Students of Atlantic Hall punched above their weights during their presentation of late Professor Ola Rotimi’s ‘The Gods Are Not to Blame’ at the MUSON Centre, Lagos, reviews the event .
WERE he to be alive and in the audience, playwright and academic, Ola Rotimi would have joined in applauding the Drama Club of Atlantic Hall, Poka, Epe, last Friday, for the excellent presentation of his play, ‘The Gods Are Not to Blame’ .
Sadly, the maverick playwright and teacher has been dead these past 17 years and wasn’t around to see that his and others labours to ensure that Nigeria’s conveyor belt of creativity doesn’t stop producing has not been in vain.
Nigeria might stop producing oil and gas amongst others but creative talents won’t be one of them, as evident from Friday’s outing. Though still secondary school students, the play was filled with talents who would shine on both stage and Nollywood should they choose to pursue acting careers.
But aside showcasing the young talents, the occasion was also a boon to the quest to involve children in creative activities from an early age. Friday’s outing, indeed, was a great endorsement for the inclusion of art/cultural education in the school curriculum.
Unsurprisingly, Agip Recital Hall, MUSON Centre, venue of the presentation, was filled with parents, children, and other guests; regular attendees who came assured that they were not going to be disappointed. It wasn’t that the students re-invented the story or anything; it was still about the tragedy at Kutuje with the fiery Odewale right in its middle. When his future is divined by Baba Fakunle at birth, it is revealed that he is destined to kill his father, King Adetusa, and marry his mother, Queen Ojuola. The only way to avert this is to kill the baby. However, the servant Gbonka who is sent to carry out the act pities the child and gives him to Ogundele and Mobike who have no child of their own in another village.
Several years later when Odewale learns that he is to kill his father and marry his mother, he runs away and buys a farm land in between Ede and Osogbo. He makes his friend, Alaka, promise to come look for him only after his parents death. Sadly, there is no running away from his destiny as he mistakenly kills his father, Adetusa, who he didn’t know then was a king on his farm after the latter refers to him as a bush man.
Odewale flees the scene and settles at Kutuje, his original place of birth which has just been attacked by Ikolu. He leads an avenging expedition and is made king in appreciation by the people. He takes the old queen as his wife as tradition demands and she bears him four children. This way, the second prophecy of incest with his mother is fulfilled.
Adetusa’s split blood starts troubling the land as there is a great plague. Ifa later reveals that the late king wasn’t killed by armed robbers as previously believed but was murdered with the murderer right there in the community. Baba Fakunle, the wizened priest who had foretold Odewale’s fate at birth is called and he blames the king for the calamity. The truth is eventually pieced together following Alaka and Gbonka’s arrival. Queen Ojuola commits suicide while Odewale plucks out his eyes and leaves the community with his children.
What the students did was bring the play to life in a manner that professional troupes would have approved of. For example, the two students who played Odewale – Princewill Chukwujama and Jason Okoli – were very good in delivering their lines. They also had the requisite regal carriage while Okoli exhibited his resourcefulness right there on the stage following a wardrobe malfunction when his trouser fell to his ankles in the middle of a vital delivery. Rather than pause to pull it up and tie it properly following sniggers from some audience members who had noticed the mishap, he chose the right time, a moment of anger in his delivery to kick off the trouser as if it was in the script.
Queen Ojuolape (Soba Dakuku-Peterside) was also every inch a queen. The student who played the nursing mother crazed by grief following the death of her husband during the pestilence in Kutuje is one to look out for should she opt for a career in acting. Though her scene lasted less than five minutes, she left an impression. The blind priest, Baba Fakunle (Timilehin Fifo) also covered himself in glory as did the soft spoken Aderopo (Jason Okpere) and all the cast.
Artistic Director, Gboyega Jerome’s clever infusion of music and dance to enlighten the production is also commendable as was his deployment of single and multiple narrators to aid in the narration. Though a number of the cast were non-Yoruba, the effort made in coaching them was evident, the funny pronunciations notwithstanding. Dakuku-Peterside’s effort at teaching her children the ‘Olurombi’ song was hilarious with her amusing pronunciations of names. All these, however, didn’t detract from the fun at the enjoyable evening.