It was a beautiful Sunday evening, Lagos was traffic-free for the first time in a while and I was about to experience professional theatre (a play) for the first time. As the play slowly came to an end, I stayed fixated on the stage, blown away by the raw talent I had just witnessed. I realised that the production I had just watched live was better than some of the Nollywood movies I had ever seen. I had just one thought after the play ended – “We need to give Nigerian theatre more credit”.
I watched the “Emotan” play produced by Joseph Edgar (a.ka. Duke of Shomolu), Olisa Adibua, and Soni Irabor at the Muson Center. The play which was a perfect blend of music, dance and flawless acting left me in awe and entertained me for the 2 hours it ran for. After it ended, I realised that I had to spread the gospel of stage plays.
There were so many reasons to love the stage play and turn me into a believer. To start with, the costumes were so beautiful, original, and told a story. I was so impressed that there were glow in the dark headwears for the spirits of mother earth, and costumes for people to play the role of animals. More than anything, I wished I could own some of the beads that were used in the play set in the 13th century Benin Kingdom.
The major reason stage plays seemed so underrated to me was because the acting was so much better. The acting was so real. There was no room for errors, no spaces to retake forgotten lines, and there was only one chance to pass messages across and connect with the audience.
I finally understand why people say you have to be really talented and trained professionally in theatre. I now really believe that if you can cut it in Nigerian theatre, then you can ace almost any role Nollywood throws at you. Leading women of Nollywood like Joke Silva, Elvin Ibru, Ufoma McDermott, Kate Henshaw, Kemi Lala-Akindoju have one thing in common – they all act in a lot of plays.
Not to take anything away from the immense growth Nollywood has experienced, but I can say from my experience watching “Emotan”, theatre tells better stories with better acting. Sadly, not a lot of people regard Nigerian plays as much as they respect Nollywood movies. Almost every year, a Nigerian blockbuster breaks a new record at the box office, while most plays can hardly sell out tickets.
More Nigerians need to see plays so that they can fall in love with them and can support the pure art that happens at these theatres. More brands and organisations looking to be associated with the arts should look to sponsor more plays. We all need to support the people who work hard to tell such beautiful stories through the perfect blend of drama, dance and music. At the end of the day, we all need to give Nigerian theatre more credit.