as the month-long celebration of the 81st birthday of Prof. Wole Soyinka by the Live Theatre on Sunday enters its final phase, its recent production of the Nobel Prize laureate’s 17th play titled ‘King Baabu’ at the Unity Centre in Ikeja GRA, Lagos recaptures the tumultuous era of military rule in Nigeria.
Guests who had turned up in company with their loved ones to see the play were reminded of the tensions and evils spun by military rule. To the young ones among them, Sunday’s production of ‘King Baabu’ – perhaps, Soyinka’s most stinging parody of military dictatorships of all time – provided an opportunity to understand how things have gone so bad in the country.
Explaining why Live Theatre on Sunday chose this play to celebrate Soyinka’s birthday, the director, Toyin Oshinaike, told our correspondent, “We found that most of those who have ruled Nigeria in the last few years were directly connected with the years of military rule in the country. Even the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was a younger brother to one of the military rulers of the country.
“Only the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan was a civilian. Now his successor is General Muhammadu Buhari, also a former military Head of State. Apart from the fact that his orientation is largely military, we believe there is still a military undertone in governance that must not be allowed to rub off negatively on the present democracy.”
Just as he told the audience at the end of the play, the purpose of the production was to present a clear picture of what military rule used to look like, especially for the benefit of the younger generation of theatre lovers, and to remind older Nigerians that the country must not be allowed to slide back to that sordid era.
For want of funds to acquire the right props, Oshinaike and his team have had to adopt the Brechtian approach to drama production, which emphasises maximum use of space, to get the message of the play across to the audience.
Later commenting on the production, which was quite successful, a member of the original cast of the play that premiered at the National Arts Theatre complex, Lagos, in 2002, Tunji Sotimirin, observed that ‘King Baabu’ was still very much relevant.
He said, “One thing I find interesting about the production is the fact that the younger generation of theatre directors and actors see this play as complex. Yet, they are able to relate well to it and to connect it with the social-political realities of that period in which Soyinka wrote it. Of course, the playwright has a way of lampooning every one of the military regimes that have ruled this country in the past.
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