“Men are like yam, you
cut them how you like.”
There are moments that transcend expectation and your
understanding of theatre and as we clapped along to the musicians at feverish
pace, standing with broad smiles all around the sold-out Arcola, this was
undoubtedly one of them. The audience was so warm for this amazing and talented
cast and there were in-jokes that sometimes flew around my head but that only
reinforced the joyous connections between the watchers and the watched.
Who would have thought that a play about the most shocking
of turns in a polygamist marriage could entertain so thoroughly and, most
importantly, strike some important dramatic points concerning family, honesty
and intimacy beyond the Nigerian location.
My (only) wife, was born in Nigeria but she left too early
to experience much of the culture. This play features a mostly West-African
cast who do justice to the accent, the style and the humour in a play that
features Yoruba music, song and dance woven through the narrative with subtlety
and purpose.
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| The ensemble all photographs from Idil Sukan |
The play is adapted from Lola Shoneyin’s bestselling novel,
by Caine Award-winning playwright Rotimi Babatunde. Femi Elufowoju, jr directs
his company so very well making such good use of the Arcola’s main stage with
performers everywhere, speaking, singing and occasionally breaking the fourth
wall… tonight that wall had well and truly gone: we were all immersed in this
hi-energy, rich-textured world…
Patrice Naiambana
(fresh from a highly-successful run at the
National Theatre in The Barbershop Chronicles) is simply spell-binding
as Baba Segi a man with fixed ideas of squad rotation for his four wives. Naiambana has an immediate rapport with the
audience and gets many of the laughs as the man some of the men might think has
a good deal. At one point he announces – in character – that he’s about to play
a completely different character and then knocks us dead with a sophisticated
English accent as a dastardly yet debonair seducer… He can also play his own 4-year
old son.
He is ably supported by four “wives” who are all fulsome characters.
Jumoké Fashola plays Iya Segi, his wife
of 16 years whose union was arranged by their parents as the young woman was
far too fascinated by money and, seemingly not interested in men… unknown to
them, she was rather more interested in a beautiful tomato seller who she had
seen in the market. Baba was at a loss as a business man and given Iya Segi’s
acumen, it seemed a logical solution to pair them off.
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| Tania Nwachukwu, layo-Christina Akinlude, Marcy Dolapo Oni and Christina Oshunniyi (Credit Idil Sukan) |
Second wife, Iya
Tope (Christina Oshunniyi)“… a
peace offering from a desperate farmer…” and third wife, Iya Femi (layo-Christina
Akinlude) married to escape her
grandma’s tyrrany, impressing her future husband with her humility, as he saw
it.
The line-up is
completed by the latest, Bolanie (Marcy Dolapo Oni) a university graduate far
more sophisticated than the rest and who, even in the crowded household, expects
a different relationship with her husband – more accepting than the younger men
of her own age, who pursue her: “he is content when I say nothing…” And, for
long periods she had nothing to say having been brutally raped aged 15… the way
of things but for all his posturing and faults, Baba has principles.
Bolanie disturbs the equilibrium in the Segis household like
none before and soon Iya Segi and Tope are trying to turn their husband against
her. Two years on she’s still around and in desperation they try to poison her
only for things to work out in the worst possible ways.
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| Jumoké Fashola and Tania Nwachukwu (Credit Idil Sukan) |
Meanwhile, Bolanie has yet to produce any further children
for Baba and, being a modern girl, decides to seek medical assistance and to
take her husband with her.
There’s intrigue and shocks aplenty but there’s also
honesty, love and songs… it’s light but with a serious side and is so well
balanced in terms of its messaging – a splendid adaptation that allows each
character to breath so that we care about them all in the end.
Marcy Dolapo Oni has
great presence and lights up the room with her smile; everyone has their tale
to tell but she is the one we follow the most. Patrice Naiambana is a force of
nature with charisma to burn and pin-point timing. The wives are
universally excellent, and Tania
Nwachukwu is outstanding as Baba’s eldest daughter, another woman emerging into
this complex way of living but still a child at heart.
The whole cast is
energised with everyone playing their part(s) with multiple roles, daughter,
doctor, singer, dancer… The singing and dance is thrilling with the
percussion playing of Ayan de First and Usifu Jalloh mind-bogglingly ferocious…
there is so much physical energy in this play and choreographer Kemi Durosinmi
and Uche Onah should take a bow and a heel turn each.
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| Ayan de First and Usifu Jalloh (Credit Idil Sukan) |
It is a joyous collaboration and a play that will live long
in the memory especially whenever I dance…and I should dance alot more!
The Secret Lives of
Baba Segi’s Wives is presented by The Elufowoju jr Ensemble and runs at the
Arcola Theatre until the 21st July. Tickets are going to be like
baked Yams so you better get in quick! Details on the Arcola website and fromtheir Box Office.
Ithankyou Theatre Rating: ***** This is going to be one of the plays of
the summer – hot, hot, hot!!!
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