Theatre thrives in unusual places

Actors performing at a garden in Eko Hotel and Suites, VI, Lagos

Evans

Indeed, change is constant. In the past, stage plays took place in halls and theatre centres but today, it is no longer strange to see spectators sitting at a parking lot or an abattoir to watch a stage play.

Lagos Theatre Festival, which was organised by the British Council, Nigeria, in conjunction with three theatre companies namely: Renegade Theatre, House of Tales and Black Soul Performance took place recently at Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos and different plays took place in different corners of the hotel.

The coordinator of Lagos Theatre Festival, Mr. Ben Evans, marvelled at the turn-out and the performance of the artistes.

 Speaking on what he aimed to achieve with Lagos Theatre Festival, Evans said: “We came here and we realised that Lagos in particular has the most exciting generation of young theatre artistes. We know of the great writers in the 1980s.

I was with a lot of Nigerian writers and companies in the past in the United Kingdom, so I was thrilled by the works of the new generation like Wole Oguntokun back into 2010. It was really inspiring.

“However, one of those artistes told us that there was a huge problem in finding spaces to do their works. But there are amazing places like Terrakulture they can develop their works and do regular performances. At the moment in the UK, there is really exciting artistic movement, which is doing theatre in unusual places. If you do it in an abattoir, you have some reasons than when you do it in a church. So people are making artistic decisions. Here, there are logistic opportunities to host theatre in unusual places or venues. All we do is to invite many companies to participate. We write proposals and indicate our interest. For example, The Shattered was performed in a suite which was supposed to be their bedrooms, sitting room; kitchen had the audience following the actors. They moved around. They also have a working apartment. 

“The setting is a village so the actors used a garden with trees in Eko Hotels and Suites.” Ben stresses. “As Nigerian actors in the UK are coming to Nigeria, in a long run, we may have a broadening view. Also, the car park is a performance stage. If you are a director, you can make use of any available space. There are a lot of opportunities for artistes to find different spaces to showcase their works. Even though some of the venues are small, we discovered that two things are involved: one, when we have a number of shows, there is a massive interest because it is more than one show. The second one is that the audience are intrigued since they do not know where they are going to watch it. So it is not red carpet Champaign theatre, but a place audience did not expect,” he explained.

In the Lagos Theatre Festival, Ben worked with three Nigerian productions and one UK productions. Ben adds: “We have 50 Nigerians artistes. Seven Nigerian artistes came to the UK for shows. We have also had two Nigerian artistes come to Edinburg festival. So this has been a long process and it continues. The Lagos Theatre Festival is a relationship between UK and Nigerian artistes. In the UK at the moment, Nigerian and the UK artistes are some of the most interesting playwrights.

We have a London International festival delegate that came here to look at the quality works of Nigerian theatre.

“This is the first time we are having the festival and it is a huge experiment, so we hope to hear what critics will say about it.

We hope that local artistes will take it on, maybe discuss with British Council and other sponsors to make it happen another time. We are lucky to have the support of British Council in this edition. Who knows, next, we may have another venue and sponsors. We have great relationship with Patrick Jude Otteh, he said.”

Actors performing in a suite at Eko Hotel

While making a distinction between Nigerian works and British works, he rates them and says: “We once hosted Nigerian works in the UK and the tickets were completely sold out. Professor Wole Soyinka and some other Nigerians have good works but British-Nigerian works have extra layer. There are bringing their experience of arriving in the UK and also their parents and grandparents arriving in the 1960s maybe as students. It is different from people born and raised by Nigerian families in the Uk. First generation Nigerian-British work is very interesting.  Arinze Ekene is very much a London boy who makes great works. Another London mixes pidgin with a Nigerian Language.”

He is of the opinion that “There is a hunger in Nigeria and the UK, so I have been working on and off for three years of bringing together theatre making in Nigeria and UK. So it has been a fascinating journey.”

While predicting the future of Nigerian theatre, he said for 200 years in the UK, theatre has evolved and has a unique relationship with the audience. “They want to watch live performance of theatre or music. In Nigeria, I am also seeing such a hunger. I am proud of Oguntokun whose show is selling more than 1000 tickets with a lot of supporters. He had the only West African production in culture Olympians in London last year. It was a festival, where Shakespeare plays were produced by different countries. He was the only one from West Africa that participated in it. There were more than 2000 spectators watching only Yoruba, including people who don’t understand Yoruba.”

Evans, the hardworking theatre guru makes good theatre great. He is indeed an expert when it comes to production, direction, dramaturgy and mentoring. He hails from London and trained as a theatre director and also studied movie theatre directing. He runs his firm in the heart of biggest Nigerian community in London where he meets Nigerians.

He left that venue and set up a producing company which organises festivals in Lagos via London, Lagos Theatre Festival. Evans started writing for British Council in 2010 and they brought him Nigeria.