arts and theatre persisted. With his own peculiar brand of “eccentricity” that I am calling generous, joyous and romantic in this piece, Adelugba played one of the most central roles in these pioneering efforts to provide a valid and respected place for theatre and drama in the curriculum of Nigerian universities. What exactly does this assertion entail?

    With the possible exception of Soyinka, Adelugba was the most self-assured in his knowledge of, and immersion in local and international currents of the world’s drama, theatre and the arts. He came to the profession of academic teaching with legendary feats as an actor and theatre director in his student days at the old U.C.I. and his teaching stint at the Ibadan Grammar School. As “Suberu” in That Scoundrel Suberu that he adapted from one of Moliere’s plays, as Murano in The Road, as Dawodu in Kongi’s Harvest, and as Old Man in Madmen and Specialists (my favorite among the many roles that he performed in Soyinka’s plays) he had regaled hundreds of secondary school and university students as the country’s uncontested leading actor in the then newly emergent Nigerian drama and theatre in English. As a theatre director whose charisma and enthusiasm were unparalleled, he gave much joy and enrichment to his actors and technical crew. As the School of Drama was transforming into the Department of Theatre Arts, he was the chief pedagogue of the central disciplines of acting and directing. More than perhaps any other person, he produced the largest crop of the most talented younger generation of theatre directors in the country. The times that I spent as an actor in his productions were unquestionably some of the happiest times in my undergraduate years at U.I. I know for a fact that most of my classmates who were in his productions felt the same way. And in his classes, we encountered texts of dramatic literature and criticism from virtually all the regions of the world that went far beyond the narrow British focus of the authors and texts that I encountered in my major in the English Department. In short and to summarize the essential point that I am making here, in Adelugba Nigeria’s and Africa’s pioneering theatre department found one of its most cosmopolitan, charismatic and self-assured voices in its hard fought struggle for legitimacy.

    For good or ill, it also came to pass that Adelugba outstayed all the other pioneers of the great project of making drama and theatre a valid and respected discipline in Nigerian universities. Long after either death or other interests had diverted his fellow pioneers away from academia, he stayed on. He was thus the longest serving senior academic teacher and administrator of drama and theatre in our country. Today, his protégés constitute the single most pervasive and influential bloc of senior academics in theatre departments in universities in Nigeria and across the African continent. This is a monumental achievement. But it is not without its ambiguities.

    I do not claim to fully comprehend exactly what happened but it seems that after legitimacy was won, after most of his fellow pioneers had departed, Adelugba turned his attention to mass production of Ph Ds, apparently as part of U.I.’s  self-reinvention as primarily a research rather than a teaching university. With this paradigm shift, the U.I. Graduate School became big and the mass production of the next generation of Nigeria’s professoriate began in earnest. I am told that no department in the University has been more eager in fulfilling this new mission than the Theatre Arts Department and no professor in the entire University has produced more Ph Ds than Adelugba.

    It is too soon to produce a final verdict on this particular aspect of Adelugba’s rich legacy. That will come long after all of us are gone. I sincerely hope that when that verdict comes, it will be kinder to his memory than the toll that the effort exacted on his life in the last two to three decades. Conscientious and generous to the last, as he mass produced these Ph Ds, he lived virtually in his office, poring over overlong tomes of doctoral dissertation. It was very injurious to his health. And he became reclusive, very reclusive. When he was still in Ibadan before relocating to Zaria, I sometimes visited him at his house on campus. For the most part the conversations went well on these visits. But it was his laughter that I always looked forward to and always cherished the most during the visits. In my experience, the only other person who had laughter to match his was the late Agbo Folarin. Adelugba’s laughter was fulsome, it came in gales or waves of a pure release of mirth that crested in an expressive summit at which, in my imagination, Adelugba could see all of life’s absurdities, challenges and promises with equanimity. But instead of ending on that summit, the laughter would start anew in gales and waves that would crest in still other summits, on and on and on. I can think of no better image for his life and career. He is gone now. But he was here, he was here.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Theatre Arts initiates freshers

    Theatre Arts initiates freshers

    The chief priest and his assistants led the procession. The inductees trailed them. All clad in white attires with palm fronds held across their mouths. They all headed to the shrine to perform initiation rite on the inductees.

