AFRIKA PROJEKT: A German-Nigeria Cultural Intercourse (1)

Scene from the shows at Hebbel.
1. Giving Okonedo Omokaro a wack on te head for joking in the deep of cold, work-filled theatre rehearsal session

2. The cast of Oedipus and Amona.. during a media foto shoot at the Hebbel Theatre, Berlin. The tall singular black guy in the team is, of course, Matthias Gehrt who else do you think is pointing in the foto?



INTRODUCTION
AFRIKA PROJEKT was one of a series of proposals that the new Director of the Goethe Institut, Mr. Richard Lang, had to attend to in the last quarter of 1995.
Certainly, before his assumption of office in Nigeria, the institute had made an indelible impact on the Nigerian cultural scene. Easily, it was a leader in the promotion of cultural internationalism in Nigeria using the arts, apart from other highly acclaimed programmes in the areas of science and technology.
One thing Mr. Lang could ill-afford was to simply maintain a status. He seemed to be challenged by the records of the institute’s past and must be particularly innovative to add more feathers to its cap.
Presenting and commenting various proposals to partners of the institute for a joint reflection he singled out those with unique statements, new ideas and with a high potential in tasking for the good of humanity – the reflective capacity of culture producers. As such, dances would go beyond sheer exhibition of body rhythms and spectacles. Music and theatre would not stop as a rehash of folklore. Fine art would enter into new intellectual spheres. Artists should have to expose themselves to developments, trends and tendencies around the world, quality is the cruslitio sine qua non for each cultural endeavour. Most activities would advance the vision of the artists about his society toward new, developmental processes and realities.
Coming from a German theatre director, Matthias Gehrt, the proposal on directing a Nigerian play to be accepted by a German audience, Lang felt the gauntlet, took it up as Afrika Projekt 1996 and insisted on two plays a European and a new Nigerian one.
The new administration of the Goethe Institut in Nigeria had its first challnging test. Obviously, the immediate preparedness of the Nigerian side helped substantially to bring their vision into fulfilment.
As this was secured, and from the end of 1995 through the last quarter of 1996, Goethe Institut, Lagos played the role of a midwife of an intercultural dialogue in and beyond theatre matter for better understanding.
The effort that has gone into documenting this experience is an affirmation of its exemplary nature in international cultural relations. And this is spurred by the belief of the participants that a great chunk of the history of Nigeria and indeed, German contemporary theatre explorations would have been lost if the whole memory of the project were to end with each curtain call, long or standing ovations.
This documentation is therefore presented as a chronicling of a model in culture administration and theatre practice for public, private and educational institutions. It should be a reference material for researchers and a denominator of cultural communication for the media world-wide. It is equally an example sui generis for Lang’s insistence on cultural reflection and documentation.
In the area of marketing, the Afrika Projekt 96 was the major single theatre project of the German cultural institut, the Goethe Institut worldwide (169 branches) and for the Goethe Institut Munich, the head-quarters.
And still it wouldn’t have been possible without Lang’s collection of cultural sponsorship from major companies in Nigeria:
Siemens - Eltec,
Panalpina,
Julius Berger,
Lufthansa,
Strabag,
Mercedes - Annamco,
Ferrostaal,
JNK Travels and Tours,
ABB,
ADC Airlines
The NICON Noga Hilton Hotel, Abuja and
The German embassy in Nigeria,
This enumeration should serve as an index of the enterprise based on inter-cultural activities of this size in our days.
For individual practitioners such as producers, directors, managers, actors, actresses, technicians, etc from the two cultures, this documentation is as well a tribute on their respective roles as it is a way of explaining such roles to their colleagues who may come into this kind of experience in future.
In all, the two volumes presented here i.e. (the Reports and the Glossary) and video and photographs, are a modest way of enriching the literature of theatre arts as a professional, academic discipline. It is hoped that one of these days, publishers will consider the volume for mass production and circulation to attain the ultimate objectives of stimulating creativity and facilitating cultural dialogue among peoples of the world for better understanding and co-operation.

The Beginning
In the last quarter of 1995, the ripples of Nigeria’s political crisis arising from the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections had not settled. In fact, the diplomatic problems facing the world’s most populous black nation was only reaching a peak.
This was the situation when s anew director, Mr. Richard Lang, assumed office at the Goethe Insitut, the German Cultural Centre in Lagos. Despite his wealth of experience as a seasoned, erudite journalist and culture administrator, there was no doubt in his mind that the terrain of Nigeria’s socio-political life needed to be studied and well understood before applying any worthwhile policy to the ultimate objective of cultural dialogue between his country and Nigeria. By extension, this study would also explain Africa to the other parts of the world, especially Europe.
Richard Lang having received preliminary briefing from his staff, especially his Nigerian Personal Assistant, Mr. Sunday Umweni, turned to a corps of cultural communicators in the country for consultation. At this initial stage, Mr. Jahman Anikulapo, Arts Editor of The Guardian and Mr. Kole Ade-Odutola, a botanist and poet were very helpful.
As founding executives of the Coalition of Nigerian Artists (CONA) – an all – embracing organisation of writers, fine and performing artists and art critics in and outside the media – the two gentlemen were able to present a picture of the hopes, aspirations and goals of the community of Nigerian artists before the new Director. As such, the task of fashioning policies and programmes to involve Nigerian artists was made much earlier than in a situation where the administrator had not been quite conversant with the terrain.
No sooner had this series of initiatives come from German theatre director, Matthias Gehrt about a programme designated, AFRIKA PROJEKT. Basically, at the time Matthias Gehrt wrote to Goethe Institut, Lagos, the programming was only on the drawing board at the Schawbuhne Theatre, in Berlin, Germany.
According to a report in The Guardian of December 8m=, 1995, the project was predicated on political and artistic interests, ‘designed to combat the growing xenophobia in the country (Germany) and also to correct a current situation where African plays have not been recognised by German theatres in spite of the fact that more than 15 (African) plays have been translated into German”.
The initial plan, according to a proposal sent to Lang, was to produce plays of Wole Soyinka, including Death and the King’s Horseman and The Road and any other play that best represents African Drama and its characteristic fusion of dialogue, dance and music while being contemporary in its message and aesthetics. This same proposal had been dispatched to other African countries and the response was not so encouraging.
Said Gehrt in an interview in The Guardian of May 4, 1996, “I wrote many letters to all the Goethe Centres in Africa and it was only Richard Lang (the Director of the Nigerian centre) who replied promptly”.
This was in October, 1995, by which time Ben Tomoloju, journalist, dramatist and head of BTC Media and Creative Arts Consultancy, Lagos, had been drafted into the scheme through Anikulapo to fashion out ways of realising the AFRIKA PROJEKT objective Relevant information were passed on from Lang to Tomoloju. The prospects of an extensive production were savoured by the consultant and Mr. Anikulapo, the principal contact.
So far dreams wafted wide and wild. As The Guardian (December 8, 1995) reported, “The theatre project is also expected to last for about 16 months and is being faqshioned after a successful project that was carried out between 1979 and 1984, in Turkish literature and drama – the influences of which are still being felt in the Berliner theatre till today.
Judged against the background of the Turkish experience, the two Nigerian cultural communicators recognised AFRIKA PROJEKT as a potentially historic event deserving only the best possible from Nigerian professionals.
The mention of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman easily raised a thumb for Jide Ogungbade, a seasoned Nigerian theatre director who once handled the play in the 1994 The Soyinka Festival marking the Nobel Laureate’s 60th birthday anniversary. Lang approved that Ogungbade be contacted while Kakaaki Arts Kult, the performing arm of BTC should revisit Tomoloju’s Jankariwo, a play that appropriately fits into the ‘total theatre’ genre of contemporary Africa n drama.
A month – long consultation with series of meetings in October – November, 1995 between Langs, Tomoloju and Anikulapo produced a masterplan for AFRIKA PROJEKT to take off. Details of the professional theatre in Nigeria, the level of competence and preparedness of actors and technicians, the availability of theatre facilitities and funds for workshop, among other factors, were examined in sessions of frank talks. The resolution of each meeting was passed on to Matthias Gehrt in Germany always with an assurance by the Nigerian consultants and a conviction by Richard Lang that the Nigerian theatre practitioners could rise up to the challenges of the dreamed AFRIKA PROJEKT.
Subsequently, the masterplan rolled out for a week-long theatre workshop and other relevant cultural activities to be organised in December, 1995 when Matthias Gehrt was expected to visit Nigeria to do a first – hand, practical study of African theatre. The dates for the workshop were fixed for between December 6-13.
Jide Ogungbade was already briefed about the work – schedule and soon enough meetings for the realisation began between himself, Tomoloju and Anikulapo on the other hand and the three and Richard Lang on the other. For reasons of logistics and finance, the Nigerian directors opted for the production of only two plays in the workshop. These are excerpts from Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman directed by Ogungbade and Jankariwo, directed by the author, Ben Tomoloju. The presentation of the two plays would be sandwished by a melange of Nigerian dances. These would, of course, have been preceded by an academic forum, a round-table discussion on ‘African Theatre’ which should enjoy the participation both of the visiting German theatre director and a cross section of the Nigerian theatre practitioners as well as arts critics and journalists.


THE DECEMBER 1995 WORKSHOP
This workshop was described in essence as exploratory’. It was aist convenient prelude to AFRIKA PROJEKT as advised by the consultant and in view of the expectations of the German partners.
In his earlier dispatch, Matthias Gehrt had hoped to come over to Nigeria to interact with standing theatre companies, share ideas with them and work out modalities of collaboration. The mention of standing theatre companies was a critical matter for the Nigerian side to contend with. Indeed, Nigeria had over thirty years of institutionalised training for theatre for theatre artistes in specialised areas such as acting, directing, management and design of all categories. But the educational orientation, retrogressive public and private sector policies had not made it possible for the thousands of theatre graduates to produce a viable theatre culture. Although a few theatre companies existed, they could not guarantee the full livelihood of their members. In consequence, practitioners had to help themselves more in free – lance status covering other beats as journalism, modelling, advertising, music, teaching and even public relations in banks and manufacturing firms.
To identify a theatre company ‘on the ground’ – using the words of Genhrt – was pretty difficult, at least not in the way the theatre operated in Europe. Companies like Kakaaki had had to trim down their status as ‘production companies’ retaining principal production staff with affiliate actors who were free to help themselves elsewhere.
Returning to Lagos for the concluding part of his working tour, the presentation of Ben Tomoloju’s Jankariwo.
At the end of the visit, the concept of the project was reviewed against the backdrop of the resources available and the possibility of public reception in Nigeria and Germany.
Although Matthias Gehrt was quite satisfied with theatre manifestation in Nigeria, he disclosed that the original intention was to simply do a study of African theatre in an African environment and to produce plays of African authorship not with artistes based in Africa, but African professionals in Germany. What he saw of the vitality of Nigerian theatre and the unflinching support of Goethe Institut, Lagos transformed the idea into something novel.
It was settled that Matthias Gehrt would return to collaborate practically in the production of two plays. One would be of European authorship and the other African. Sophocle’s Iedipus Rex, of which Gehrt was soon to direct a German edition, was selected as the European play. It would, in production accommodate nuances of African dramaturgy and be performed by African actors. The African play, as agreed by the conferences of Richard Lang, Matthias Gehrt, Ben Tomoloju and Jide Ogungbade, would be a fresh script taking into consideration the essential dramaturgy of the African theatre heritage.
The job seemed to have begun as at the time Matthias Gehrt departed on December 13, 1995. For it was concluded that he would collaborate in the directing of both plays of AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 with Jide Ogunagbe, spelling out the commitment of Goethe Institut and its consultants on the project to the true spirit of partnership in the process of cultural dialogue.
A tentative cast – list was drawn by Gehrt for Oedipus. The scripting of Amona by Ben Tomoloju was to become the later development which brought into a logical conclusion the exploratory stage of AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96, leading on to greater challenges for the German – Nigerian tribe of culture administrators, dramatists, journalists, directors, actors and designers.
With the conclusion of the December, 1995 workshop, hope was raised for the practical realisation of AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96. Thus, the directorial corps of the project comprising the Executive producer, Mr. Richard Lang, project consultant, Ben Tomoloju, Nigerian Director Jide Ogungbade and Stage Manager, Jahman Anikulapo, prepared an action plan spanning January to June 1996 as the first phase.
The budget was in place at this point, followed by the scripting of the Nigerian play, Amona by Ben Tomoloju. Preliminary contacts with actors and actresses were also made. This was to conform with the agreed plan for a twelve – member cast, a measure taken to ensure the effective management of scarce resources vis-à-vis personnel strength in the areas of production and logistics.
At this preparatory stage, two crucial factors had to be addressed. These were, the quest for supplementary sponsorship and getting a suitable camp for the artistes.
Mr. Richard Lang’s indefatigable will was deployed into the area of sponsorship. This was narrowed down to the obtainment of tickets for international travel – in the second phase as well as a possible tour of some parts of Nigeria.
