Actors Lara Akinsola, Bukky Ogunnote, Ropo Ewenla and Toyin Oshinaike in the play. Photo courtesy: MUFU ONIFADE
Yeepa! Solaarin Nbo
By Akintayo Abodunrin
The performance justified the hype. Filmmaker, Tunde Kelani and Mufu Onifade, chair, Lagos State chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), producers of ‘Yeepa: Solaarin Nbo’, had assured before it opened that it would not be jejune.
“It is a total performance that is taking theatre back to the basics,” Kelani said of Dotun Ogundeji’s Yoruba translation of Femi Osofisan’s ‘Who is Afraid of Solarin’ staged as part of events organised by the Lagos State Government to mark Nigeria’s 50th Independence anniversary.
As promised by the duo, there was no dull moment at the first public staging of the play at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos on Tuesday, September 28. The full house that saw it obviously enjoyed the play, going by their raucous laughter and ripostes to the lines and antics of the actors on stage.
The opening glee, a two-in-one performance by the Lagos State chapter of the Dance Guild of Nigeria (EKO GOND) and Crown Troupe of Africa, was the appetiser before the audience was served the main course. Dancer, Dayo Liadi and members of Eko GOND who performed 9ice’s ‘Petepete’, decrying the stagnation of Nigeria 50 years after Independence, were outstanding. Their movements were in synch with the mournful tone of the music and Liadi, choreographer of the piece, got the extra applause he deserved when he rolled himself several times over towards the exit as the song ended.
The Crown Troupe of Africa’s performance of the late Hubert Ogunde’s classic, ‘Yoruba Ronu’ was no less interesting. Alabi Ademola, who spotted the trademark white wrapper, cap and ‘shaki’ (fraternal shawl) of the late doyen of Nigerian theatre, gave a good account of himself as Ogunde. Unsurprisingly, members of the audience familiar with the chorus of the reflective song, sang along with the troupe. The themes of the two performances, fittingly, cohere with that of the satirical play on corruption and the tragedy of small minds in big positions in Nigeria.
United by graft
Siaman, played by Ropo Ewenla, bursts in on his colleagues in the local government and informs them that Solaarin, the much feared public complaints commissioner, is set to pay them a visit. The mere mention of Solaarin, a forthright man, leaves the group including Edukesan also known as Force is Force (Toyin Oshinaike); Adajo (Oladejo Adegboyega); Alafowosowopo (Lara Akinsola); Dokita (Yinka Aiyelokun) and Adiyeloja ( Bukky Ogunnote- Ogunade) trembling in fear.
Like most public office holders, their hands are not clean and they dread Solaarin for reasons which become clear as the play progresses.
Edukesan who is in charge of the Education Ministry is a rotten official who does nothing other than embezzle money. Apart from collecting bribes to pervert the course of justice, Adajo (Judge) is also a chronic womaniser who jails the husband of a woman he fancies and turns the courthouse into a poultry. Dokita is a pipe puffing and coughing layabout who has allowed the hospitals to completely run down. The two women in the cabinet, Alafowosowopo and Adiyeloja, are as rotten and immersed in corrupt practices as the men.
Solaarin’s imminent arrival throws them into a quandary and they start looking for ways to avoid the perceived disaster. The half-educated Siaman suggests they burn the records to hide their atrocities and sends his houseboy, Polycap, to fetch Baba Fawomi, an Ifa priest, to rescue them.
Underscoring how deeply corruption has eaten into the moral fabric of the society, Baba Fawomi played by Bayo Ogundele, is also a dupe. He tells the terrified officials that, among other things, Ifa wants five cows, 10 local goats, 10 Hausa goats, 16 fowls and seven yards of white cloth as sacrifice to hide their sins from Solaarin. Any doubts the audience might have about Baba Fawomi’s integrity is soon erased when he does a break dance while singing “ifa ki paro” (Ifa doesn’t lie). He also requests schnapps to enable Ifa speak fluently. Siaman sends Polycap to fetch the drink from his bedroom but the bumbling fool brings toilet cleaner which Baba Fawomi quaffs thirstily before realising he is drinking poison.
The arrival
The satire, which more than adequately reflects the sordid state of affairs in Nigeria, takes an interesting turn when Lemomu and Lamidi - two charlatans who spy for Siaman while pretending to be beggars - return with news that Solaarin is in town. Like the others, the duo don’t render assistance except they are sorted. They disclose that Solaarin is staying in the Pastor’s house; and Siaman heads there. The Pastor, sadly, is also tainted. He not only helps himself to offerings, he also trusts more in Baba Fawomi’s power than the God he professes.