    This was the scene at the Faculty of Arts of the Lagos State University (LASU) when Association of Theatre Arts Students (ATAS) held its sessional induction ceremony to welcome freshers. The induction started with performances by the freshers to entertain students, who gathered to witness the ceremony. The ‘shrine’ was stationed beside the School Theatre Arts auditorium.

    As the procession approached the shrine, the chief priest, Emmanuel Adejumo, chanted incantations to appease the ‘gods’ to accept the sacrifice. Busola Balogun, the ATAS Vice President, who bore an ash-coated calabash, rendered poetical composition to sing the praises of the ’ancestors’.

    At the shrine, the inductees were asked to squat to receive the blessings from the ‘gods’. The priest touched all of them with the palm fronds to initiate them into the fold. Afterwards, they were led into the auditorium, where the faculty staff and students were waiting to receive them.

    The association leaders took turns to orientate the freshers on the rules and regulation of the faculty. The General Secretary, Victor Odoche, said 35 students were present for the induction, stressing that any student who did not show up for the ceremony would be penalised by the thespian community.

    The Sports Director, Charles Ayodeji, said the ritual was a formal way of welcoming freshers, saying the ceremony would prepare the students for the task ahead.

    The Treasurer, Edward Mbodi, said there was no spiritual connotation in the rite, noting that many believe Arts students are fetish. “Most people view the initiation ritual as spiritual undertaking because of the manner with which performed. There is nothing spiritual about it. We deliberately chose to perform the rite in that way because it is a process of initiating a newcomer into a group in Yoruba tradition,” he said.

  • Drama/theatre and society: What relevance?

    Drama/theatre and society: What relevance?

    DRAMA and theatre have their origins in the cultural settings of the past and the vicissitudes of the present. The theatre tradition has been part of the ritual and social life of the people embracing the totality of their way of life, habits, attitudes and propensities. Although looked at as a form of entertainment, theatrical activities and performances are regarded as informal ways by which the quality of lives of people can be inculcated and enriched.

    From the early ages to the medieval period, theatre and religion were regarded as “strange bed fellows” i.e. the most widely accepted theory on the origin of drama and theatre is that it arose out of myth and ritual. The earliest recorded quasi-theatrical event dates back to 2000BC with the “passion plays” of Ancient Egypt. The story of the god, Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization, marking the known beginning of a long relationship between theatre and religion. Greek theatre, being the root of the Western tradition, was part of a broader culture of theatrical performances, which include festivals and religious festivals e.g. celebrating Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility. Performers wore costumes and masks to represent certain mythical or supernatural forces.

    By the early middle ages, churches in Europe staging dramatised versions of particular biblical events on specific days of the year. Theatre was reborn as liturgical dramas-written in Latin and dealing with Bible stories and performed by priests or church members. Then came vernacular dramas spoken in common language and were a more elaborate series of one act dramas taking place in town squares or other parts of the city.

    There were three types of vernacular dramas. Mystery or cycle plays were short plays based on the Old and New Testaments organised into historical cycles; miracle plays dealt with events in a certain saints’ lives and morality plays taught lessons through allegorical characters, representing virtues and vices that beset all human beings in the later middle ages.  Also, passion plays portraying events in the life of the Christian master also became popular

    Symbolic objects and actions-vestments, altars, censers, extensive sets of visual designs and pantomime-were used to communicate to a largely, illiterate audience. Often providing their own costumes, amateur performers in England were only men, but other countries   had  female performers. Among the more notable religious plays were The Castle of Perseverance and Everyman. The Castle of Perseverance depicts mankind’s progress from birth to death, while Everyman is an allegory designed to teach the faithful acts of Christian charity are necessary for entry into Heaven. Everyman receives   Death’s summons, struggles to escap,e but finally resigns to necessity. Along the way, he is deserted by Kindred, Discretion and Strength-only Good Deeds goes with him to the grave.