Strategically, the office of the Director of Goethe Institut, Lagos, dispatched sponsorship letters to individual German companies based in Nigeria among others. The letter appealed to the sense of responsible corporate citizenship of each company especially in facilitating cultural dialogue and universal brotherhood through theatre between peoples of their host country (Nigeria) and home country (Germany).
After several weeks of contact and follow-up, eight German companies and a Nigerian travel agency offered a total of eleven return tickets to Germany for the cast of the project. The German companies are:
Juliu Berger
Lufthansa
Strabag
Mercedes Anamco
Panalpina
Asea Brown Bovieri (ABB)
Siemens – Eltec, and
Ferrostal
JNK Travels and Tours Ltd, the Nigerian outfit and Goethe Institut provided the eleventh and twelfth tickets, ensuring that the project was certain to go beyond the shores of Nigeria for the ultimate objective of having a German edition.
This turn of event in the area of sponsorship was no doubt re-assuring to the Nigerian collaborators. Within the first six weeks of 1996, Ogungbade and Tomoloju scouted for a suitable venue as camp for artistes throughout the duration of the production in Nigeria.
The principal artistes involved in the project have, over the years, ensured that productions of this magnitude are executed in relaxed environments conductive to creativity without much distraction. As such, an outfit like Kakaaki, the performing wing of Ben Tomoloju’s company was reputed to have taken artistes into distant villages of Atan – Otta, about 100 kilometres from Lagos to produce their dance and musical pieces for television.
Of special note, the major plays of Fred Agbeyegbe, directed by Jide Ogungbade were fully rehearsed for weeks on the beach-front of serene and breezy Badagry and surrounding villages before coming to the urban theatre of Lagos for presentation.


AFIKA PROJEKT ’96 was not going to have any less attention in terms of artistes creative incubation. Hence the meticulous search for a camp.
Among several optio0ns, the choice of a camp for the project feel on a double – bungalow, 21 Red Street, in the Lagos State Housing Estate Isolo which was soon to be identified in the neighbourhood as a centre for culture and creativity. Although at the first instance, the building was bare and ill-prepared, the directors agreed that it was more strategically located within an easier reach of the administrative centre (Goethe Institut, Victoria Island), than any guest house in Badagry.
Of course, adaptation of the environment would also not be restrained unlike a regular hotel which artistes would not be allowed to design to suit their own taste.
Late in February, 1996 tenancy arrangements were concluded on the double apartment with six rooms, two parlours, two bathrooms and two toilets. That, the directors believed, was good enough for the entire cast and crew . But much still needed to be done to make it habitable. The weedy environment was cleared and the landlord mobilised his work-force to build concrete walls around the property.
Beyond these and, of course the erection of huts at the frontyard, the painting of the building and installation of burglary – proofs, provision had to be made for a steady supply of water. This led the project managers to dig a well at the backyard and install a water – pumping machine.
Quite apart from the need to make the camp habitable for artistes, the decision of German director, Matthias Gehrt to stay in the same camp as his Nigerian colleagues raised a lot of anxiety in Jide Ogungbade and Ben Tomoloju. Both were aware of the poor state of welfare utilities in Nigerian neighbourhood in contrast to what obtained in Europe where Matthias was coming from. The erratic nature of electricity supply, the absence of potable water, the tropical heat, poor public transportation system, inefficient communication facilities were the reality in urban Lagos into which their German colleague was going to plunge himself for six weeks.
Somehow, the camp should offer him as much comfort as possible. Hence, unlike every other artiste, including the Nigerian directors, Tomoloju and Ogungbade, who had only straw – mats to sleep upon, a medium sized 6’x4’ bed was provided for Mr. Gehrt. Also, his room had an air-conditioner installed in it, if only to protect him regularly from the burning tropical heat.
This part of the preparations was not as simple as it is now being recorded. The reality, indeed, was panic. So fretful was the duo of Ogungbade and Tomoloju on the hospitality question that a few artistes who reported in camp on Monday, March 4, 1996, led by the comedian, Okonedo Omokaro created a crazy drama – sketch titled ‘Matthias is Coming’ – perhaps as comic relief to the hectic moment, and this was amid the hard contemplation on power cuts and black outs demystifying the calculations on a gingerly installed air-conditioners for the ‘Whiteman’.
Thoughts instantly drifted to another attacking front. A standby power – generator could do the magic when the National electric Power Authority (NEPA) chose to strike. Fund was raised in house and generator was on cue to challenge all forms of electrical jinx. How well it performed was another matter. By the middle of March, the frantic efforts over Matthias’ impending arrival was gradually giving way to artistic challenges. It had been agreed in December, 1995 that the African play Amona would have been rehearsed up to a reasonable point of preparedness before Matthias arrived on April 15, 1996. Hence the job kicked off with a full cast comprising:
Jahman Anikulapo
Nobert Young
Okonedo Omokaro
Christie Okoughbo
Funmi Aiyemo
Lara Sodunke
Ayo Olawuni
Stella Ayanlade
Saidi Ilelaboye
Soga Tomoloju
Ben Tomoloju, and
Jide Ogungbade
A daily work – schedule for Amona was prepared splitting the initial rehearsal hours to morning and night sessions. The afternoons were spared for the executives, that is Jide Ogungbade to prepare / compose the translated songs for Oedipus chorus and Ben Tomoloju to confer with Richard Lang on progress of work and other administrative matters.
Working on Amona the Nigerian actors and actresses were on a fairly familiar terrain, the play was rehearsed in segmented scenes of songs, dances and dialogue in successive sessions. At this stage, any space – including the parlours – would do. But, in due course, a 6x3 metre make shift stage canopied with palm – frond, facing three huts of similar make – up was constructed at the front yard of the building to ‘move’ the play.
It would appear astonishing to a theatre purist. But this make – shift affair was the arena where the two internationally acclaimed productions – Oedipus and Amona of AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 had their baptism of art. The rest was for the cast and crew to move to the performance venue and deploy their creative menu on the standard stage in dress and technical rehearsals before the real presentation. And that was how it happened in the first phase at the Goethe Institut courtyard, Lagos and the Nicon Noga Hilton Hotel Conference Hall, Abuja and the second phase at the prestigious Hebbel Theatre, Berlin, Stadstiche Theatre, Chemnitz, Heidelberg and the Frankfurter Hof, Mainz all in Germany. Before the arrival of Matthias Gehrt on April 15, the better part of Amona had been done, albeit not conclusively. Notes were expected from the German director on arrival for a final polish. Also, songs and dances of Oedipus were already rehearsed by Jide Ogungbade with inputs by Ben Tomoloju and choreography by Saidi Ilelaboye.
When, at last, Mr. Gehrt arrived Lagos via Air France on the said day, the hassle on hospitality subsided mildly, and the eyes of the Nigerian cast and crew turned to a higher tempo of theatrical exploration. Having been received by Lang, Tomoloju and Anikulapo at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, he moved straight to camp. He was quick to adapt to the situation at 21, Red Street, thereby mitigating the anxieties raised in the minds of the managers of the project. Soon he settled down to work.
The first task was to examine the cast of Oedipus. Some principal actors in the December 1995 workshop who were to be in the project’s final cast such as Toyin Oshinaike, Debo Alexander and Miss Yinka Davies had their hands full with other activities. The first two had been replaced by the Directorial corp with Okonedo Omokaro and Saidi Ilelaboye. Miss Davies who made a strong impact on Gehrt was placed on a tentative list. The German director had pencilled her for the roles of Jocasta, Teiresias and the Herdsman. On arrival, however, Gehrt was convinced that Miss Davies appeared too busy with her musical career as a singer to spare enough time for six rigorous weeks of play – production.
That way, a hunt began for a replacement which turned out to be a more experienced artiste and one of the most distinguished actresses in Nigeria, Miss Joke Muyiwa. She moved straight to camp after the conclusion of the Nigeria International Bank – sponsored Kurunmi, a play by Ola Rotimi.
Still on casting, although the duo of Ben Tomoloju and Jide Ogungbade had selected Nobert Young, a popular actor to take the role of Oedipus, Matthias had his eye on his own co-director, Jide Ogungbade for the role. Reluctantly, Ogungbade agreed to play Oedipus and Nobert Young was dropped, at least to enable him concentrate on his role as the soldier – politician, Eleso in Amona.
No sooner had the casting been sorted out than Gehrt and the team entered into the business of play making. He was at Goethe to inspect the outdoor stage at the courtyard and the new lighting facilities installed by the institute’s new management under Mr. Lang. A daily schedule that was sometimes disrupted by inevitabilities was prepared. The morning session ran from as early as 7 a.m. till 12 noon with breakfast break between 9 and 10 a.m. At sun – down, around 5 p.m. another session ran till 8 p.m. barring the ogre of power – failure, when the cast went for dinner. A third session ran from 9 p.m. till about 11 p.m., carried sometimes by the public power supply or the noisy standby generator which tended to drown the voices of the performers.
Readings and interpretation of Oedipus lines took place in the first few days of rehearsals. For the principal actors – Ogungbade as Oedipus, Tomoloju as Creon, First Messenger and Second Messenger and Muyiwa as Jocasta, Teiresias and Herdsman – the interpretation were done both in private sessions and on the make – shift stage. Moods were spelt out, characters and the thoughts behind their statements were analysed. The interpersonality of actions to the central theme of ‘guilt’ were put in focus as conflicts are arbitrated by the chorus – in their own plebeian mannerisms — among the protagonists.
The chorus members reading lines in English, were specially drilled in speech, principally by Gehrt, assisted by Ben Tomoloju. Special chorus rehearsals were conducted by Ogungbade. And, when he had to rehearse his role as Oedipus, the supervision of lines – rendition was done by a senior actor, Nobert Young, while the choreography remained the business of Saidi Ilelaboye.
Although the protagonists in Oedipus were not line ready at the commencement of rehearsals, it did not take a long time for this to be achieved. In the second through the third weeks, the protagonists had started to run segments of the play with the chorus. And this was tonic for some excitement. In these segments where a conventional European classic is daringly spiced by Yoruba songs dances and theatrical peculiarities the main objective of AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96, that is, cultural dialogue through theatre, began to give an encouraging signal.
As the lines flowed into the songs and dances, the potential brilliance of the experiment shimmered into recognition. Amid even conflicting passions of individual ego – trips, the fact of a worthwhile creative engagement catalysed a spirit of co-operation in all members of the team. And this manifested even in religious observances, a regular submission of the project to the supreme harmony of the almighty in prayers and songs.
What more, AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 was already gaining followership in the Nigerian and overseas intellectual circles. So much was the expectation raised that two visiting German intellectuals, Mr. Guido Augustine and Miss Cristina Boscolo (who had earlier been drafted into Kurunmi as Rev. and Mrs. Mann) spent some time in the AFRIKA PROJEKT camp sharing and giving inspiration. This association with the visitors was to turn out as a great blessing in the second phase as they jointly co-ordinated the German tour in a rare show of volunteer solidarity. But that was later.
In the interim, especially in the second and third weeks of May, preparations were reaching a peak rooms, food was subsidised and the director, Richard Lang and his amiable artist – wife, Cora as well as his Nigerian Personal assistant, Mr. Sunday Umweni visited from time to time to ascertain smooth administration of the project. With this level of interest and support, there was no reason to fail. And the project team was determined to make a success of it.
By this time, the two plays were almost on the ground. Amona had now been pooled back into the schedule for a polish-run once a week while Oedipus was reaching the final polish stage. At this point, the distinction in style for both plays was coming clear to the actors. In Amona the dialogue sequences relied, especially from the notations of the playwright and interpretation of Ogungbade on naturalism as dominant, punctuated with lyricisms or farce where necessary. It was, perhaps, the more eclectic of both plays.
Facing Oedipus the actors – most of whom are trained in formal drama institutions and exposed to European drama – came to fullest terms with stylisation effectively accentuated with speech. Only minimal attention is given to physical gestures as vehicle of conveying meaning. Even this is so controlled and disciplined that a sustenance of body – tension without any distractive mannerism was enough support for a clearly accentuating speech to get the message across. Acting, as doctored by Gehrt, was very technical, but not strange to the versatile actors on parade in AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96.
They might not be too sure of the satisfaction of their guest director with what had been achieved so far – when Odipus started full run – throughs and Gehrt was merely taking notes – but as he occasionally spent his spare time sounding the talking drum around the compound and singing a few Yoruba songs from Oedipus, something tended to suggest he was having a rewarding experience.
What more, the nights were not wasted. Jide Ogungbade, Ben Tomoloju and Jahman Anikulapo would steal some hours into the early hours of the morning to put Amona in shape. At times, too, the three principal actors in Oedipus – Ogungbade, Tomoloju and Joke Muyiwa – would opt for private sessions.
