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Segun Ojewuyi is
nostalgic about returning to the Nigerian stage after almost 15 years
of being away. The director of ‘Preemptive’, a play written by fellow
US sojourner, Niyi Coker, and which opened at the MUSON Centre, Lagos
and will be staged in Lagos, Calabar and Abuja discloses, “In those
years of being away, I have worked alongside some of the great minds of
modern theatre that I studied in Ibadan – Lloyd Richards, August Wilson
and Arthur Miller. I have worked in those major theatres of the world
that we dreamt about as undergraduates – The Everyman Theatre, Oregon
Shakespeare Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre
and Kennedy Centre amongst others. In all these I was always drawing
from my essence as a Nigerian, a Yoruba man and an African. Though
there was always a hint of estrangement, I also always felt I was
serving as the essential bridge to the 21st century. In that sense, my
homeland Nigeria and I stayed intricately woven as in an ecstatic
dance.

“I have tried to
maintain contact with my friends and colleagues in the field.
Constantly, I hear people say that Nigerian theatre is dead. My first
reaction has always been no, Nigerian theatre is not to be confused
with the National Theatre or theatre in Lagos, Ibadan or Ile-Ife.
Nigerian theatre is a distinct aesthetic in which culture, history and
social ideals are to be found and given expression. So, I have
maintained that Nigerian theatre is an organism with the possibilities
for adaptations and mutation. It is not a stagnant, self-regurgitating
entity. It is a magnificent genie once let out of the bottle is never
contained or killed. It may experience a lull, but it is not dead.

“The performances
of Soyinka, Osofisan and Osanyin’s plays, the productions by Niyi
Coker, Esiaba Irobi, Awam Amkpa, Femi Elujobi, Biyi Bandele Thomas and
mine outside Nigeria are more frequent now than, say, in the 70s, 80s
or 90s. Our collective aesthetics are all legitimate children of a
living Nigerian theatrical tradition. What we are doing with this tour
is to prove that point. Niyi Coker, the playwright and I are Nigerians
as well as Americans. These two realities and cultures are reflected in
our production.

“I cannot wait to
be in Nigeria again. I cannot wait to see my friends. I cannot wait to
celebrate the gifts received from my departed mentors and friends —
Uncle Bola Ige, Bode Osanyin, Hakeem Shitta, Afolabi Alaja Browne,
Rufus Orisayomi, Wale Ogunyemi and many others. I also want to be able
to give a good account of my absence to others like Dapo Adelugba,
Segun Olusola, Abayomi Barber, Olu Okekanye, Ojetunji Ojeyemi — those
who took me by the hand and gently led me through the secret places of
our invaluable culture and traditions.”

Shared cultural experiences

Ojewuyi, a
professor of Drama at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale,
explains that the first objective of ‘Preemptive’ is to, “open up a
slice of the world that I know to this [cast]. We are all hopeful that
we can share and experience the linkages between Nigerian and American
cultures, our performing arts and artistic expressions as agents for
social mobilisation and development. A focused engagement with peoples
of the different countries and cultures in unfiltered urban and village
settings. We look forward to positive encounters with the subtle and
sometimes not-so-subtle existential similarities, between Nigerians and
Americans. The performance of an American play, presenting a slice of
American life and culture we hope will generate some pertinent
feedbacks.”

Healthy excitement

‘Preemptive’
features a cast of eight with six of these coming from the US. Ojewuyi,
the director of Wole Soyinka’s ‘Death and The King’s Horseman’ staged
by the St. Louis Black Repertory in 2008 describes the cast of
‘Preemptive’ as “an interesting mix of performers – all graduates of
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and associates of the Africana
Theater Lab.” Some, he adds, are recent graduates while “others are
seasoned professional actors.” There also scholar-artists including
Niyi Coker, the Desmond Lee Professor at the University of Missouri,
Saint Louis, performance poets Chris Collins and Rachel Hastings,
director Tania Coambs, actor Basha Evans and scenic designer Bobbie
Bonebrake. “There is a healthy excitement in the company – the first is
to present their gift of artistry to the world and wait to see what the
audience’s response will be to our performances, and the second is
encounter and experience the visit to Nigeria,” he adds.

Poetics of panic

Though
‘Preemptive’ which was conceived in 2008 by Coker at a Black Writers
workshop at Indiana University in Bloomington appears to be abstract
conceptually, the director assures that audiences won’t have problems
getting the message. His directorial approach, he says, “is informed by
what I have defined as the poetics of panic. Theatre must entertain,
engage and inform. It must come with a certain degree of urgency – an
urgency of need – the urgency to express oneself in celebration of life
or (and particularly) in the face of any form of oppression. Nation
states and the cabals of corruptive power must be confronted with art
when they challenge humanity’s inalienable rights in the pursuit of
happiness. Audiences will be taken beyond the realistic to the imagined
and perceived. We will deploy the marginal plains of theatrical
illusion to reveal the best and the worst in us as humans.

“Ahmed and Vivian
– the two characters who drive the plot in ‘Preemptive’, come from two
different worlds. The differences are in culture, religion, political
history and even race. But their essential humanities connect in the
deepest places. There is something to say for exchanges of goodwill
across man-made boundaries. A simple story of love and romance could
actually help. We are playing such themes of goodwill and
reconciliation through theatre.”

‘Preemptive’ is at the National Theatre Lagos on July 16, then tours the following cities: Asaba, Calabar, Abuja, Ife.