    The most popular forms of drama and theatre in the medieval Islamic world were puppet (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as Ta’ziya in which actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. J.A. Adedeji, in his pioneering of Yoruba theatre, explained that pre-colonial drama and theatre can be traced to the ”theatrogenic” nature of the deities in the Yoruba pantheon such as Obatala(creation), Ogun(creativity) and Sango(lightning) whose worship imbibed drama and theatre and their symbolic importance, in terms of relative interpretation.

    Over the years, the dramatic, performing and theatre arts are often misconstrued as professions based only on acting, singing and dancing. A theatre practitioner could be a playwright, critic, costume designer, make-up artiste, choreographer, filmmaker etc. The following are points of reference where drama and theatre serve in our various day-to-day activities.

    Drama and theatre are tools used to sensitise the general public on matters that affect them on daily basis. These include matters of family planning/child-spacing, conduction of census, campaign against sale and distribution  of fake and illegal drugs, HIV/AIDS and other STDs, abortions, child abuse/neglect etc. A perfect example is the TV series, I need to know, which focuses on the enlightenment of the youthful generation on the dangers of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, STDs and teenage pregnancies and the need to abstain from such vice,s in order to protect their future. Drama, as one of the core genres of literature, is the mirror of any society because it documents what is happening and throws it back at the same society.

    Drama can also be used as a means of self- expression and empowerment by people facing hostile political or social circumstances. For example, the Tivs used the traditional Kwagh-Hir puppet and masquerade theatre to voice opposition to political victimization during the 1960s. The works of Hubert Ogunde are satires that deal with topical events in Nigerian politics. One of such works, Yoruba Ronu (Yoruba Think) sheds light on the crisis in the Western Region during the 1965 elections, which eventually culminated into the January 15th 1966 bloody coup. Ola Rotimi’s The gods are not to blame is a Nigerian adaptation of the  Oedipus theme in which Rotimi uses the metaphor of communal dispute, self-love and ethnic pride to symbolise the problems that culminated in the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970. Thus, it is not the gods who are to blame for Nigerian national tragedy, but the people themselves who led their nation to disaster through their incautious actions and aggressive self-interest. Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Mugo’s The Trial of Dedan Kimathi is an imaginative reconstruction of the heroic role played by the legendary Dedan Kimathi, the leader of the Mau Mau movement in Kenya. Through mime and flashback, it equally shows the historic contributions of the Kenyan peasants and workers when they rose against the British colonialists to regain their lost lands and achieve political independence. Total theatre (a combination of mime, colourful costumes, traditional drumming, music and folklore) utilises realistic physical imagery and a flexible use of language. Playwrights and critics have made use of these techniques, but articulated them with “a radical appreciation of the problems of society.”

    Children’s theatre is another veritable tool for educating the much younger minds. With past TV programmes like Sesame Street, Tales by Moonlight, Story Land, African Moonlight Tales, The World of Children, Puppet Playhouse etc, young people are commonly imaginative and playful, and these habits are often encouraged by educators seeking to create an enriching and holistic learning environment. D. Olu-Olagoke’s The Incorruptible Judge and Felicia Nkem Onyewadume’s Echoes of Hard Times have provided appropriate context about the importance of drama and theatre as they continuously portray the various positive and negative elements about the society we live in through drama or play, dance or music.

    •Adewoyin Olawumi Moradeyo writes from Lagos

  • Celebrating the legends

    Celebrating the legends

    The theatre scene is bubbling with life now.  The legendary plays series is going on with four plays by Fred Agbeyegbe put together by top Nigerian artistes.  Edozie Udeze spoke with the three directors of the plays

    At the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, at the moment, stage theatre is totally on course.  A group of artistes have come together to organise what they termed legendary plays series in which, periodically, plays of renowned Nigerian playwrights are packaged and presented to the public.  For now, the plays of Fred Agbeyegbe, Lawyer and one of the most consistent dramatists in Nigeria are being showcased.  In the show, four of his plays are involved and three professional and seasoned stage directors including Biodun Abe, William Ekpo and Muyiwa Osinaike were chosen to direct the plays.