As these special efforts continued, Gehrt, Ogungbade and Anikulapo took time off to look into the technical requirements of the project while Ben Tomoloju had the assistance of Donald Donga, Saidi Ilelaboye, Funmi Aiyemo and Lara Sodunke in the area of design.
And talking about designs, AFRIKA PROJEKT exposed Nigerian theatre, perhaps for the first time on an elaborate scale to the Greek classical mask tradition in practical terms. This was, therefore, a rare experience. The designing of the masks for Oedipus, Jocasta, Creon, Teiresias, Hersdman, First Messenger and Second Messenger followed days of consultation. Concepts of African mask – types to reflect the dispensation of each character were developed by Ben Tomoloju after these consultations and handed to Donald Donga for construction. Subsequently, they were brought before Mr. Gehrt for approval until they reached the finished state.
Generally, the masks were preferred in abstract forms, though based on African models. But a particular aesthetic distinction of royalty was reserved for Oedipus and Jocasta using a motif of the Ife royalty for both acting behind the mask also proved interesting to the principal actors in a situation where all facial expressions were out of the question. Gehrt had a huge challenge convincing his actors that physical gestures needed not compete with speech to convey the message. In fact, this was a situation that Ogungbade had to brave his way through to break Oedipus character into a stronger mimetic level even as a very fluent and articulate actor.
By May 17, 1996, thirteen actors – as opposed to the original idea of twelve – had put themselves into shape for the big theatre event. The thirteenth actor, Stella Ayanlade was brought in as a substitute singer and dancer, although she was given specific roles in the presentation.
All said and done, the plays were ready and May 17th was set aside for the press preview. From each play, excerpts of about 30 minutes were presented to the media and representatives of the sponsor – companies at the main venue, Goethe Institut courtyard, Lagos.
At this point the schedule for the running of both plays had been publicised through posters and the press. As the momentum gathered, the artistes enjoyed a visit from Germany of Mr. Gehrt’s finance, Gaby and his life – long friend, Uwe, whose presence in the rest of the production process boosted their morale in no small measure.
Sophocle’s Oedipus had its AFRIKA PROJEKT premiere on Friday May 24th and also ran the following day while Ben Tomoloju’s Amona had its World Primiere, courtesy of the German embassy in Nigeria, at the prestigious Nicon – Noga Hilton Hotel in Abuja, the Federal Capital on May 29th. It also ran in Lagos on June 1st at the Goethe courtyard. Interestingly Gehrt and his friends returned to Germany on the same day.
To talk about the reception of both plays was to talk about a momentus impact of theatre on the Nigerian consciousness in 1996. The audience who turned out to see Oedipus on May 24th and 25th was an encouraging mix of African and expatriates from all walks of life, from all levels of the social strata. Indeed, it was a cosmopolitan mix which had no difficulties in responding positively to the concept and actualisation of AFRIKA PROJEKT. ’96.
So excited was the audience that that the end of the presentation of Oedipus on May 24th, the Austrian couple, Mr. & Mrs Karl Schrammel hosted the cast and friends of AFRIKA PROJEKT to a dinner at their residence. This informal arrangement which had the blessings and active participation of Mr. And Mrs Lang turned out to be another inspiring night of African music and dance. Rich songs from Nigeria and Ghana folk repertory took the air in series, interpolated by recorded Afrobeat, Congolese Cha – cha, Makossa and discotunes to which everyone wore intricate dance – steps as expressions of joy.
No sooner had the post – Oedipus celebrations died down than the cast and crew boarded an ADC aircraft on May 28 for the World Premiere of Amona in Abuja. The Abuja show – as it was code – named was co-ordinated by Herr Von Reigbnitz, special assistant to the German Ambassador and the management of Nicon – Noga Hilton Hotel. Passage for the show which was billed for 6.30p.m at the hotel’s conference hall, was smooth.
But pre-performance anxieties were generally in the upswing, especially for a show coming up before a highly sophisticated audience comprising diplomats, top- government officials, and academics, among others. In this respect, adapting a conference stage to suit a play was an uphill task, though surmountable. All hands were on deck, including the expert support of Gaby, whom the cast got to know later as a tested theatre designer. Debates and tempered exchange soon subsided as the will to succeed dominated. The stage was set.
For over two hours Amona ran its maiden course before His Excellency, Mr. Johannes Lohse, the German ambassador, ministers of the federal Republic of Nigeria, their friends and paying theatre – buffs. Their composed, quiet disposition signalled something about the type of audience in Europe. Throughout the show, except for mild chuckles, no sound was heard. But at the end, the ovation was explosive. The post – performance cocktail ordered by the German ambassador created a forum wherein the audience had an opportunity to shower commendations on the AFRIKA PROJEKT team.
The joy of success in Abuja was tonic enough for the players to take to Lagos where on June 1 (the very day Matthias, Gaby and Uwe left for Germany) Amona had its second run.
Here, the audience behaviour was different. Though mixed, it was predominantly African, insistently participatory, passing remarks to actors’ lines, chanting, singing and punctuating the play with verbal comments.
As the last presentation in AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 phase one, it had more than a full house. The courtyard was filled. Audience spilled over to the verandah, mounting the balconies just to have a piece of the action.
At the end of the show, the aplomb displayed by the audience, the jostle for handshakes with actors and crew showed that AFRIKA PROJEKT was a success story. Richard Lang, managed for the first time a smile of satisfaction.
“It is a beautiful experience”, he confided in someone.
“sure?”
“Certainly. If I say so, you’d better believe it”
Coming from a stickler for excellence, it was an encouraging statement to carry on to the second phase of AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 s all attention now turned to its off-shore manifestation; the German tour.
The degree of attention given to theatre activities by the Nigerian press usually ranges between routine coverage and serious, analytical commitment to the promotion of arts and culture.
In the case of a momentous and significant event like AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96, this evaluation of media focus on theatre seems to lean more in the direction of commitment than routine. This is especially so because of the profound thoughts on global cultural dialogue behind the project which is irresistible to the practice of journalism in any progressive society.
Reports, commentaries, previews, reviews and spotlight on various aspects of AFRIKA PROJECT ’96 appeared in publications in the stables of ten most outstanding media houses in Nigeria. These are The Guardian. ThisDay, The Punch, Daily Times, Festac News, The Champion, The Nigerian Tribune, Tempo, the Vanguard and The Post Express.
From them is generated a total of 31 write – ups between December 12, 1995 at the inaugural workshop stage of the project and August 20, 1996 when the Nigerian realisation was ready to move to Germany.
Beginning with the workshop, Nigerian arts journalists had received in-house briefings since November 1995 about an intemational exposition being mid-wived by the new director of Goethe Institut, Lagos, Mr. Richard Lang. The idea spread among journalists was a quantum; that a German Director of international repute, Matthias Gebert, having studied trend in the promotion of African theatre in Europe, arrived at a conclusion that Europeans had not been well-exposed to African theatre. For instance, most people were yet to have even basis knowledge of what African theatre was like despite the flourishing state of theatre production and presentation in Germany where virtually every theatre is busy on a day-to-day basis through-out the year.
The active theatre-life in Germany, Gehrt believed, should provide a viable avenue for exposing Germans to African culture in the quest for better understanding among peoples of the world.
On the desk of Mr. Lang, this idea falls in place with the policy of Goethe Institut and its laudable tradition of cultural cooperation in Nigeria spanning 33 years. Contacting a Nigerian duo of cultural communicators and production consultants, Ben Tomoloju and Jahman Anikulapo, has created a link for selling the idea behind the project to the media. What more, it was going to kick off in a practical way. An invitation was sent to Mr. Matthias Gehrt to come over to Nigeria for a week-long workshop involving Nigerian directors, actors dancers, drummers and singers.
Reporting the workshop in the Guardian of December 8, 1995, Sola Balogun highlights, among others, the principles behind AFRIKA PROJECT ’96, thus:
“Designed to combat the growing xenophobia in the country (Germany) the project also hopes to correct a current situation where African plays have not been recognised by German theatres inspite of the fact that more than 15 plays have been translated into German”
Of the workshop, he records: “The plays and other presentations seen by the visiting German Director, are to represent specific aesthetic character traits of African theatre arts that combine African theatre traditions and African interpretations of international/European traditritions”.
Essentially, what Mr. Gehrt saw in the packages put together by Ben Tomoloju and Jide Ogungbade, directors of Kakaaki Arts Organisation and Rotom Productions respectively were shows manifesting basic elements of African theatre tradition. They came in the forms of play presentation featuring Wole Soyinka’s death and the Kings Horesman, directed by Jide Ogungbade and Ben Tomoloju’s Jankariwo directed by the author. The workshop also featured dance presentation packaged by Debo Alexander and the Tiv Kwagh – hir puppetry put together by Donald donga.
At the end of the weeklong workshop during which Matthias Gehrt also witnessed the opening ceremony of the National Festival of Arts and Culture at Abeokuta on December 12, 1995, the prospects of a full realisation of AFRIKA PROJEKT in 1996 was a foregone conclusion. The 1995 workshop was a good appetizer, resourceful enough for a grand mobilisation of the media, come April 1996 when Matthias Gehrt would return to work on two plays as director in collaboration with Jide Ogungbade.
Between the workshop of December, and the commencement of a 6-7 week rehearsal in April 1996 the nature of the two plays had filtered to the press, but the information was not substantial enough for media reports. The reason, of course, was strategic. A project would be acknowledged as deserving media attention when it is ‘new’. And with this tag, it would make the ‘news’.
On this score, the strategy as pointed at by Richard Lang and agreed to by this core team now comprising Matthias Gehrt, Ben Tomoloju, Jide Ogungbade and Jahman Anikulapo, was to strike new grounds. A western classical play, Oedipus by Sophocles would be produced with elements of African theatre alongside a new African script which utilises traditional elements but is contemporary in spirit. The new script soon manifested as Ben Tomoloju’s Amona in February, 1996.
With the conclusion of the African play by Tomoloju and composition of fitting elements of African theatre to support the classical text of Sophocle’s Oedipus the road was cleared for public articulation via the media of the production stages of Africa project.
So, by May 7, 1996, months after the return of Matthias Gehrt and commencement of rehearsals on the two plays, sneak and copious previews had begun to appear in the papers.
It opened with Toyin Akinosho’s From Servitude to Kingship, a fifteen – line teaser published on P. 25 of ThisDay – with quips on actor Omokaro Okonedo, producers Ben Tomoloju and Jide Ogungbade and art critic Jahman Anikulapo. Quips like this certainly draw attention to the latest actions of artists as public figures sending signals of an important show to curious potential audiences.
From the firsky teaser, media focus on AFRIKA PROJECT ’96 revved unto an elaborate full-page report by Olayiwola, also on May 4, 1996, headlined A global revolution at House No 21.
Even if the purpose of this chapter is to catalogue the media presence in the project, the mention of ‘House No 21’, immediately shows the attachment of journalists to the artistes camp at 21, Red Street, L. S. d. P. C. Housing Estate, Isolo, Lagos. Located in a lower middle-class lay – out of the estate, the camp extended its creative spirit also to journalists who not only viewed rehearsal processes, but chatted into the nights withs with artistes. Sometimes they slept over till the next morning before returning to their beats in or outside Lagos.
Some details of the establishment of the camp of two bungalows – on for Kakaaki and one for Rotom- are recorded in Adeniji’s report.
Also included are statements of principal participants.
Matthias Gehrt was sounded off on the contact between himself and his Nigerian counterparts, made possible by Goethe Institut in Lagos which culminated in the December workshop. Significantly, his rumination to The Guardian – on the principles of work has turned out prophetic. He was quoted in his comment on the two chosen plays as saving.
“Oedipus was chosen because of its universality of theme… (and) Amona is a contemporary extension of Oedipus (which)… should work for the German audience’. (Brackets mine).
The confidence showed by Gehrt is also reflected by his Nigerian co-director, Jide Ogungbade in the same report when he says of the productions:
“It is a way of showing that there are certain universal values in existing world literature and two cultures can collaborate to bring out these unique human essences”.
Further explanations are provided on this point by Ben Tomoloju:
“You will find that these plays are 2,500 years apart. You will also find that they are set upon two different hemispheres. But with respect to the classical genius, you will find that Africa Project ’96 provides an opportunity to search for universal values through theatre”.s
This report in The Guardian was published exactly 25 days to the premiere by which time the Nigerian public had begun to digest the thoughts and anticipate the end result of AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96.
But the media light had only started to beam. On May 8, Gehrt was in focus in The Guardian, easily the most enterprising Nigerian newspaper in the area of arts journalism. Here, the visiting director testified to the paucity of African drama in German theatres, a reality he hopes to reverse given the right type of support as he was having through Goethe Institut and his African colleagues.
This interview, headlined Germany Yearns for African Theatre, says the visiting director, was not normal expatriate mentality, Gehrt said: “I am enjoying my stay here because it is the only way to get the real kind of feeling and experience, not the dream world of an Eko Hotel. Moreover, as you can see, I enjoy some privileges here. I am the only person in the camp with a bed, a private table and chair, and an air-conditioner that is not any different from Eko Hotel”.
