The unenviable state of the Nigerian nation was again
theatrically laid bare in Aba Alapata,
Prof. Wole Soyinka’s latest play staged at the Arts Theatre, University of
Ibadan to commemorate the literary giant’s 80th birthday on Sunday, July 13,
2014.
The production, put up by Oracles Repertory Theatre Company
in collaboration with the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Oyo State
chapter, is a dynamic, satirical comedy of errors that brought out the open
wound of the nation in so many tropes and symbolisms, depicting the rape and
“butchering” of the nation, struggles for power-sharing, mis-governance, the
evil of godfatherism and the insensitivity of the political elite towards the
toiling masses among others. |
| •A scene from the play: Seni Pinhero as Alaba and chiefs from the traditional council. |
It was a fitting tribute to the Nobel Laureate and renowned
rights activist, whose life has been intermeshed with the nation’s since about
independence and testifies to what engages his mind as a committed artist at
this time.
The drama, acted by a 40-man cast and crew and directed by
Yemi Akintokun, revolves round the central character, Alaba, an old retired
butcher, who personifies the godfather from whom all manners of people including
politicians come for advice and dispensing of favours.
The rape of a nation
From his perch on a hilly rock, Alaba, has an overarching
view and say on governance, and who gets what in the polity, as everybody
including the governor, senators, contractors must buy parts of his cow and
even the end product, ‘Suya’, which he shares, according to his whim and
caprice, for them to remain in reckoning. It is the narrative of the plague of
retired generals, who, although apparently retired, still remote-control affairs
in the national life. They are the ones who cut the cow (Nigeria) into pieces
and share the cadaver amongst themselves and their cronies, ruling and calling
the shots from their various domains or constituencies.
A comedy of errors
The incessant struggle for power amongst this class
manifests in three Army Generals’ quest to take over a quarry mine (oil bloc)
ostensibly located at Aba Alapata, which, according to Yoruba translation,
means “a village on the rock”.
However, the troops of one of the daring Army bosses through
a series of comedy of errors mistook Alaba’s village, which also bears the name
Aba Alapata, albeit with a different meaning (i.e. The Butcher’s Village) for
their destination. The mistake was set in motion by the signpost announcing
Alaba’s domain, which the playwright creatively used to create semantic
confusion by a play on the accent on the nebulous words. On the orders of their
military chief, who pointed out their apparent mistake, the soldiers advanced
elsewhere, leaving the old butcher at his perch.
The anti-climax came, when the itself -corrupt and conniving
council of traditional chiefs in the territory, who had pronounced a series of
fines on the retired butcher over indeterminable crimes, reverses the ruling on
Alaba, for apparently having helped to put the invading soldiers to flight.
Sub themes
The play also explores sub-themes such as the muzzling of
freedom of speech, fallen standard of education, complicity of some critical
segments of the society, notably students and labour union leaders; cruelty of
the governing class and the dismal consequences of official ineptitude on
governance which ensure that the “rulers” and their protégés work hard to, in
Alaba’s and his friend, Teacher’s self-indicting confession: “achieve nothing
and transform nothing”.
Like every good work of art, the play tends to blur the
lines between illusion and reality in that it highlights events and characters
that are easily identifiable in Nigeria’s contemporaneous history.
A raft of performing talents
 |
| • Omotara Soretire and Basirat Jinadu as market women in the play. |
Spiced with sonorous and thematically relevant songs and
beats supplied by a live band which occupies the right wing of the stage, the
drama parades good acting by accomplished thespians such as Seni Pinheiro
(Alaba); Tunde Oladeji (Teacher); Toyin Abiodun (Danielebo, the governor); and
Niyi Owolabi (Prospector/General) as well as promising actors/actresses
including Ikechukwu Iwebunua (Major), Basirat Morenike Jinadu (Daughter/woman)
and Omolara Soretire (mother).
Mention must be made of Pinheiro’s and Iwebunua’s
exceptionally comic acting and lines, which sent the audience at the command
performance reeling with bouts of laughter.
Among the memorable laugh lines of the evening was when the
old butcher, who had initially condemned a young man accused by his wife and
mother-in-law of philandering rescinded his judgment when satisfied that the
external lover is “respectable”. Out of indignation, he commanded the young man
to bring the woman outside under his roof to prove he was a true African man, a
pronouncement that made the distraught wife, who brought the case, to faint on
the spot.
Another was the scene in which a child sweeping Alaba’s
grounds, an apparently innocent daily chore that coincided with the visit of
the governor, scared him and his aide, having obviously mistaken the small boy
for a gnome, because his face was besmeared with red paint. The governor fled
and abandoned his own diabolical attempt at wresting the secret power
ostensibly in Alaba’s possession through incantations.
The foolishness of the badly frightened governor was
revealed when the child, in reply to a query by Alaba, who came in later, said
he had the paint rubbed on his face at a carnival he participated in school.
A must-watch production any day
All the actions took place against a simple set construction
representing a rock on which Alaba, the protagonist, sat, sipping palm wine
from a calabash, as well as a backdrop of the Nigeria’s green-white-green flag.
Save for the flamboyant and expensive agbada and sokoto
understandably worn by the governor, the costuming was subdued, with all the
other characters wearing common dresses that identified them by their
professions and social status. The Director, Akintokun, explained that this was
deliberate, because the play was not out to celebrate the many flaws it
mirrored. “There is absolutely nothing to celebrate in the message of the play
and so, putting up loud costumes will be celebrating stupidity”, he
rationalized.
The rapacious Army General/Prospector and his soldiers were,
however, dressed in mufti, rather than military uniforms. Again, Akintokun said
this was equally deliberate to illustrate how the culprits under censure had
penetrated civil life in order to cover the illegality of their detrimental
presence and actions in the polity.
Aba Alapata, which is a mish mash of dialogue in English and
Yoruba , the playwright’s native language, is a delight to watch as
successfully interpreted by Oracles Repertory and surely deserves being taken
on tour, if the company could find sponsors to overcome lack of funds, which
it’s Artistic Director, Akintokun, said was a big challenge in staging it.
“It was tough putting up the play, because of lack of funds.
We only took it as a challenge and sacrifice to honour a mentor, because that
is the only thing those of us who graduated in the 80s and met his footprints
in the Department of Theatre Arts where he started his journey, can do to
honour him”, he said.
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| Another scene from the play: Pinhero as Alaba; Danielebo (played by Toyin Abiodun) and figure in red (by Adeshina Adeseye). |
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