    For the month of August, the plays would run every weekend to enable thespians and theatre enthusiasts to have the opportunity to watch live and stage plays.  Invariably, it is to keep the stage alive and ensure also that the National Theatre is not bereft of attention and ideas.  According to Ekpo who incidentally directed two of the plays, “before we decided on the project, we looked at the National Theatre, where there is so much passion, so much interest, and found that if we do this here, people would come back to begin to patronise the National Theatre.  We are happy that a lot of things are happening at Freedom Park, the Muson Centre, Terra Kulture and so on.  But we are not too happy that theatre is not totally alive here.”

    Based on this consideration, the artistes decided to put up plays that would appeal to the people; plays that are not only topical but equally dwell on issues that pertain to the very existence of the society.  “So we decided to include The King Must Dance Naked; a play that is based on the selfishness of a leader who later paid for his in-ordinate behaviour.  With the assistance of the National Theatre management and others we’ve been able to do this so that after Agbeyegbe’s we will do more in the series.  It has to be every three months so that people will not be bored.  It will also give us more time to create and build enough enthusiasm in the minds of the people,” Ekpo explained.

    With the plays which include Woe Unto Death, Human Cargo, Conflict Resolution and the King Must Dance Naked mounting the stage, Nigerian artistes are indeed bubbling with enthusiasm to keep the hope alive.  While The King Must Dance Naked was on stage at the weekend, with the hall packed to brim, the audience could glimpse through the kingship situation in a typical Itsekiri settlement in the Niger Delta.

    At the same time, it is the story of Nigeria, of a people steeped in a state of anomy.  Explaining the play further Osinaike who directed it said:  “Even though the play was given to me to direct, the inherent message is not indeed lost on those who follow events in the society.  The story of the culture of some people, from the South-South region, precisely the Itsekiri people, is what is presented.  It was written many years ago and was performed during the Ajo Festival in 1986.  The theme and message are still very topical.

    “If the king in my life has been pretending to be what he is not and then I have to be more careful on how to handle such a person.  This king may be my wife or my son; he could be a relation. There are many pretenders in the society; people trying to be too deceitful in whatever they lay their hands on.  So, if the leader or king is that of my country who has been this deceitful, then the people should expose him and shame him publicly so that there will be progress.  So, to me, it is topical now.  In fact, it may not have to be the president.  It can be the councellor of your area or the local government chairman.  Now, the people say okay, we do not have employment.  There is youth restiveness and all of that and we have to react to show our disdain towards the king.”

    In the process of all this, the people forced their king to dance naked in public.  Today, many people want the king to dance naked so that the secret of the high places will be revealed and peace will reign.  At the end the day a new king will ascend the throne to usher in progreess and modernisation.

    Abe who directed Conflict Resolution which will be the last play to be staged, harped on the need for people to look inwards to promote local plays, plays that have a lot to offer the public.  To him, that is one of the ways to bring back life to the National Theatre and recreate that wonderful ambiance or peace for which Theatre is known over the years.  “Having renovated the Theatre, we feel it is time for us to encourage theatrical activities to begin to happen here.  We have many cinema halls, many other halls well-equipped to serve this purpose.

    Today the management feels that the best it can do is to bring back live drama and that is why it gave out the halls for this legendary plays series.  As it is, the management has even called all the interest associations and theatre groups to a meeting and told them that the Theatre is ready for use,” Abe said.

    As a result of this, more plays are expected to be staged as time goes by so that live theatre will not continue to be in limbo.  “For now, we’ve decided to collaborate with groups or individuals who have need of the place.  The collaboration is made so conducive so as to enable artistes have the opportunity and wherewithal to have most of these shows in the numerous theatre halls that are available at the Theatre.”