The very next day, The Guardian in its encyclopaedia fashion, dug in on the working principles of the project, zeroing home for instance, on the director of Goethe Institut, Lagos, Mr. Richard Lang. His positive response to Gehrt’s proposal, linkage of the German theatre director with Nigerian professionals and facilities provided to make the dream a reality came into focus in this report titled: “Dreams belong on the theatre stage”. Beyond administrative processes, Lang expresses in the report a conviction that the choice of the plays Oedipus and Amona was not just throwing a dice. “We came up with something coherent in terms of ideas and this makes the whole project more interesting”, he said.
Indeed, media interest in AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 mounted more and more as Sina Oladeinde, a reporter with the Nigerian Tribune – one of those who kept series of night vigils in House No 21 – delivered a copious report in his paper. Titled Africa Project 96: Nigeria – Germany’s cultural definition with a group photograph of Tomoloju, Lang, Ogungbade and Gehrt and another of artistes in rehearsal, the article captured dreams, actualities and more. Heavily backgrounded with antecedents in international cultural dialogue, the article cited examples of Goethe Institut’s initiatives in Nigeria for several years among which are the promotion of visual artists in Oshogbo and the spotlighting of ace-actor Tunji Sotimirin.
AFRIKA PROJEKT falls in the line of the institute’s flourishing reputation which is linked as consonant of the track records of its collaborators: Gehrt’s earlier experiments with African drama in Britain; Tomoloju’s plays staged beyond the bounds of Nigeria; and Ogungbade’s directing of major plays including those of Fred Agbeyegbe in a month – long Ajo Festival. The actors and actresses – Joke Muyiwa, Norbert Young, Okonedo Omokaro, Ayo Olawuni, Christie Okoughbo, Funmi Aiyemo, Lara Shodunke, among others – were given tribute mentions in this write – up which ended with a cursory mention of the dates of performances from May 24 to June1.
The performance dates came up as the principal point of interest in the May 11 issues of This Day with Toyin Akinosho writing under his column, Artsville, a piece titled Index to the Month of May. And hot on the cultural calendar was the much – awaited presentation of AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 plays.
The stampede of the media for juicy preview materials unearthed a unique dimension to the AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 campaign. This was a poster competition, strictly an initiative of Goethe Institut management, to extend the message of the project through the visual arts. It was captured by The Guardian’s Olayiwola Adeniji in the paper’s May 14, preview titled Mask of Wole Lagunju
The winner of the competition. Beyond theatre, Wole Igunju’s poster, featuring two masks, the one African and the other European, was a bold allusion to the origin of drama and theatre in both cultures. It was a statement on certain similar traits in theatrical traditions of the respective cultures which underlined their universal impulses.
Human interest has a place in arts journalism. For Olayiwola Adeniji, the long – standing collaboration between Jide Ogungbade and Ben Tomoloju in numerous theatre productions since 1975 when they were students of the University of Ibadan could not go unmentioned. In a piece published in The Guardian normal May 15, headlined The Brotherhood of the theatre, the reporter dug into this co-operation as background to the current combination of efforts by the two theatre directors of AFRIKA PROJEKT.
Two days after, in the Nigerian Tribune of May 17, Matthias Gehrt’s disclosure of the paucity of knowledge by Germans of African literature was published in a feature article focused on drama, wherein Gehrt acknowledged the high profile of Wole Soyinka as ‘one of the most creative writers of this time’. Soyinka’s stature, notwithstanding, an initiative like AFRIK PROJEKT, said Gehrt,, was desirable for “people to know more about each other”.
It is worthy of note that some of the key planners of this project are themselves journalists of no mean repute Richard Lang, the current director of the sponsoring body, Goethe Institut, is a journalist who, in the 60s compiled in – coming reports on the Nigerian civil war. Ben Tomoloju, dramatist and project consultant, is well-known as pioneering figure in the circle of contemporary arts journalism in Nigeria and Deputy Editor of The Guardian until 1993. Jahman Anikulapo, a graduate theatre director is the paper’s arts Editor. Guido Augustine.
The background of these professionals of dual orientation yielded a formidable media campaign strategy which afforded journalists the opportunity to gain thorough insight into policies and implementation.
One aspect of the media campaign strategy was the press preveiw, a sneak presentation of segments of Oedipus and Amona which took place on May 17, at the main venue, Goethe Institut lawn. Essentially before the preview, were made available copies of the plays to interested journalists, to make media discourse on the principles of play – selection, production and dramaturgy, as close to the text as possible. The authoritativeness of writers would help to open the worlds of the plays to the potential audience without any attempt to pre-empt the opinions of the potential audience.
From the press preview were generated series of materials which drummed aspects of the plays’ messages and dramaturgical nuances home to the public.
One such write – up, was When the Messiah intervenes of Guardian Wednesday, May 22, 1996 which zeroed in on messianicism in Amona in the face of problems of failed leadership that has become the greatest impediment to growth in Afrika. Another article appeared in the Daily Times the following day titled Africa Project: Uniting two worlds. It was a skimpy highlight of both plays placing Oedipus side – by-side with Amona and concluding with a quotation from Richard Lang that they represented the spirit of cultural dialogue that the project is aimed at promoting; In fact, the synopses of the plays and interview with Lang formed the flesh of the write-up which in its presentation announced the imminence of the performances 24 hours to the premiere of AFRICKA PROJECT 96. Oedipus was to open on May 24 (co-incidentally Matthias Gehrt’s birthday) and run again the following day, both at Goethe Institut Lagos. Amona’s premiere, courtesy of the German embassy and Nicon-Noga Hilton Hotel, Abuja, was to take place at the new capital of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, thereby giving the project a significantly national outlook.
Just as the public had begun to relish the inspiring presentation of Oedipus from May 24, reviewed by Layiwola Adeniji in The Guardian of May 25 under the banner headline Hail King Oedipus, ThisDay was sending a signal to Abuja on the premiere of Amona. The story by Kazeem Adeleke, published also on May 25 was titled Goethe Beckons, NICON – NOGA in the Wings. Strategically, a story like this took into consideration the marketing dimension to cultural communication. As such it strived to highlight these other components of the making of the play be it financial or marketing — without which the artistry would suffer somehow.
And – even as an aside – this explains why the executive producer, Richard Lang and his Project Consultant, spared no effort at acknowledging in the media the vital role of financiers of the flight tickets of artistes to and from Abuja and subsequently to and from Germany.
In this light, the posters and invitation cards play up the support by German companies such as Asea Brown Boveri, Julius Berger, Ferrostaal, Lufthansa, Mercedes Anammco, Panalpina, Siemens Eltec and Strabag, as well as Nigerian owned JNK Travels and tours Ltd. All these were sponsors of the international travel while the World Premiere of Amona in Abuja was backed not only by NICON – NOGA – HILTON, but also by ADC Airlines, Kabelmetal and Monsour Group. The press – preview presentation of May 17, 1996 was attended by representatives of these companies and the media was officially informed of their role.
A mission Across written by Taofik Akanni and published in The Guardian on Sunday of May 26, appeared late in coming, but understandably so because the paper was a weekly. As such, at the point when the reviews of Oedipus were already coming out, the paper featured an article which tried to capture the essence of AFRIKA PROJEKT 96 from conception to implementation. Yet, in a refreshing manner, it enters into the spirit of cultural dialogue; the profile of Oedipus as dramaturgical antecedent to Shakespeare, Marlowe, Goethe and other celebrated western playwrights and Amona as a contemporary play deriving inspiration from older African traditions. This survey was capped by Gehrt’s comments on the high level of specialisation in the western theatre as opposed to the African (perhaps Nigerian) situation where an artiste, despite his specialisation performs multiple roles – acting, designing and possibly directing – to overcome a disabling economic reality.
On May 29, the first salvo of caustic criticism appeared in ThisDay. A review by an anonymous author, titled Think, Gehrt, faulted the acting styles of Jide Ogungbade as Oedipus and Ben Tomoloju as Creon while trying hard to sound complimentary on a play that is, according to the by-line-shy reviewer (a very intriguing profile) “not too bad”. Such an opinion raised on method, especially on the current trend of stylised acting in an environment of mostly naturalistic action was not unexpected. But the reviewer tailed off with the contentious suggestion that Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not be Blame an adaptation of Oedipus should, perhaps, have been staged because it was “rich in culture”.
The loose reference to cultural by some Nigerian commentators was food for thought among the executives of of AFRIKA PROJEKT. They did recognise the basic facts of the definition of culture and its pivotal place in the making of civilisations. Its mobilisation in reflective processes for creative, inventive and development purposes was clear enough that the issue of one having an edge over the other did not so often arise in the conception and implementation of AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 because of the peculiar circumstances each culture finds itself.
Nevertheless, the contention of a foreign and seasoned culture administrator like Richard Lang had to come into focus in the Friday. May 31 issue of the Nigerian Tribune. AFRIKA PROJECT 96 provided an opportunity to measure the environment of theatre arts in Nigeria against, for instance, Europe. It is indeed, arduous getting such a project off the ground in Nigeria because of what Lang described as “The unsavoury situation in the country” which caused the Goethe Institut to shift its West African headquarters from Nigeria Ivory Coast. Of course, this situation has to do with problems with infra-structure, almost all partners having no access to telephone or other means of telecommunication, such poor postal services that made correspondence with consultants, the media, directors and other collaborators achievable only by sending drivers.
In this same interview the spirit which eventually led to the huge success of FRIKA PROJEKT across two continent was enunciated.
Said Lang, ‘I hope that the biggest country of Africa will rise up to take the lead position in cultural promotion across the globe?’
If nothing else, the determination of the twelve artistes in the project answered to the challenge. On June 1, Andy Ike Ezeani was able to acclaim in the Champion that “the plays of AFRIKA PROJEKT 96 were the theatre production of the season, in the Nigerian society presently drained of any such meaningful artistic enterprise”. Funso Aina in Tempo of June 6 wrote that “the quality of professionalism exhibited by the performers was high’. ThisDay’s issue of the same day and A.M. News of June 7 focused on Amona. The first, in a review titled Amona closes Africa Project 96, jointly written by Fred Odjegba and Beneth Oghifo, highlighted the political relevance of the play while advising on further exploration of its aesthetic potentials. In A. M. News, Bamidele Johnson writes of the cast: ‘The thirteen-member cast that featured in this premiere displayed a laudable degree of theatre maturity as they carried the audience along with every gesture and rendition of their lines”.
Intervening profiles were done on some seasoned actors in the project. The distinguished across Joke Muyiwa who excelled as Jocasta, Teiresias and Herdsman in Oedipus was rightly referred to as Queen of the Nigerian stage in the May 31 issue of the Nigerian Tribune. Following this, a profile of Norbert Young, TV Star who featured as Major Eleso, the military politician in Amona, made a juicy weekend reading in ThisDay of Saturday, June 8, 1996 in a story by Oji Onoko titled life for Act Sake.
Festac News, the Lagos tabloid reputed for elaborate coverage of arts and culture drew the pantheons of Greek and Yoruba gods closer on June 9 in a story titled Between Zeus and Sango which uses the gods merely as metaphors of the inter-cultural programme than a literary exegesis. On June 13, The Guardian on Sunday examines the pitiful plight or the protagonist Oedipus in Taofik Akanni’s story in the Hands of Fate exposing what Thomas Hardy later explored in 19th century fiction of man as puppet in the hand of fate.
As the press began to draw its curtain on the intensive and extensive coverage of AFRIKA PROJEKT 96 Obi Nwakanma of the Vanguard wrapped up his work on the beat with Amona, Oedipus, come to a good close after all… (June 16). This writer had tried in an earlier write – up to give a knock here and there to Amona which he described as ‘revisionist’. Of Oedipus he wrote of a few slips of delivery, now and then”.
The Guardian’s Reuben Abati, writing under the headline Oedipus in Africa, reinvented once again (June 25), did a scholarly review of Oedipus. He captured the essence of innovation cast around the 1996 production of Goethe Institut in these words Oedipus the king on May 24 was presented in an ambidextrous fashion; a dual signature compromise between the flavour of Sophocle’s Greek original and an obvious need to transpose, domesticate and re-contextualise the story and the performance for the benefit of an audience that is culturally and historically removed from Sophocles’ age and time”.
Dr. Abati, a respected theatre scholar and journalist concludes of Oedipus. ‘This gesturing towards a marriage of two cultures and conventions is perhaps what gave this particular production its originality, especially as it produced such imaginativeness as in the re-interpretation of the nature and role of the chorus and the contemporaneity of the lrics”.
Festac News in characteristic nosiness punctuates flow of reviews with exclusive delivery to readers of the fact that the Oedipus chorus was handled and the music except three (one Ghanaian and two by Tomoloju) composed by Jide Ogungbade, the Nigerian director.