It’s a different scenario in the Pastor’s house where he is seen quarrelling with his daughter, Cecilia, for taking too quickly to the guest (Kayode Idris) from Lagos. Pastor is angry with the guest for finishing the bottle of sacrament wine and taking liberties with his daughter.
The continuously twittering daughter whom the guest affectionately calls ‘Cicily Misa Misa’, however, doesn’t mind the attention. She, in fact, basks in it and strongly defends him against her father’s accusation. The street wise Lagosian wins the Pastor over with a yarn to promulgate a decree that will elevate him into a Bishop.
Pastor becomes afraid when Siaman later tells him his guest is Solaarin. Pastor leaves immediately to see Baba Fawomi lest Solaarin discovers his own atrocities too.
The play climaxes with the rotten officials falling over themselves to offer ‘presents’ to the guest in Pastor’s house so he doesn’t report them in Lagos. But is he really the upright Solaarin, the bane of corrupt officials?
Current theme
Though set in a rural Yoruba town of the 60s and 70s, ‘Yeepa: Solaarin Nbo’ reflects the current Nigerian society where elected officials don’t understand the meaning of service; where contracts are awarded at exorbitant prices but shoddily executed; where nothing works. Siaman, whose full name JDG Gbonmiayelobiojo hints at graft, typifies the half-literate official in a position of power. Playing Siaman, Ropo Ewenla entertained the audience endlessly with his excellent portrayal of the thieving chair. The icing on the cake was his bad pronunciation of words like ‘emergently’; ‘gentlemens and ladies’; ‘incongnito’; ‘tomati puri’ and “o si ro pe o prosper lati wa so fun mi” (You didn’t deem it proper to inform me).
But a tree does not a forest make. Ewenla was good but so were the others. Oshinaike who played Edukesan; Adegboyega, the corrupt judge; Aiyelokun, the doctor and Idris, the scoundrel who pretended to be Solaarin, also handled their roles excellently. Toyin James who played Tolu, Siaman’s mentally retarded wife, and Bunmi Mapelujo, the besotted Cecilia didn’t fail to add to the play. They were completely at home in their comical but significant roles in the fast paced satire directed by Niji Akanni. That careful planning went into the production of ‘Yeepa: Solaarin Nbo’ was also evident in the choice of costumes. The characters were appropriately dressed while the stage was functional. The audience had no cause to complain when the play ended.
Yeepa! Solaarin Nbo
By Akintayo Abodunrin
The performance justified the hype. Filmmaker, Tunde Kelani and Mufu Onifade, chair, Lagos State chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), producers of ‘Yeepa: Solaarin Nbo’, had assured before it opened that it would not be jejune.
“It is a total performance that is taking theatre back to the basics,” Kelani said of Dotun Ogundeji’s Yoruba translation of Femi Osofisan’s ‘Who is Afraid of Solarin’ staged as part of events organised by the Lagos State Government to mark Nigeria’s 50th Independence anniversary.
As promised by the duo, there was no dull moment at the first public staging of the play at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos on Tuesday, September 28. The full house that saw it obviously enjoyed the play, going by their raucous laughter and ripostes to the lines and antics of the actors on stage.
The opening glee, a two-in-one performance by the Lagos State chapter of the Dance Guild of Nigeria (EKO GOND) and Crown Troupe of Africa, was the appetiser before the audience was served the main course. Dancer, Dayo Liadi and members of Eko GOND who performed 9ice’s ‘Petepete’, decrying the stagnation of Nigeria 50 years after Independence, were outstanding. Their movements were in synch with the mournful tone of the music and Liadi, choreographer of the piece, got the extra applause he deserved when he rolled himself several times over towards the exit as the song ended.
The Crown Troupe of Africa’s performance of the late Hubert Ogunde’s classic, ‘Yoruba Ronu’ was no less interesting. Alabi Ademola, who spotted the trademark white wrapper, cap and ‘shaki’ (fraternal shawl) of the late doyen of Nigerian theatre, gave a good account of himself as Ogunde. Unsurprisingly, members of the audience familiar with the chorus of the reflective song, sang along with the troupe. The themes of the two performances, fittingly, cohere with that of the satirical play on corruption and the tragedy of small minds in big positions in Nigeria.
United by graft
Siaman, played by Ropo Ewenla, bursts in on his colleagues in the local government and informs them that Solaarin, the much feared public complaints commissioner, is set to pay them a visit. The mere mention of Solaarin, a forthright man, leaves the group including Edukesan also known as Force is Force (Toyin Oshinaike); Adajo (Oladejo Adegboyega); Alafowosowopo (Lara Akinsola); Dokita (Yinka Aiyelokun) and Adiyeloja ( Bukky Ogunnote- Ogunade) trembling in fear.