    In supporting the industry and the artistes who are the direct beneficiaries of this arrangement, the hosting of these series of plays thus became imperative.  It is expected that fewer theatrical programmes in the next years, will be back on track now.  The plays have been made to incorporate other issues like jokes, music and more, so that it will embrace total entertainment that will sustain and captivate the interest of thespians.  “Yes, it is a way of ensuring that nothing is lacking in the process,” Abe enthused.

    Abe also noted that even as the plays go on, the industry players need to do their own bit to ensure that the project becomes a huge success.  Even as the venue was given to them at no cost, it is expected that they provide alternate source of power in case there is a power outage.  It is when some of these essential issues are properly taken into context that the plays can run smoothly and thespians will be guaranteed a pleasant outing.  “What we are saying is that when there’s power outage, provide your own source of power.  That should be your own part of the collaboration.  We are also saying that stakeholders should try to come back to their trade; it is their responsibility to join in making the National Theatre lively by bringing their shows and programmes to the place.”

    Part of the problems that militate against the promotion of shows, according to Abe, is lack of funds and the inability of a lot of artistes to raise enough money to put up shows.  “But we are hoping that with this kind of collaboration, more artistes would be encouraged to look inwards, knowing that they do not have to pay exorbitantly to host shows.

    In addition, this is the time to encourage artistes’ cooperatives.  This way, let all artistes guilds, professionals, directors and so on come together to do shows in order to keep arts running.  From whatever money realized from the shows, we can put it back to do more events.  This way, there will be constant running of plays and more people will come along.”

    On the whole, there is need to keep the Theatre running and so with time, other programmes would attract fees so that more amenities will be provided for the convenience of all.

  • Finding Fela opens in US

    Finding Fela opens in US

    Finding Fela, a documentary on the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, opened penultimate Friday at a New York Theatre, United States. The 119-minute documentary was produced and directed by Alex Gibney.

    The small gesture was not the late Fela Kuti’s style. With his band the Africa 70, this Afrobeat pioneer rolled out monster-size grooves, chugging along with soulful beats, keyboards and horns. His lyrics, partly in pidgin, spoke out against military dictatorship; at home, he declared his Lagos house to be an independent territory. As for marriage, he embraced polygamy, in the cultlike double digits.

    With the perilously stuffed documentary Finding Fela, the Director, Alex Gibney, tries to reckon with this audacious child of the Nigerian elite who courted execution with his brickbats, and megalomania with his extravagance. And Mr Gibney gives his rise-and-fall treatment an extra critical filter through a “making of” look at the recent Broadway musical Fela! Accordingly, through interviews and lively clips about Fela’s musical and political evolution in the 1960s and ’70s, “Fela!” director, Bill T. Jones, portrays the man, who died in 1997. Mr Jones is both razor-sharp and candid about his mixed feelings, and he’s part of a robust core of commentators, including the biographer Michael Veal, the former New York Times correspondent John Darnton and the former Black Panther Sandra Izsadore, a formative influence on Fela.

    The behind-the-scenes component, juiced with razzle-dazzle excerpts from the

    “Fela!” production is sound, in theory. But, like many sequences, it’s not so tightly executed, and this strand tends to knock the documentary off balance.

    Mr Gibney’s approach has built-in limitations (and a milquetoast title: where’d Fela go, exactly?). But maybe it’s a tall order for any conventional documentary to get its arms around a man whose 30-minute-plus jams routinely broke free of their moorings.

  • The mockery of a nation

    The mockery of a nation

    How does a playwright dissect Nigeria as a theatre of confusion and disorder through drama?  Why is it often convenient or proper to use satire to explain the political issues that confront the nation?  Many older playwrights have done that in the past and it worked.  It worked because, like it is said in an Igbo proverb, that when you want to talk the truth to a King who has been stiff-necked for too long, a King who has never had time to hearken to the cries of his subjects, put a basket on your head and then talk to him through the little holes.

    It is only when your words begin to drop one by one and he can only see your eyeballs as they stick out from the basket holes that he’d know that finally, his people have come to the point where one of them can be bold enough to let him know how they feel.