In The Guardian on Sunday of July 7, another healthily critical piece titled Amona: A Pathfinder’s Tale written by Wale Adeduro, was published. In it he commented on the actors as having given a good account of themselves; but with a few flaws”.
Short – takes like Richard Lang’s long speech by Toyin Akinoso and Shared dream between Amona and Idemili by Sylvester Odion – Akhaine, radical human rights activist who had just been released from detentions appeared in ThisDay (June…) and The Guardian (June…) respectively, soon after the presentations. The one came out as a quip on the irony of Goethe Institut’s Director’s remark, that his organisation, the very backbone of the project, made only a “meagre contribution”. The truth was that the contribution was monumental and the speech brief. Odion-Akhaine’s focus on amona addressed its political statement, one which would ‘continue to be relevant to the people of this country as long as gunmen still promenade the shores of their clime”.
‘Images and symbols in Amona’ (Guardian August 20, 1996) was the last review generated from the Nigerian press on AFRIKA PROJEKT 96 phase one. Written by Taofik Akanni, it commented on the spiritual quest, the folkloric application and lyrical flare and poetic idioms utilised by the dramatist to drive his message home.
Principal among the functions of journalism are education and enlightenment/criticism, recording of history, conferment of status and entertainment.
AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 seemed attractive to the Nigerian press because it provided in substantial terms materials which allowed journalists to satisfy these roles. The exposition of societal conflicts deserved attention for the purposes of spreading awareness among the people. Even so, the human frailties portrayed in the plays Oedipus and Amona were transmitted in the print – media in their critical light, to be corrected. The project, in essence, moved the history of German and Nigeria theatre at least one step forward and gained currency and high profile as a conscious, remarkable step to facilitate universal understanding and brotherhood. As food to the burdened soul of nations, especially at a time when Nigeria was beset with the crisis of a direction and political turmoil, the theatre-pieces were a welcomed, entertaining relief.
Perhaps the only easily discernible snag in the implementation of the media strategy was that the over-commercialisation of the Nigerian electronic media put them completely away from their social responsibility, for they would rather be paid to cover corporate news, even in the area of culture and social mobilisation. And this is a snag to serious to ignore.



Getting Set For The German Tour
As far back as the first three months of 1996, the backbone of the German tour, that is air-tickets for twelve Nigerian artistes, had been secured by the Goethe institute of management in Lagos.
other matters that had to be attended to included the procurement of relevant passage documents — such as the visa and medical certificates, provision of publicity materials for the German press and production information for the theatres hosting Afrika Projekt in Germany. most importantly, the co-ordination in Germany of the tour had to be effected.
indeed, the latter was blessed with the interest aroused in Mr. Guido Augustine and Miss Cristina Boscolo during their visit to Nigeria in which they had friendly interaction with Afrika Projekt artistes. both of them had volunteered to take up the cause of the project practically on arrival in Germany. and this they did to every participant’s satisfaction and admiration.
before leaving Nigeria, Miss Boscolo had prepared a release in German for the German press explaining African theatre tradition and its manifestation in a contemporary play like Amona.
Afterwards, Guido Augustine prepared an information brief to be circulated to theatres in Germany and agents who may wish to arrange for the staging of two plays. in the brief he spelt out the idea, the planning, the realisation, the work and projections of the entire cultural exchange package as developed by Goethe institute.
by august 1996, this couple even in their volunteer capacity have been identified in Nigeria as the principal contacts in Germany. and, indeed, they played the role, most creditably, of the managers of the German tour, securing three out of the four theatres that hosted the shows, all tied to reasonable contractual relationship.
Back in Nigeria, the decisiveness of the German to — a make or mar affair on the credibility of the Nigerian theatre professional was spelt out in no unmistakable terms by Mr. Lang to the project consultant, Ben Tomoloju. in a couple of weeks, the information bulletin called Africa project 96 infomappe, was produced between both and dispatched to Germany, problem was now on travel documents especially as four out of the twelve touring artistes had no passport. Goethe institute had been kind enough to fund the production of •••• as well as stage requirements. where there was no means of financing the procurement of passports, the project consultant had to veer the camp allowances to secure funds for the four passports, the absence of which was delaying the obtainment of visas for the entire cast.
These problems came to a peak in the first two weeks of September, but were soon resolved, although it left a mild dent on the level of preparedness of individual Nigerian artistes for international exposure. This was amid the ugly anticipation over tendencies to the embarrassment of their manager. On this, AFRIKA PROJEKT 96 artistes gave full assurance of commitment to team discipline and settled down to work, the reactivation of Oedipus and Amona for the German tour.
From the second week of September, cast and crew began to assemble once again at the camp, 21, Red Street, L.S.D.P.C Housing Estate, Isolo. The schedule of work ran as before, supervised by Jide Ogungbade, Ben Tomoloju and Jahman Anikulapo. Of the initial 13-member cast, Ayo Olawuni was dropped and Stella Ayanlade retained. Agnes Obi, a theatre student at the University of Ibadan was also brought in to replace Miss Funmi Aiyemo who had travelled to the U.S.A.
With this re-assembled cast, the two plays enjoyed hitch-free polish — run which especially in the case of Oedipus — did much to preserve the original directorial concept of Phase one.
Within two weeks to October 12, 1996, the scheduled date for departure of the team to Germany, Richard Lang visited the camp both in solidarity and, indeed, on administrative assignments. He covered the rehearsals photographically, counselling artistes on the primary objectives of the impending tour.




PHASE TWO
FESTIVAL ON THE ROAD
The German Trip
By Jahman Anikulapo
Stage Manager
The six-hour flight aboard a Lufthansa craft which began at 11.55 p.m. on Saturday October 12 was bereft of any memorable event. Except that the 12 versatile Nigerian professional performing artistes were full of trepidation about the prospect of their current performance tour of Germany. Contemplatively, the three-man directorial crew, which had tasted twice in the past-performances in Italy (1987 and 1992) on the platform of Kakaaki Arts company reviewed the strategies and programmes of their current engagement. Richard Lang, the chief strategist of the entire AFRIKA PROJEKT ’96 and architect of the present grand cultural exchange and theatrical interconnection between Africans and Germans was restless too. He bantered action plans internationally with members of the directorial crew.

• • • • • • • • • • • •
At 6a.m, the team arrived Frankfurt airport and ran into a haze of cold that rammed into their memory, the insistent warnings of Richard and his good wife, Cora about the kind of weather to expect in Germany, and the type of dressing materials to take along.
Particularly I remembered Cora’s words: “If you don’t take warm clothes with you, thick socks and strong tennis shoes, you will die of cold, I tell you Jahman”. Yet, the Frankfurt cold was more than what we bargained for. Specifically, the five ladies in our team cut a pitiable sight. Dancer Christie Okougbo, who against all warnings wore a nylon blouse was freezing while the song-bird Stella Ayanlade already looked like she was going to take ill.
But the bowel of the aesthetically vibrant Frankfurt airport complex embraced us warmly. Its heaters seemed turned on at their most pleasant mood. Hence, sorting out arrival protocols — immigration, customs, quarantine and baggage collections was pleasing. The cast had little to worry about, anyway, as Richard Lang took effective control of the protocols.
By the time he rejoined us where we were huddled together seeping in the culture shock that the ardour of efficiency of workers in the airport and the conspicuous impersonal, cold visage of the white people portrayed, Richard had concluded the last rite in the arrival procedure. He had even finished booking for our connecting flight to Munich, a one-hour flight duration.
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
…The unfirm steps
At 8.15, a smaller Lufthansa aircraft airlifted us enroute Nunich. Unlike the one that brought us form Lagos, this flight bore an all-white façade except for two black heads dotting the posh, inside of the plane. Aside of that, our members dotted the canvas of white Stella’s traditional hair do, Shuku stood out in its crafty strands amid the sea of silvery and whitish heads.
However, in this flight was broken the communal spirit with which we had set off from home. Unlike in the Lagos to Frankfurt flight, members of the group were scattered in sitting arrangement, because as Richard informed “all the seats had been booked before we made our booking.” Thus, Christie, spotting a funny cap was flung far off in the last row of seat, No. 34 I shared row 30 with Richard, though I had had to unsurp another passenger’s seat at Richard’s behest since we needed to review the plans for the one night, we had to spend Munich. Stella was sandwiched between two old women, who I observed, stole occasional furtive glance at her.
The scattered sitting arrangement was to manifest another disconnection in the collective. Against a kinetic point in our strategy, that the team must always move as one body, in group, we had to ride in two airport shuttle buses and this raised some degree of alarm in the directorial crew. The first team comprised eight members while the second, comprising mostly of the directorial crew. The first team comprised eight members while the second, comprising mostly of the directorial team and Richard had five members. When the second team arrived in a second bus at the arrival hall of the Munich airport, there was a slight problem. We were unaware that the first eight members had arrived in the first bus and had moved on to inside the hall. So we stood freezing in the cold on the tarmac, our eyes permanently fixed on the aircraft’s stir case, waiting for the eight members. They would not come and we all exchanged curious looks.
We trudged into the hall and saw that the awaited had actually been waiting for us too. Confusion within me I que ried the rationale behind the bus ride, for the distance from the aircraft to the arrival hall was actually less than two minutes drive. “We could have walked and saved ourselves this unnecessary anxiety.” But that was our first taste of the efficiency of the German public institutions! Everything is designed for the convenience of the public.
“Are we complete? Asked Richard as we joined the others at a corner, a string of anxiety riding his tongue.
“Yes, I think so,” said Ben, the project consultant.
“But, where is Saidi?“ I asked in alarming tone as a thought of the most dreaded problem-stow away-flashed at m y mind. Infact, this is what we had spent most of our last few days in Lagos counselling our members against.
“Where is Saidi?, where is Saidi? Chorused virtually every other member of the team, obviously afflicted by the same note of alarm “could one of us have disappeared so soon?” Our eyes travelled furtively around the flambouyant environs of the airport, deepening burrows creasing our foreheads.
Just then, Saidi, the lead drummer appeared behind a massive glass partitioning on the other side of the hall. He had actually proceeded to the next hall ahead of others. Relief! Relief! Seond anxiety in the space of five minutes.
“We have to stay together, from now on. No individual movement. Stay within the group.” Counselled Richard in gentle but stern tone.
Everyone thereafter proceeded to join the drummer boy on the other side of the glassy hall. The revolving glass automatically obeyed the command of the moving bodies..but it stopped sudently, trapping in one of its compartments three of our ladies “What’s wrong?” asked Jide Ogungbade,t he artistic director and Richard quickly explained:
“Please nobody touches the door. Otherwise we don’t go from here. It works on its own.”
…Glasses everywhere! The whole airport complex is built of glass, no wood or brick in sight. Strange but impressive! The glasses accentuate the picture of permanent motions around the complex. Human bodies trafficate so frequently that everywhere is full of movement.
This glass business, explained Richard is yet an exclusive aesthetic of the Munich airport. Another exclusive colour is the runway, part of which flies above a very busy highway, so that planes could be seen taxing on tops of vehicles.
…Of all persons to disappear, and caused us our third major anxiety…the long blue bag of Ben bearing some of our most important pieces of costumes and set props. Twenty minutes of waiting and the bag would not come in from the conveyor belt. “All necks up and craned”, the missing bag commanded us, as every other bag newly appearing from the belt’s hollowness seemed to resemble the blue bag. Ben’s face was oily and bore a deep frown…
‘Ah, ah … look our boxes”, announced Richard. Suddenly behind us the big wooded box bearing drums and other hardware materials for set had come up through the lift – it was too big for the belt-and was being trolleyed down the hallway by a huge-chested guy who must have been cursing in his mind, the owners of the monstrous, heavy box that indeed looked out of place amidst the flurry of cute leather bags littering the side of the conveyor belt.
Richard met the big guy and announced that the guy had said he was charging us 10dm (N500.00) per every 15 minutes the box rests on the trolley. We were all alarmed. So much money for ordinary trolley that you get for the whole day just with a bribe of N20.00 in Nigeria. I remembered another of Cora’s words: “Germany is very expensive. You pay for everything, including water”.
But then, Ben’s bag is yet to be found and that means for as long as we waited for it, we would be running a bill on the trolley. What to do? Crosscheck all the luggage tags, in preparation for lodging a formal complaint in the luggage office. Richard found it out, tore it off the lump of tags on his ticket, handed it over to Ben:
“You go to that office (pointing behind us) and wait, they will attend to you. The rest, let’s go”. Ben strolled off eastward, with a confidence that marvelled me. The rest of us walked through a gate, which indeed should be aptly tagged. Gate of No return – actually it is marked ‘No Entry’ on the other side, which means once you pass through it, you can’t go back into the luggage hall. Infact, there were these two sterm-faced security men in mufti who eyed everybody quizzically.
