Whoever coined the phrase, ‘The young shall grow’, might have had over 80 children that participated in the National Troupe of Nigeria’s 5th Children’s Creative Station, held at the National Arts Theatre Complex in Iganmu, Lagos, in mind, even many years before they were born.
Every year since 2010, the NTN gathers children from different backgrounds together in a month-long programme that involves the teaching and learning of basic skills in creative writing, singing, acting, miming, voice training, puppetry and dance.
The Creative Station aims at discovering and nurturing new talents among the young participants, mostly school children aged between six and 16 years, who otherwise may not have the opportunity to develop their talents outside the school system.
The fifth edition of the project, no doubt, showed how much progress has been made since its beginning and how much Nigerians have missed such live theatre productions.
The main event, which was the command performance of ‘Eriri: The String’, was preceded by a choral performance, featuring motivational songs that must have revived certain nostalgic feelings among older members of the audience; a thrilling spell of choreography – tantalisingly evoking the ‘wonders’ of youth – and invocative drumming.
The performance of ‘Eriri’, written by Mike Anyanwu and directed by the Coordinator of the project, Josephine Igberaese, followed a familiar storytelling pattern, with Nollywood actress, Ann Njemanze, playing the role of narrator.
The play tells the story of Nigeria, beginning with the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates. It revolves around an abandoned baby raised as a foster child by the first Governor-General of the country, Lord Frederick Lugard, and his wife, Lady Flora.
A colourful naming ceremony of the child (also christened ‘Eriri) takes place at the same time as the welding of the various ethnic nationalities into a single unit for the administrative convenience of the British colonial government under Lord Lugard.
But a tussle among the leaders of the tribal groups over the paternity of Eriri, leading to mutual suspicion, distrust and rancour, eventually prevents them from successfully reclaiming him from the unpredictable Lugard and his wife.
Apart from drawing the attention of the audience to the urgent need to strengthen the unity of this country and to end all internal squabbles that have affected her progress, the play is a call to the Nigerian youth to rise up the challenges of nation building, using the theatre as a tool.
After over two hours of solid entertainment spiced with a dash of comedy, it became evident that those who conceived the project were partly driven by the urge to create a forum for children from different backgrounds to meet and interact.
Also, the originators of the Creative Station must have been motivated by the need to expose the participants to local folklores and storytelling traditions, and to encourage the cultural education of the youth. This is very much evident in the manner in which the fifth edition of the project was executed.
But the show also draws attention to the need to rehabilitate or upgrade the infrastructure at the National Theatre. For example, the Cinema Hall II, originally designed to accommodate between 700 and 800 guests, was virtually crammed to the hilt. Many of the guests, who could not find any seats, filled the aisles in the hall.
With the air conditioning units hardly functioning during the event, the hall was stuffy and many guests had to go out occasionally for a breath of fresh air. The situation actually forced the anchor, Shuaib Hussain – who is also the Special Assistant to the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the NTN, Martin Adaji – to apologise to the guests and to promise that next year’s edition of the event would be held inside the main bowl of the facility.
“The main bowl is not in use right now. Otherwise, we would have held the event there. We made use of what was available to the National Troupe of Nigeria,” Hussain said, in an interview with our correspondent.
He noted that the attendance at the event had been quite unexpected. “We thought that people would be too scared by the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease to attend. We were taken unawares by the turnout. But this has taught us a lesson. Now that we know that the yearly event can attract such a large audience, it means that we have to move to a bigger hall next year,” he said.
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