Like most public office holders, their hands are not clean and they dread Solaarin for reasons which become clear as the play progresses.
Edukesan who is in charge of the Education Ministry is a rotten official who does nothing other than embezzle money. Apart from collecting bribes to pervert the course of justice, Adajo (Judge) is also a chronic womaniser who jails the husband of a woman he fancies and turns the courthouse into a poultry. Dokita is a pipe puffing and coughing layabout who has allowed the hospitals to completely run down. The two women in the cabinet, Alafowosowopo and Adiyeloja, are as rotten and immersed in corrupt practices as the men.
Solaarin’s imminent arrival throws them into a quandary and they start looking for ways to avoid the perceived disaster. The half-educated Siaman suggests they burn the records to hide their atrocities and sends his houseboy, Polycap, to fetch Baba Fawomi, an Ifa priest, to rescue them.
Underscoring how deeply corruption has eaten into the moral fabric of the society, Baba Fawomi played by Bayo Ogundele, is also a dupe. He tells the terrified officials that, among other things, Ifa wants five cows, 10 local goats, 10 Hausa goats, 16 fowls and seven yards of white cloth as sacrifice to hide their sins from Solaarin. Any doubts the audience might have about Baba Fawomi’s integrity is soon erased when he does a break dance while singing “ifa ki paro” (Ifa doesn’t lie). He also requests schnapps to enable Ifa speak fluently. Siaman sends Polycap to fetch the drink from his bedroom but the bumbling fool brings toilet cleaner which Baba Fawomi quaffs thirstily before realising he is drinking poison.
The arrival
The satire, which more than adequately reflects the sordid state of affairs in Nigeria, takes an interesting turn when Lemomu and Lamidi - two charlatans who spy for Siaman while pretending to be beggars - return with news that Solaarin is in town. Like the others, the duo don’t render assistance except they are sorted. They disclose that Solaarin is staying in the Pastor’s house; and Siaman heads there. The Pastor, sadly, is also tainted. He not only helps himself to offerings, he also trusts more in Baba Fawomi’s power than the God he professes.
It’s a different scenario in the Pastor’s house where he is seen quarrelling with his daughter, Cecilia, for taking too quickly to the guest (Kayode Idris) from Lagos. Pastor is angry with the guest for finishing the bottle of sacrament wine and taking liberties with his daughter.
The continuously twittering daughter whom the guest affectionately calls ‘Cicily Misa Misa’, however, doesn’t mind the attention. She, in fact, basks in it and strongly defends him against her father’s accusation. The street wise Lagosian wins the Pastor over with a yarn to promulgate a decree that will elevate him into a Bishop.
Pastor becomes afraid when Siaman later tells him his guest is Solaarin. Pastor leaves immediately to see Baba Fawomi lest Solaarin discovers his own atrocities too.
The play climaxes with the rotten officials falling over themselves to offer ‘presents’ to the guest in Pastor’s house so he doesn’t report them in Lagos. But is he really the upright Solaarin, the bane of corrupt officials?
Current theme
Though set in a rural Yoruba town of the 60s and 70s, ‘Yeepa: Solaarin Nbo’ reflects the current Nigerian society where elected officials don’t understand the meaning of service; where contracts are awarded at exorbitant prices but shoddily executed; where nothing works. Siaman, whose full name JDG Gbonmiayelobiojo hints at graft, typifies the half-literate official in a position of power. Playing Siaman, Ropo Ewenla entertained the audience endlessly with his excellent portrayal of the thieving chair. The icing on the cake was his bad pronunciation of words like ‘emergently’; ‘gentlemens and ladies’; ‘incongnito’; ‘tomati puri’ and “o si ro pe o prosper lati wa so fun mi” (You didn’t deem it proper to inform me).
But a tree does not a forest make. Ewenla was good but so were the others. Oshinaike who played Edukesan; Adegboyega, the corrupt judge; Aiyelokun, the doctor and Idris, the scoundrel who pretended to be Solaarin, also handled their roles excellently. Toyin James who played Tolu, Siaman’s mentally retarded wife, and Bunmi Mapelujo, the besotted Cecilia didn’t fail to add to the play. They were completely at home in their comical but significant roles in the fast paced satire directed by Niji Akanni. That careful planning went into the production of ‘Yeepa: Solaarin Nbo’ was also evident in the choice of costumes. The characters were appropriately dressed while the stage was functional. The audience had no cause to complain when the play ended.
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