Just then a soul-lifting epoch happened. We walked out of the gate into the arms of a sixtish couple, Huber and Antonie Konrad… surprise, surprise… the mayor and first lady of Haag, an ancient but very popular Bavarian village about 20 kilometres from Munich. Haag is the home of Hans Laschinger, a most significant Bavarian folk musical artiste, who has spent over four decades of his career documenting the old Bavarian folk music and dance for the purpose of restoration, preservation and promotion.
Of all honour, a team of African artistes, pregnant with expectations and anxieties about what Germany and its people would offer them on this their cultural ambassadorial mission, were welcomed formally into Germany by the head of one of the most profound roots of the old Germanic civilisation – This surrpassed all our dreams.
The Konrads had gladly resolved to accompany Hans to the airport to welcome us because Hans, the blind hero of the Bavarian cultural revivalism is a most significant son of Haag. Hans had acquiesced to a request by Richard Lang, his friend of many years to play host to the group of Nigerians. He had enthusiastically awaited this day. Now we are in it. There were the Konrads modestly dressed but smiling flamboyantly and inspite of their advancing age stepping gingerly into the bubbly youthful rhythms of the Africans as they embraced them. In their smattering English, the mayor and his wife gave a very quick and short biography of Haag and the Bavarian people, south of Germany, whetting the visitors appetite endlessly.
•••••••••••••••••••••
In humility, the Konrads stood with us in the lobby of the airport for almost 30 minutes as we expected the arrival of our huge wooden box. The problematic box kept Richard Lang running helterskelter, making enquiries and trying to ensure that the box arrived on time. Within that interval, the Mayor and his wife got to know more about the troupe, in a rare occasion of exchanges.
“Please, sir, come and sit down,” offered Ben, a visitor, to the Konrads, the hosts.
“No, we stand”, replied the Konrads, flashing an even broader smile.
“But these people are wonderful”, I said aloud, chokingly, not really sure those were the exact words I’d meant to use, but continuing in any case “even in their old age, they could stand this stress – standing for almost 40 minutes now.
Richard emerged from behind the glass walls, embraced and spoke briefly with the Mayor, his face brightened and he announced loudly.
“Hey, my friend Hans is waiting for us in the bus. This is great! Hans is a very big musician of the Bavarian tradition and culture. Very popular in Germany”.
I quickly drew a sketch of Hans in my minds eye, from his deeply affective music which I had heard from his CD thithe to be got from Richard back in Richard’s home in Lagos. Richard and wife who answered my curious questions on the identity of the musician had told me that he is one of the greatest living icons of the old Bavarian culture. Someone who had devoted all his talent, skill, time and energy to the preservation and documentation of the Bavarian original musical, dance and performance cultures. A winner of many awards, especially commended by successive German national governments and dubbed in the media, as a living master.
Now Hans is waiting for us in the bus, ready to give a personal welcome tribute. Hans cannot see, he suffers a genetic eye disease that claimed his sight and that of beautiful Margaretta. Yet he came all the way from Haag and was sitting for over 40 minutes in the spacious bus brought by the Mayor to receive the Africans.
The big box arrived and Richard the acute organiser decided that rather than carrying it about, it should be kept in the luggage room at the Airport, especially since it was going to be lifted the next day into another flight to Berlin, venue of the first performance…
Richard had rushed off to see Hans in the bus, returned to his beat of chasing the wooden box. Ben joined him in that exhaustive deal. The rest of us moved out of the airport lobby onto the open air.
• • • • • • •
At 2oc, Munich is not particularly a pleasant host to the 13 man cast and crew of Afrika Projekt 96. The severe cold indeed contrasted sharply to the very hot weather we had left behind at home. Yet, this is actually our first taste of German environment. Uptill now we had moved from the cubicle of one airport into another, except for whiff of the cold on the tarmac.
Joke Muyiwa gave the fist hint of frustration. Shouting “Ha, Otutu yi leo” (This cold is severe). She seemed to open up the mouth of other member of the team.
Norbert Young:“Chei, see Taxi. Na Mercedes dem dey useless like this”.
Lara Sodunke: “Abeg, no make me think o”
Omokaro Okonedo: No worry. When I get back (to Nigeria) I go go tell the Ambassador (Olusola) say I know where he buy im car.
Everybody laughed; and we hadn’t made the but yet, parked about 500 metres away from the exit door of the airport.
Arriving at the bus side with the Konrads in the leads, a powerful accordion tune spurted out from the bowed of the bus. Hans, the blind minstrel was at work and he was doing it with all his inner strength and the zeal. His finger moved dexterously on his shimmering silver accordion, his head titled to one side. He held the visitors spell bound with his depth of concentration. Needless to say, the journey up the stairway of the bus was rather slow; Hans’ performance having entranced our legs.
Yet, Hans will not stop the music. Soga Tomoloju, the multi-instrumentalist in our team, perched himself beside Hans, quickly grabbled his keyboard and sneaked into Hans’ tune with a mellow back-up. Thus began a jam session which saw the two musicians providing inspirational music to the rest of the team. The two-some broke into an African spiritual medley led by Soga and backed by Hans. Jide Ogungbade, a gifted evangelical singer picked the note and broke into Ben Tomoloju’s Odo – misan were. The jam session took on a vibrant colour, uniting two divergent musical traditions and genres, probably for the very first time in history.
The session ended but a disappointing note surfaced. The ladies in our team were unusually silent, forcing Jide to chide them: “Please sing now. Oya Lara, Stella”. No! The girls were inexplicably silent and sullen; as if unsure of themselves. For me, this was shattering. I couldn’t reconcile the many nights of noisy singing and chanting of hymnal songs back there on Red street, where our camp is situated, with this current timidity; or is it standoffishness. Christie and Agnes gazed endlessly outside the bus window. Joke was undecided while Lara and Stella, the two songstresses in the team were half heartedly participating. Case of the men was understandable. Nobert and Okonedo were still pre occupied with their culture shock; commenting heartily on the bits of German wonders on the street – smartly dressed girls half running to their destinations bike riding guys clad in all leather suits etc – everything seemed to interest them.
But Jide will not give up as he picked up song after song, backed by soga myself and Saidi. Silently I prayed that Ben would join us to strengthen our effort. And especially I longed for the beloved singer Salome Ikuologbon, who is any case ought to have been in the team, as she had always done on any project involving the Kakaaki fraternity.
I remembered Italy ’92 when while touring Italy with Tomoloju’s Mujemuje and driving between Turin and Chieri where an international festival of theatre was holding, Salome and the Kakaaki collective sang throughout the journey, from 10pm in the night till next morning. “Next time, we must have Salime with us; I resolved.
Presently ben came into the bus with Richard having sorted out the fate of the wooden box. He illuminated our singing with the Ilaje spiritual – Olorun mi iwo ni masin titi aye (my lord, I will worship you forever”). The performance was animated as the entire bus trembled to the power of Ben’s sonorous and competent vocalling. Hans and Soga abandoned abruptly a low tone discussion to which they had escaped in frustration, since no song would come from our girls; they resumed works on their instruments.
Song flowed after song as the bus, driven by a young lady, Monica snaked its way through the good road network, heading toward the outskirt of the town enroute
Haag… Highly motivated, Ben broke into Benin royal songs lifted from Aratasin, a musico – poetic dance drama he had packaged for the Atlanta ’96 outing by Nigeria.
His entrancing solo on the song ushered us into our firast sight of rural Germany in the village called Deggendorf Langenshut, a vast canvas of greens.
This was half kilometre to Freising, famous for its historical brewery culture. The atmosphere is foggy and so all the vehicles on the road put their headlamp on. The peace of the environment was affective, just as the neatness, and the cuteness of the scape. The trees are robed in the colourful mien of autumn in transition.
Now we came into a more colourful scape with the leaves wearing orange and rose colouring. On either side of the road, the landscape was a canvass of green space and infinite shape. Living quarters however appeared like dots in the vast land mass.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
“Oba ugboriri, gh’oba, ghoba…” The heart of the bus palpitated to the pulsating refrains of the royal song with Norbert and Okonedo, now energised simulating the royal drum in their hand clappings. It is the music of their ethnic root.
Still wrapped up in the lure of the lust flora, Ben branched off and picked on the Hausa – Fulani folk song, Akwai Wata Gari aided by vibrative clappings led by Soga, with Hans striking hard on the body of his accordion. The Konrads too were stamping and clapping as Richard displayed the fact that he has better grasp of African rhythms. Monica our female driver was nodding vibrantly, just as Lara journeyed abruptly to Ijawland, singing Ogiri fie fie and Saara mabote (all taken from the Aratasin repertory)
• • • • • • • • • • • •
FREISINGER – peaceful, in spite of its big name; desolate in spite of its fairly big population in that rural side of beautiful Munich. The signpost of Kyd Fahrschule (a driving school) populates everywhere like it is the only occupant of the village. Yet in Freising is located the oldest brewery in the world, Weihen-Stephan now about 1000 years old.
Water spirits came down with Agnes leading us to sing Oluweri, a riverine, fisherman’s song of appeasement to the goddess of fertility (also from Aratasin).
As if inspired by some forces, Ben picked up Aja kubo, his evergreen Ilaje ballad taken from his 1987 play Jankariwo. This is Richard Lang’s favourite Yoruba song and he led the infectious response by the entourage to the solo of Ben, stealing time out to explain the source of the song to the Mayor, his wife… Hans couldn’t be bothered as he ground heartile on the keys of his accordion.
HAAG – flowed in solemnly on the fluid melody of Aja kubo. Time was 11.20 a.m. a signpost announced that Freisinger was 12 kilometres behind us. Haag was sleepy, seemingly desolate, but so beautiful. House, trees, flowers, gardens. They all sing romantic poetry into our senses. But where are the people?
Richard: “many of the people here are very rich. They work mostly in Munich but come here everynight to enjoy peace of the village with their family”. Haag is so quiet that our loud singing in the bus was apparently out of rhythm with the environment.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Meleegbe, another of Ben’s classics sprouted out of the happy team, just as the bus veered off to to the other side of the road. Outside, a signpost reads Haag a.d. amper, meaning Haag village by the river Amper.
11.30p.m. we arrived Hans Laschinger’s house. A vast but modest set up compared to other houses in the surrounding. It is on a hill just at the point where the Moostra descends into a steepy slope.
“This is the house you are going to stay”, Richard announced as the bus pulled up by the road side and we descended into an e√en harsher cold climate, smoke belching out of our mouths. The bliss of rural setting was however affective.
Richard quickly summoned a meeting of Ben, Jide, the Mayor and Hans to plan the programme of activities for our brief stay in the village. “It is a tight schedule we have today”, he had warned us earlier.
Still standing out there is the cold, a call-response choral rendition began, with Hans backing on the accordion. We had been joined by a very warm middle aged woman, Margarette who had driven seven kilometres from Moosburg, Richard Lang’s village to receive us into Hans’ place. Hans’ friend and helper, elizabeth was unavailable at the time of our arrival, though we had been regaled of her very warm character and her high expectation of our coming by Richard.
Jide who after the brief meeting had been lecturing the Mayor and Monica, our female driver on the magic of the tallking drum had begun singing. ‘By the River of Babylon, as if inspired by the romantic scent of the rural scene enveloping us. Everybody joined him and thus began a carnival by the road side. Saidi refused to back the performance on his talking drum, saying he was afraid the cold might damage the delicate membrane. And if that should happen, we would be better off returning home. The drum is the backbone of our performances. That was why we devised a special wrap for it, anyway. However, clapping saved our face and the lonesome road linking Haag to other villages sipped deeply from the street ritual.
The Konrads excused themselves to go and prepare for a unique church programme scheduled for that night and in which they had planned a role for us
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Hans one storey place sits on a large basement concealed from the main road by the step of Moostraz slope. The white house has a roof-top room constructed with a well polished white wood. The Germans actually have perfected the use of wood in shelter provision.
The men in our team would have to stay on the rooftop room called ‘Ober Zimmer’ littered with sleeping bags, blankets and slim mattresses, obviously purchased newly for the visitors. To get to the room, the men have to climb a 12-rung ladder, standing straight up against the wall of the dining room/kitchen on the first floor. The ladies took a room downstairs, just in the farthest innard of the ground floor.
Up in the Ober Zimmer, the guys jived endlessly about their new abode with Okonedo reeling off anecdotes about the culture of living on top of the house. He said he had picked a place close to the exit, in case the need arose to escape from the roof top, he wouldn’t want to be trapped just because one fat person got stuck on the ladder way.
Norbert regretted that he wouldn’t be able to drink as much as he would want to, for “if man go get drunk and piss catch am for night, how he wan do? Ego be suicide tying to rush down this ladder o”.
Jide and Ben came up later after another brief meeting with Richard; Jide instigated a scene saying “Ha, this is closer to my god’, referring to the roof top room. But Ben observed the effective management of space in the house and said he wouldn’t mind owning a place like the rooftop room in his own house. Again, he noted that wood was effectively used as a building material “A he place is very warm”.
Soga was fascinated by the various types of musical instruments and other accessories littering the room; mostly, Hans’collections from India and other parts of Europe where he had visited in the past.
