Few directors render Nigerian life on stage as do Femi Olufowoju Jr. For 13 years,
the British-Nigerian film actor and theatre-maker ran Tiata Fahodzi which is
considered to be the premiere African national touring company in the UK.
Most recently, he has achieved success directing the stage version of Lola
Shoneyin’s novel “The Secret Lives Of Baba Sege’s Wives” at London’s Arcola
Theatre for which he won the Best Director Award Of an Off-West play 2019. The
play was restaged for the 2018 edition of Ake Arts and Book Festival in Nigeria
which was founded by Shoneyin, the book’s author.
This June, two plays directed by Elofuwoju Jr opened at Arcola Theatre, first of
which is “Hoard” by Bim Adewunmi which ran from May 15th to June 8th and was
followed by “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams runs till July 13th.
“Hoard” is a first play by Adewunmi, a British-Nigerian journalist who is based in
New York. She has written a mix of comedy and drama about three sisters – Rafi
(Elizabeth Ita), Ami (Estella Daniels) and Bili (Kemi Durosinmi) – who wrestle with
their mother’s refusal to give up a failing business exporting provisions to Nigeria,
even when it threatens to split the family to the point of no repair.
Both plays have strong similarities that include an overbearing mother whose
worry for her two children’s welfare grinds against their individual wishes and
ambitions. In Hoard, Ellen Thomas is Wura Bakare, the entitled and self-denying
mother whose three daughters are now adults in their 20s managing a work/life
balance.
Each daughter has developed individualised trauma from the years squeezed into
one bedroom on account of their mother’s unchecked accretion. As adults, the
two cohabiting elder sisters have adopted minimalist taste in furnishings for their
home. All the action happens in one evening when “Billi” the youngest is invited
to dinner with “Brian Burton” her new African-American boyfriend, played byTyler Fayose as a helplessly cherry and good natured Californian technician at
Google.
Neither the sisters nor guest is a match for “Wura Bakare” who has turned up
unannounced and on her way back from another shopping trip. We assume her
new buys will soon join the hoard. “Wura’s” near-hostile questioning of Brian, her
high-mindedness and cutting put-downs of relatives, as well as her own children
makes for a laugh-fest. Pertinent questions about familial failures and forgiveness
are well interrogated but thankfully also well measured, so as not to drain and
disenchanting evening at the theatre.
On press night, it was announced by an associate director of Arcola theater that a
day or two before “Hoard” opened, one of the actors had to drop from the play
and was replaced by Estella Daniels who would read from script. Daniels, it also
turns out, is pregnant and showing. Despite holding a script in hand for most of
the evening’s performance, Daniels kept any nerves under control and so well the
conspicuous sign of unreadiness was but a prop like any other on the stage. But
then Daniels is an experienced stage actor who has had prior success working with
Elofuwoju Jr in sold out runs of “Iya Ile (The First Wife)” at London’s Soho
Theatre. It was written by Oladipo Agboluaje – a frequent collaborator of
Elufowoju Jr and current “playwright in residence” at the UK’s National Theatre.
One effective device used by Elofuwoju Jr in “Hoard” is to have the actors, on
occasion, stand on the two edges of the stage next to the first row of seats and
project into the stage and audience. This creates a “surround sound” that
empathises the aural quality of the actors’ voices and their lines, thereby
enriching the listening experience.
No such directorial device is used in Williams “The Glass Menagerie” even when
set in the larger of two theaters in Arcola Theatre and in need of louder
projections from the actors to fill up the acoustics. Any obvious contrivance is in
the first words of Williams’s script, in the form of a direct address by Tom
(MichaelAbubakar) who introduces the audience to the world of the play, before
soon going into character.All the action in “The Glass Menagerie” takes place in the Wingfield living room
whose dim lighting intimates the long shadow of abandonment and shame brought
on by an absentee husband and father. Whether as devotion or as a totem to the
family’s great loss, a sizeable photography of Mr Wingfield – elegantly suited and
gentle-faced – still hangs in the Wingfield living room ** since he deserted the
family.
In neither of the plays is a clear or stylised directorial approach evident.
Elufowoju Jr would seem to prioritise efficiency of text and story-ing over any
obvious signature. A guess at any discernible directorial philosophy would could
not be distant from workmanlike efficiency- complete fidelity to the story
being told; accentsare specific and rarely generalised or showy, jokes are timed
to their behavioural and cultural origins rather than a generalised template that
will perceivably appeal to “everyone”.
Elufowoju Jr is reportedly working on his first feature film titled “Incensed”,
about a woman who is drawn to crime when her husband is charged with financial
fraud. The exciting new venture could well open doors for more filmwork. And
how he translates his considerable theatre experience on the screen, would be
interesting to see. It could be revelation.