    In the same way, Emmanuel Ifie has presented the Nigerian situation in a satirised form, using the metaphor of a farm settlement to show the world that Nigeria is a mockery, a country where the leadership is not committed to the project.  In the face of thousand and one problems facing the over one hundred and fifty million people, Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen’s menace, oil pollution and exploitation, the neglect of the youths of the country and more, the ruling class seems to be in an animal kingdom, babbling away as if nothing matters.

    The title of the play makes it more poignant – Once Upon A Farm and it shows the level of unseriousness on the part of the people who preside over the affairs of the people.  In the prologue, the playwright sets the stage very clearly – the farm consists of thirty-six plots of gardens.  Several of them hold crops, ponds and pans.  Indeed, the gardens in the Northern side consist of dry, receding, over-grazed savannas while the Western part has cash crops.  Even so, the Eastern part harbours dates and other palms, while the South has timber and plywood.  Capping it up are two streams flowing into one to form a confluence, a confluence of confusion and false beliefs.

    Describing the meeting of these two streams as darkness that gives no hope somewhat, he goes on to give names of the strange characters that inhabit the farm settlement.  They include His Excellency called Ram Rod who is now known as the farm prefect, while his deputy is known as Ram Dom.  The manager of the farm, in-charge of Defence is called Ram Nutsy while his Finance counterpart is called Ewe-Ewe.  There are others too.  But the whole essence of all this is to give the state of a country where clowns and impostors inhabit the farm in form of leaders who do not know what to do to save the farmland.

    As the federal executive council sits to resolve the insecurity in the land and proffer ways to safeguard the future, there are discordant tunes.  No one could proffer real solutions to steady the drifting society.  Now, pitched against goats and sheep on one hand and wolves and jackals on the other, it shows crystal clear how the society is divided.  The rich continues to have their way while the poor continues to be at the receiving end.  Indeed the state totters.

    “The nation faces the peril of extinction within a short time,” the playwright says on page 7.  “As you all can see,” His Excellency continues in a form to rebuke the council, “sheep and goats are lean already.  The second threat; Ewes and gentle Rams are the drain on sheep brain…  Our intelligent sheep are making exodus to the greener pastures of other farms abroad to graze.  Secondly, wolves have recently developed a special preference to and appetite for Isi-Ewu.  I mean, Ewes and Rams’ delicacy.   Wolves’ present choice of daily snack is painfully leading to a faster depletion of sheep and sheep’s brain…  The militant Rams, I call them Jackals that are ramming everything in sight-in the North – Easterly gardens…  This siege just has to stop…”

    In a nutshell, that describes the central message of the play and its potency towards a nation-state.  Yet this book done in two parts is too slim for that purpose.  With the part one coming in just 16 pages, it shows a lot of unseriousness.  But again the message is clear – Nigeria has to guide its loins to be able to remain one.  Even though the issue were never resolved since the people couldn’t speak with one voice what is the future of Nigeria?  What can be done to douse the tensions in the land and give peace to the people?  It is all in this Animal tales of Naija Gardens, a book so deep in political mimicry and satire.

  • Theatre of absurd in Enugu

    Enugu since ages, has always remained a very peaceful and serene city, home to all and sundry irrespective of tribe and religion, thus attracting in droves various Nigerians and foreigners, who had made the Coal City, a second home. Owing to its harmless and quiet disposition, the hilly nature of the topography of this former regional capital of Eastern Nigeria, boasts of people from Enugu State of very humble, humane, unassuming, hospitable and quiet mien.

    Events over the years and indeed months, happening in quick succession as the General Elections of 2015, knock on the electoral door, demonstrably point to unpleasant happenings hitherto that had not existed  in our once peaceful state. The selfish ambition of a few seems to be creating much ill feelings and if not checked, would engender hatred and polarize the people of the  state along ethnic and parochial lines.

    The governor of the state, Sullivan Chime, had done well during his first tenure but he is gradually slipping into familiar terrain of dictators, deciding on who the cap fits or not. Presidential democratic system, anywhere in the world, calls for constant egalitarian dialoguing involving every stakeholder of the party. People congregating and given the latitude of freedom to share their views and make meaningful suggestions and contributions that would impact positively on the party and to a greater extent, the people who of course drive the system.