“Come down everybody”, Richard shouted as he invited us to luch in the dining room on the first floor. We settled to a generous dish of reis (Rice), Gemuse Soupe (vegetable soup) with Richard, Margarette and Jide as volunteers stewards.
Before food, Jide gave a moving speech about our appreciation of the gesture from Hans and his household, observing that we never quite expected the royal reception accorded us by the Mayor and his family, all orchestrated by Hans and his status as an illustrious son of Haag. Our first taste of a Bavarian cooking was marvellous and the dining culture was intriguing necessitating a great sacrifice on the part of the host. For while the Afrikans were having heavy dishes, the hosts had almost negligible quantity.
“Now we go to pick warn clothings in the next village”, said Richard. Obviously he had every minute programmed in his head. “We will go in two batches, using two cars in the first batch” he said. So we rounded off the eating and descended downstairs, back into the cold.
The two cars were waiting and eight of the cast members went in the first batch; the men driving with Richard, while the women – only Agnes and Christie, joined by Okonedo and Saidi went with Margaretta…
In that period, I called on Hans and we discussed generally about the Bavarian musical culture and the arts. I got to learn the driving force behind his life-long resolve to document the art; for as he said; what you see in the cities, is not German culture, that is western. The real German culture is exemplified in the Bavarian culture founded on a humanistic principle of art elevating man, promoting oneness and spreading the gospel of fulfilment. He regrets however, that not much state – driven support is being given to the preservation of the culture. We had over an hour chat as I regaled him also with aspecfts of traditional African music and art; informing that most foreigners who come to Nigeria only see the bastardised western influenced city life in Lagos and other city centres and assume that they have seen the authentic. I told him that the Sakara music of the Yoruba and the Goje music of the Hausa Fulani, effectively simulate the texture and mood of the Bavarian traditional music as he had presented it to us.
We were still engrossed in our chat when the team returned and Richard, said “I am sorry. We have to stop so that you (Jahman) can go and get your warm clothings too. You can talk later”.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
With Stella, Latra, Joke, we drove to the Kleiderkammer in Zolling. Our mission was to go and pick warm clothings for protection against the severely cold climate. In his organisational acumen, Richard had spent his last vacation in Germany in August making all the arrangements that would facilitate the coming of the visitors. He had discussed with the management of the church which specialises in sending used warm clothings to other parts of the world, especially distressed areas where people hve been displaced and needy of such basic needs as clothings. He had got the management to extend the gesture to the visitors who though not displaced, were going to find the German cold weather almost unbearable.
So, here we are, moving from one room to the other and freely picking our choices of jackets, jeans, cap, shoes. The women are particularly lucky, for there are many nice pair of shoes ready for the pick. Even where one is reluctant, the three robust attendants in the one storey building housing the dresses were ready to goad him on.
The ladies picked and picked, obviously even more than they needed for the trip, so that when later they reported to Richard, that they would like to revisit the place for more pickings, they sent a wrong signal about themselves and their perception of the gesture.
After the Kleiderkammer, we decided to see a bit of Zolling, which though much more clustered space – wise, than Haag retains an antique appearance.
We went into the St. Johannes Church, an indeed very old church with a very interesting story.
Inside, it bears a 15th century Gothic art which has only recently being renovated. The legendary history of the father of protestant Christianity Martin Luther was palpable in the profile of the church, as Richard was to relate the history of the Germanic tribe and their relationship to the former colonisers, the Roman empire; detailing how in the 1750s, a German Ceasar was the king of the roman empire and he ended up regaining for his people art of what they had earlier lost to the Romans.
We were lost in our recount of history about the Germanic nation of old, especially with joke displaying such a spirited enthusiasm in the history and Richard competently relaying the information, while Lara and Stella sat, half asleep on the old wooden tables. The next 30 minutes we spent just journeying through the past and we had to be jolted to leave byd a female attendant who wanted to lock up the church.
Outside, I observed a tall blue and white pole that is only a bit more shapely than a broadcasting station antennae”. What is this tall structure?” I asked, continuing” I have seen it in almost all the villages we have passed through”.
“It is called the Bauerntree, you find it in every village and all these pictures you see on it are sculptural motifs representing all the trades and vocations you will find in the village. So that by seeing it you know quickly what kind of trade the people in that village engage in. Let’s say you need a mechanic for your car, you will know whether you can get one here”.
“That’s creative. So its that functional”, interjected Joke
“Yes”, continued Richard, “even in Haag, you have it and Hans, our host has just had his picture added to the one in Haag, so you will know that there is a big artiste living in the village”.
• • • • • • • • • • •
Back in Haag, I took a special note of the Bauerntree and there was a full figure of Hans blowing heartily in muted sound on his trumpet. This attest to the thoughfulness of the Germans about information networking. For, to ask for a vocationer, no one, with the tree needs go to knock on anybody’s door; the tree bears the information.
Having returned the ladies to Hans’ Richard and I decided to go to his own village, Moosburg, where Margaretta, Richard’s friend that cooked the lunch for us at Hans had since returned to wait for us.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
We were driving seven kilometres eastward of Haag and Richard regaled me with the history of some of the landmarks in the Bavarian area, south of Germany, including the politics between the northern and southern germans.
Quite interestingly, the politics is familiar to that which exists in Nigeria, or in Ghana or in Togo. The southerners, usually farmers, are richer, most times more educated and knowledgeable in economy and the industry, so they draw the envy of the northerners. On our return journey to Munich, Okonedo observed that the city seems to be saturated with expensive cars and exquisite buildings.
“Everywhere, na soso Porsche and BMWs, all these one no dey Berlin at all. Its more aggressive and dirtier”.
Driving into Freising once again, this time from Haag on our way to Moosburg I reminded Richard of the 1000-year-old brewery he had earlier mentioned.
“There are 4,000 breweries in the entire world. 1,000 of them are in Bavaria area alone, 800 in the rest of Germany and the rest 2, 2000 in other parts of the world. You see “that is wonderful”.
“In freising is the oldest Brewery, whinestefan which is still producing. And it has become important that there is now a University of Beer Brewing in freising where you could graduate as an engineer, among other disciplines. Other parts of the world have since copied that too”.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Moosburg, unlike Hag shares of the closely structured features of Zolling. The buildings are closely knitted and a strong communal setting could be seen. Yet it is more busier obviously bigger than Haagi. Founded in the eight century, it is now populated by about 16,000 people, having about six apothekes or dispensary shops, a fire-fighting company, a big police department. In the centre of the town are the imposing Giebel Hauses, usually triangular structure carefully designed to show the wealth of upper class people who owned them.
The houses clustering around the squarely shaped centre of the town are houses with cone shaped roofs projecting out of the entire structure. Richard said that there had been an obligatory law to compel the people to retain the old shapes of the traditional Bavarian architecture as a measure of preservation of traditional values so that when you are building your new house, you still retain old building characters”.
Less than a kilometre away from the centre of the town, we drove into a more recessed, quiet bit of Moosburg with mostly one – storey buildings sitting regally behind well lawned gardens, which appear uniform as if their designs are regulated. In the midst of the row of houses, is this black, shinning house =dazzling in the early evening sun.
This is Richard and Cora Lang’s house, standing out amid the similar structures in its row … we drove round the row of houses to the end of the Lang’s. the occupant, a pilot to whom the Langs had let the house when they were coming out to Nigeria was not around. But Richard pointed to a large compartment with transparent slate of plastic roofing sheet”. That’s Cora’s studio,” he says as we drive on. At a little corner near the house is the nursery, primary school in the town Villakante; though this time, empty because it is past the closing time.
The entrance to the hall bears a work by Richard’s Argentinian wife, the painter Cora de Lang — a medley of motifs essentially depicting a little girl riding a white horse in reference to a tale of the little naughty girl in the Swedish folklore.
Next, we walk into the household of Margaretta and her family. After our much in Haag, Margaretta had driven straight to Moosburg to wait for Richard and myself. She gives us thick, but heavily aromatised coffe with cookies and introduced us to her husband, a scientist who works with a big research Institute founded by the German government. We meet their two daughters, the little one a friend to the Langs’ daughter Nalini. “They were growing up and attending the primary school together, before we went to India”, saying Richard cuddling the little girl. The elderly one, who looks very much like her dad, joins us on the table as we review situations in Nigerian polity noting specifically that the environment has become so inconducive for people to effectively engage their intellect fo the progress of the country.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
When we got back to Haag, the whole house was asleep, except for Elizabeth, the friend and helper to Hans, who was busy in the kitchen. The Mayor had called in and requested that the visitors joined him in the Haag church, few metres away to witness a new experiment that the church is undertaking.
We walked the distance to the church, which was already filled up to capacity. We arrived just as a Rock music band invited from outside of Munich was already on its first number.
The mayor had invited our team, having listened to us singing some spirituals in the bus on our way from Munich to Haag. He thought that we should be able to see how they are trying to achieve a blend of tradition and modernity, by revolutionising the content of the church programme. The aim, we were told is to provide something of interest for the youngsters who are daily turning their backs on the church.
We are shocked seeing the chaotic instruments of a rock band situated in the very heart of the conservative altar: the first rock number stops, the elderly priest assumes the lectern and reads from the Holy Book, after which three young women give testimony.
Then the band of five youngmen in tee shirts and denim jeans trousers strike out aggressively on their instruments performing “Where is my Way”, which obviously, in tone, colour and mood would ordinarily have been considered a taboo and loudly condemned in a Nigerian Catholic church. There is no mistaking the Aerosmithian kind of charge up rhythms and excessively rumbling guitar works laced with explosive drum strokes. The music is exceptionally loud and moving that I personally to restrain myself from dashing out to the pulpit and dance it all out. However, I observe that in spite of the mood of the music, there is stillness in the full house typical of the usually densely concentrating German theatre audience.
…Because we were late, we had to stand at the back of the hall, overlooking the sea of white heads. I quickly observed that only our girls were donning caps and hats (picked up earlier in the evening at Zolling) in the church. They had to wear them from the house as a necessity against the chilly coldness, a sharp contrast to the blazing but cold sunny afternoon we had experienced.
I whispered to Soga and Ben on the inappropriateness of the caps in the church. Ben whispered to the girls to remove their hats, which they did. We couldn’t reach out to Joke, because she was standing farther off, beside Richard who obviously hadn’t noticed the violation… Oh yes a violation, because Jide had earlier informed us of a vital lesson he got from a chance encounter with somebody at the Munich airport: that it is impolite to wear caps and hats in closed places.
Nevertheless, it is a matter of comprehension of values, for why was it that the men had dutifully removed their hats before they got into the church and the ladies did not…
We had been told that we might have to sing and so were set for that. But I was genuinely afraid that our girls might disappoint us again, the way they had done in the bus earlier in the afternoon. Already Agnes had reported that she was ill and was about to throw up, necessitating her being ferried out of the church. Stella said her tummy was misbehaving as a result of the cold. Lara was moody again and Christie was sleepy. Fortunate enough, the band played its last note after several other numbers interlaced by sermonisation by the priests and testimonies by youngsters in the congregation; everybody trooped out of the church. We did not have to perform. I was happy.
But then, we moved on to the hall of the primary school to a reception. Surprise enough, majority of those who had attended the church session were back here, more relaxed, drinking beer with some of them smoking.
The entire atmosphere was animated, lively and not unnecessarily regulated.
At the behest of Ben and Richard, we sang, Acapella style, with Ben leading on such compositions of his as Aja kubo, awa la nigbo ire, Umale wa and Odo mi san were. The Bavarians apparently were bought over by the whole experience as they joined the clapping and singing some simplified refrains. No one wanted the night to end. The fun was exhilarating, and the cultural interaction progressive. Okonedo was already getting familiar with a lady who seemed completely overwhelmed by her first (obviously contact with Africans.
The Mayor here, officially welcomed us to Haag and to Bavrian hospitality. He was supported by a full house of young and old Bavarians. Ben gave a brief remark that: “We are happy that our reception into Haag was opened up by the Almighty God”.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Back at Han’s, members of our team would not go in Rather we sat in the balcony in the severe cold, jiving and drinking. I wanted to drink more but I remembered Norbert’s joicular admonition earlier in the day about getting drunk and rushing down the ladder way to ease oneself. I stopped.
One after the other, we retired up into our Ober Zimmer, very warm and comfortable Drunken with tiredness, we all crashed, knowing full well that we had to leave as early as possible for the Munich Airport, to take a flight to Berlin.
THE SOUTH – NORTH LINK
Waking up tired, groggy but energized by the thought of the performance schedule ahead, I hurry downstairs to use the toilet facilities. Occupied, I decide to while away time by sitting out there in the cold, the thought of the romantic caress of the morning cold engulf my senses.