    It is not a one man show. It cannot. The essence of democracy therefore is not only in the true nature of its definition which has become a cliche, but must offer a forum for party members to speak up irrespective of whose ox is gored. If politicians are brave and courageous enough to speak their minds albeit constructively, objectively, with the highest sense of responsibility, the present slide to dictatorship as has begun happening  in Enugu, would have been nipped in the bud.

    A couple of interviews and comments by some people one had expected to be level headed betray such trust as they keep stoking the fire. A good case in point amongst others, is comments by bootlickers insisting that since Governor Chime had done well in Enugu he should thereafter be compensated by  perhaps stripping a serving and performing senator of the Enugu West Senatorial seat cum ticket and given to Chime . What a bizzare thought? What a balderdash.

    Where on earth is such very serious legislative function based on emotions and people being compensated. That alone has done more disservice to the governor. It is beggarly and condemnable. Why would a party, both at the state and national, fold its arms akimbo and not proffer superior argument by asking the governor to shelve his ambition and allow Senator Ike Ekweremadu the present Deputy Senate President to continue. If Senator Ekweremadu had performed averagely at the Senate, then it would have been justifiable to deny him the ticket.

    A man who has raised the tempo of legislative duties to a grandeur level and impacted positively on his constituents at Enugu West Senatorial Zone, even touching lives in the villages and towns in Udi and environs which are the governor’s immediate people. For not discriminating in the attraction of amenities and infrastructural development, the least Senator Ekweremadu would have had, would have been accolades by the governor and party hierarchy in Enugu State, that therein goes our beloved son in whom we are well pleased.

    Is he one who can deliver? Is he one who had brought respectability to the office of the Deputy Senate President? Is he widely respected both at home and overseas, especially the ECOWAS and other African Parliamentary bodies where he is dutifully involved in at very high levels? Is he a good party man both at the state and national. Is he an asset to the state and party respectively? Is he a winner any day? When you have positive answers and one never rocked by any scandal, it must be a theatre of the absurd to ever contemplate stopping Senator Ekweremadu from returning come next year.

    Just as one was concluding this essay, the news rent the air that  the Deputy Senate President had, despite his onerous legislative assignments and commitments, had recently defended his Phd thesis in Law and Philosophy. What a feat that the people of the state and Nigeria should be proud of.

    The period between now and the primaries of different political parties as announced by the electoral body, INEC, is a very critical time that does not call for grandstanding, flexing of muscles or acrimony. Unfortunately, a terrible seed of discord is being sown in Enugu and men of good nature must rise and intervene by offering wise counsel. Of late impeachment sword of Damocles is being thrown at the  Deputy Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi. A few mischievous comments say the Deputy Governor is being punished amongst others because he takes directive from ‘Abuja’, apparently referring to the members of the same party at the National Assembly. What a shame! Looking for a  bad tag to tie to a cause.

    It is unfortunate that a wedge is being allowed to exist between the Enugu State Government and its people in Abuja at the National Assembly who are of the same  political aspiration, dream and persuasion. How on earth can we forget in a hurry that the Abuja factor jointly with other party officials who are today public officers in the state, fought the electoral battle which today resulted in the overwhelming victory being enjoyed in all the nooks and crannies of Enugu State.

    As the election days loom nearer, the party headquarters in Abuja has a Herculean task of stepping into the goings- on in Enugu and perhaps other states with similar problems by inviting key actors to a parley to peacefully resolve these knotty issues, that if allowed might continue to bring disaffection to members of the party.

    Political positions is not a do or die affair. It is not a must that having been a governor, the next port of call must be the senate. We all must respect the sensibility of our people and not do anything untoward that would suggest might is right just because of a few privileges that get obliterated with time. Just time and we all fall into the heap garbage of history of ex- this ex- that. Remember Ukpabi Asika? Remember the great sage of our times, Zik of Africa. What do you remember? What is the symbolism? Your guess is as good as mine.