I open the door and an enveloped in a thick fog which has annihilated visibility. The cold hit me so hard that I dash back indoor, forgetting in that fit to bolt the door. So, the cold moves mightily into the house. I manage to close the door and step on into the inner part of the building to wake up the girls. Just then Joke emerged from behind me. Obviously she has been the one in the rest room. Morning’. I say but not sure if the apparently half – sleeping lady actually answered, though I mumble to her: “Please, wake the others. We are off to the airport in 20 minutes time. It is 5.10 now”.
Shortly after, the entire house was up and the burstling resumeed. The household has apparently never witnessed so many people. There was pressure on the two toilet facilitties; with guys queuing up. It was frustrating waiting on Saidi to finish his bath. He always stay longer in there. Norbert is only a bit better off.
We had breakfast and moved our luggages out, expecting the bus. It is now well past 5.40a.m. The bus came and we hurried into it, luggage and men. I had to ride in Richard’s car because we had agreed that we would need to stay together to have chances to discuss logistics and address arising matters.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
There was little protocol at the Munich airport, Richard having wisely arranged everything. After our arrival the previous day into the warm embrace of the Mayor, his wife and Hans. We were soon airborne, tipsy with only a tingeful memory of Munich, Haag, Zooling, the Bavarians, the landscape, the quietude, the church, the rock band, the big party in the school hall ‘Alten wirt’ and above all the music and warmness of Hans, Elizabeth and their entire household. We were conscious too that our itinerary reflects that we would be back in Haag in the last week of our tour actually the following week.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
We arrive at the Berlin airport and instantly the sharp contrast to Munich hit us like a strong scent. The mien is different. Berlin ‘flughhaven’ is burstling, less than neat and peopled by aggressive uniformed men of diverse callings. The policemen are especially a bit more aggressive, and have shifty eyes which burrow deeply into the visitors’ persons. The airport attendants too are less than meticulous as they tend to do everything in a hurry; impatiently.
While we waited for our luggages, we were conscious of numerous pairs of eyes probing into this mass crowd of blackmen, dressed up like some strange fellows.
True enough, Ben and Okonedo look like some Eskimos who found themselves out of their natural habitat. The ladies in their funny hats, look comic, especially with Lara’s and Agens’ furry coats and Stella’s knee – length shoe; perhaps last seen in an antique Roman drama. Jide, Saidi, myself and Norbert could have dropped in from remote island in the Yankees’ country. Surely, we cut some sightful pictures. And we are black!. Besides, of all people, our ladies have their hats on, against Jide’s warning about hats and indoor places.
Our huge wooden box was stuck again. We’ve got to wait on it. Then the second lesson on the character of a monied society dawned on us. To lift the iron box containing our costumes and our props sack on the trolley, we’ve had to pay 10dm for every 10 minutes. That was crazy enough. Being manual people, not meant derogatorily though, Norbert suggested we carry the box ourselves. Richard had bailed us off the same experience in Munich. Now we have to do it ourselves. Richard is staying both in Munich to process our health insurance.
“Hah, see dem Matthias”, Saidi jolted us all, pointing frantically toward the exit. On the other side sprang to view the tallish figure of Matthias in his now famous leather jacket and black jeans trouser, and beside him was the pretty face of Cristiana Boscolo, our own Sola… then a colourful figure in brownish jeans trousers, blue jeans shirt and a woolen face cap levelled up with the two… ‘God, its Guido Augustine, our own Jide Ayanwunmi’.
Guido and Cristiana we had been told jettisoned all their other programmes to take up the management of the Afrika Projekt ’96 tour of Germany. They had been staying in Nigeria for eight months while Cristiana worked on her post graduate research into African Theatre. The two had acted in Ola Rotimi’s Kurunmi, playing the missionary and his wife caught in the heat of the fratricidal war of the 17th century Oyo Kingdom captured in the Rotimi classic.
I had gone with Matthias Gehrt to the University of Lagos (Unilag) venue of the show. The matinee had just ended and we decided to ease off the time at the Unilag guest house, before the next show would commence. This was where we encountered Guido and Cristiana whom I quickly introduced to Matthias as having come from Germany.
They got into talking and Matthias said he discovered that the two actually knew a very close friend of his, back home in Germany.
We sat through the presentation of Kurunmi, watched the two performed and then we were able to resolve on a very significant objective — the reason why we had attended the show: to see Joke Muyiwa, the actress’ performance as Sangodiwin. Matthias: “I think I like the actress. She can handle the role Jocasta, the second protagonist in Oedipus”.
However, that chance meeting with guido and Cristiana was to crystallise a catalyst to the successful realisation of the German tour of the Afrika Projekt.
The following week after their show, they came visiting the Afrika Projekt team in our Isolo, Lagos camp from Ibadan. They stayed the night and we had a very fruitful session of discussions on their observation of the rehearsals of the two plays. Particularly, Cristina felt that Amona with the little she gleaned from rehearsals manifested elements of the quintessential Africa total theatre experience.
A very frank person, she heartily embraced the project and promised to work especially on its presentation in Germany. The couple had few days to spend in Nigeria, after their visit. But they kept up the communication channel. When Oedipus premiered at the Goethe Institut, Lagos on May 24 and 25 they were there with all the supports they could give. June 1st, they were back to see the second showing of Amona after its premiere in Abuja on May 29.
From then on, they were hooked onto the dream.
Cristina grandly offered to help in translating into German, the promotional items on the two plays. Specifically for Amona, she offered to translate the scenic description, devised to assist in opening up the play to the German audience. She got no kobo for her effort. Guido all the while, was fashioning the managerial scheme for the projekt’s tour of Germany.
When they got back to Germany early August, they stepped more studiously into the projekt. First they acquired a fax machine to facilitate communication with Lagos. Then they picked up an itinerant lifestyle, journeying to different theatre centres, in bid to secure bookings for the projekt. And regularly they reported progress to Richard Lang in Lagos. Such tremendous self-less service for a project that they were never officially invited! Even Matthias Gehrt had cause to write to Lagos that “I am just enjoying myself, Guido and Christie are doing all the work”.
Now at Berlin airport; on the other side of the arrival hall, the couple was obviously catapulted into ecstasy, seeing the partial realisation of their expectation. The Afrika Projekt 96 team had made Germany. Great. Well, they had made frantic phone calls to Haag the previous night to enquire if the 12-man cast had arrived. They had been assured by Richard.
Joined by our director Matthias, their joy at seeing us knew no bound, as they made bold, wide gesticulation to us on the other side.
“Who is in the cage, we or them?”, asked Ben lightly… everybody laughed. They didn’t know why we laughed, but jumped up, wildly in beat to our action.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
The team walked into their embrace, staging a very loud, noisy exuberant scene in the airport environment. But who cares? We quickly relived memories of our recent meeting in Lagos, hugging and merrying.
We had ample time to fraternise at the airport because once again our wooden box was stuck.
Guido had gone to sort it out and discovered that we had actually run into a technical problem. One of the six small tins of paint we brought along )for exigent set construction needs) had opened, and smeared paint on the floor of the airport luggage room. The cargo officials were miffed and angry at their colleagues in Munich who they reasoned ought to have detected and removed the paints in the luggage, in line with regulation which disallows inflammable products such as the paint on board the former appealing to their sense of reasoning that: well, since the paints were not detected in Nigeria nor in Munich and now had arrived Berlin, the best thing is to let it go. “It would be needless to send the box back”, remarked Guido flashing a big exuberant smile in the face of the swearing security and cargo officials.
…We went into two cute looking Ford buses, already hired on Richard’s counselling to move the cast and crew throughout the entire tour. We stuffed our luggages in the back of the blue bus driven by Matthias and mainly occupied by the men, while we prepared the white bus driven by guido for the big wooden box and the iron box. We had to drive into the cargo section of the airport to pick the wooden box.
The sixties tunes of Fela were wafting out of Guido’s bus, and we set up a small canival in fron of the cargo yard. We danced, sang, jubilated.. there were bottles of beer in guido’s bus, so we had a small party. Our only audience was dishevel looking dog, which stood rooted to one spot, perhaps bewildered at seeing so many black faces.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
The forty kilometre drive from the airport to the heart of Berlin was full of gists and quick plans about our very first performance on the tour Sitting in the front cabin with Matthias and Jide, the two directors, we went through the gamut of the programme for our debut.
Expectation is high about the performance, warmed Matthias informing that a lot people was curious and the press a bit sceptical.
“Two weeks ago, they staged Soyinka’s new play Beautification of an area Boy here and they had a bad press. They said it is folkloric, without any fresh theatrical idea or style”, said Matthis driving a note of despair into one’s heart. “But I am sure we will be well received” said Matthias. “I trust our production”, concurred Jide as I kept quiet, contemplative.
We stayed off the topic and joined the other occupants in the bus in admiring the organised chaos of Berlin as one mighty structure after the other assailed our sights.
Berlin smells of history and it is very conscious of its recent profile when its old beauty was massively destroyed by the Allied forces who on the pretext of hunting out adolf Hitler, (the instigator of the second world war) strove to reduce the powerful former capital of Germany to rubble.
Matthias was not necessarily a good tour guide, but he did a nice job, especially remembering to show us historic sites in Berlin. According to him, there is a frantic effort to return the old beauty of Berlin. “So many old structures are being restored and they are spending a lot of money to rebuild the city, because it is going to be our capital again, in the future”.
A huge banner in very bold and assertive letterings welcome our entourage to the Hebbel Theatre, which from outside has a rustic bearing. It is indeed very old, said to be over 100 years old. “It is the dream of many European actors to perform on the Hebbel stage”, said Matthias who had worked for long in the theatre Calmly he noted: “so we are lucky to be here. This is Berlin’s most important and oldest theatre, with a lot of history behind it. All the important critics and media men come here and they can be very harsh in their comments”. My heart jumped again. I remembered Matthias’ account of the media report on Soyinka’s play again… well, we disembarked at the back of the theatre building and noticed that there were even several smaller posters announcing that “Rotom/Kakaaki groups from Lagos” would be performing at the Hebbel.
We off-loaded, and were briefly introduced to the technicians who would facilitate our production. Everyone seemed to have noticed Inse Koepke, (a stage technician) a tall, slim built girl, perhaps in her early 20s who in spite of her work dress looked elegant; her face like a sculpted piece. She particularly shocked me by her energy. She lifted alone the heavy iron box and put it on the trolley. That was marvellous. We don’t have women doing such chores in Nigerian theatre, even the few female technicians among us.
I quickly stole a glance at our girls and felt repulsed by their pretences and undue call for attention. They wouldn’t even help to offload our luggage. They were clutching their chests… Then I noticed that Norbert was starring endlessly at Inse. Little wonder that next day, when we got to the theatre, he asked me to teach him the German words with which he could enquire after Inse. Then he could be heard hollering. “woist Inse, woist Inse”? etc.
Having seen the theatre, we drove to the pension Hotel downtown to check in and we quickly returned to the theatre.
The real Matthias that we had been accustomed to came to life in our very first rehearsal at the Hebbel. We had projected that he would allow us run for him what we had revived of Oedipus after three months of break since the May performances. But we were quickly reminded of Matthias’ peculiar directorial style, which created frustrating moments at back in Lagos. Running the play holds no fascination for the director. Hardly two minutes into the first scene, he stopped us. That was henceforth the mode of the rehearsals. No problems though. We knew our director’s style…
Hebbel is an intriguing theatre. A massive auditorium with two upper sitting areas. The stage has depth, much more depth that we had to break it into three parts for our performance. It sits about 600 people in its cosy bowel which, in spite, of age still looks regal. But for an African performance with loud drumming and singing, it could be dysfunctional.
Its acoustic is boxed up, so that the sound keeps circulating within a restrained orbit. Our singers and drummers have problems understanding themselves because the sound travels into the box almost 60 feet above, gets trapped in there and releases a late feed back. We have to devise a special means in terms of stage composition to enable our musicians, Soga and Saidi harmonise with the rhythms of the singers.
The first trial rehearsal ended and we strolled down the broad avenue through a street corner into a rather cosy Italian restaurant, which Cristina observed was very cheap compared to the other eateries. But Okonedo observed that each one of us had eaten at least 10DM worth of food. “That na cool N500.00, boy”, he exclaimed. The food was however very good. We had rice, soup, fish and beef with a lot of salaad. It was shocking to Joke that water had to be specially purchased; unlike at home, where water is free and bonus. She remembered too that she had been warned by certain friends not to drink water from the taps because “they said it contains some dangerous particles”.
… Rehearsals resumed in the theatre at about 7pm, but still we made little progress because it was punctuated mostly by the director’s interjection. At 10pm we stopped and moved into the bus, heading for the Hotel, to rest our heads.
Pension Hotel is introduced to us by a huge door which opens to the almost desolate street corner.
The next morning we see very old men, to suggest the meaning of the hotel’s name. We have four rooms – Norbert, Okonedo, Saheed and Soga in Rm 7, Agnes and Joke in 8, Christie, Lara, Stella in 10 while Jide, Ben and myself – are in 9. Each room is opened into a bigger lobby which leads to the common restroom facilities.