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The play, Oluronbi
is making its second annual appearance on the Nigerian theatre scene.
An initiative of AbOriginal Productions, this year’s staging of
Oluronbi is being sponsored by the Lagos Sate government as part of
activities to mark Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary.

Produced by Ikhane
Akhigbe and written by Tunde Aladese, the musical play features
Iretiola Doyle, Seun Kentebe, Lala Akindoju and Uzoma Osimkpa, among a
purported 70-member cast.

The opening
production of the play, which was staged at MUSON Centre in Lagos on
September 25, revealed that quite a lot of cast change had been made
since the last edition, which had featured popular music personalities
like Omawunmi, Waje, Yinka Davies, Dr Frabs and Timi Dakolo.

Adapted from a
Yoruba folk song, Oluronbi depicts the travails of a woman who, in
desperation for an offspring, beseeches the town’s diety, Iroko. She
makes a promise to Iroko, and as is the way of the spirits, there comes
a time when they come collecting.

What is admirable
about the production is that it takes a plot that is sketchy at best,
and gives it vibrancy. It incorporates an interplay of issues like
polygamy, infertility, social class, inter-tribal marriage, as well as
the richness of the Nigerian cultures to create a delightful
performance for the audience.

Wooing Abike

What the play might
have lacked in a complex plot, it made up for with stage choreography
and dance. Perhaps the most entertaining scene of the play occurs when
men come from far and wide to woo Abike; and each with his ethnic
biases and behaviours makes no secret of the reason for his interest in
the heiress.

The play employs a
healthy dose of humour and music, but it was rather disconcerting to
have a character break into a line of song amidst a dialogue.

The most emotional
scenes of the play are provided by Osimkpa in her rendition of
Oluronbi, who says to her husband when she reveals the mystery of
Abike’s birth, “You used to joke that she was a gift from the gods, I
never laughed.”

Oluronbi goes to the Iroko

Towards the end,
the play employs a flashback, which provides a background for audience
members who may not have been familiar with the folk song. Oluronbi is
betrothed to her husband, “in a time when women were peace treaties,”
and she is subsequently subjected to a life of bitter rivalry with the
three other wives of the husband. The senior wives, in their frequent
‘See me see trouble’ musical refrain, snigger at Oluronbi’s
infertility: “Everyday it’s a different brew, a different herb, a
different soup. The market women sell the leaves to her. They collect
the money with one hand and cover their laughter with the other.”

In a beautifully
executed dance choreography depicting a sexual scene with her husband,
we are acquainted with Oluronbi’s efforts to conceive. Finally, unable
to bear the shame any longer, she goes to seek out Iroko. She is
advised by bystanders, “You must not go to Iroko (and haggle) like a
market woman – let me first offer chicken. You must state what you will
give.”

When finally
attended by the Iroko, Oluronbi asks for a son but Iroko is “out of
sons at the moment”, so she settles for a girl child, whom she
promises, will be returned as soon as she is able to shed the shame of
infertility by sporting a pregnancy.

Iroko bides her
time until the child, Abike, is of marriageable age; only then does she
send her emissary to claim Abike. Oluronbi again visits Iroko, and in a
deluge of recriminations, asks, “How could you bear to let her go?”
Iroko in her turn asks Oluronbi, “How could you promise to give her
back?” The inevitable, however, must happen, as according to Iroko,
“mothers are given charge over spirits, souls and bodies only for a
period of time.”

The musical aspects
of the play save for the performance of the three senior wives, was
less remarkable than anticipated. All characters, except Oluronbi, were
also rather flat; and would have benefited from some character
development. The production also had other problems which may be put
down to the challenges posed by an initial production – the lighting
was rather erratic, as it went off sometimes during a scene, and
transitions between scenes became lengthier as the play progressed.

One might also
wonder why it was a masculine voice that spoke to Oluronbi as Iroko
when she made her request for a child; when Iroko is embodied in a
female form. The explanation made later by Iroko, that “My voice has
always been rather masculine” does not adequately repair the
disconnection.

Doyle and Akindoju
were less remarkable in this play than in other stage plays that they
had featured in – not for their inability to deliver their roles but
because they had been put to too little use. It is also doubtful that
the play fulfilled its producer’s promise of a 70-member cast as only
about 50 made the curtain call.

Choreography, dance, costumes and props were the best features of
this staging, and were probably the most advanced ever employed in a
Nigerian theatre performance. The directors: Awoba Bob Manuel, Bimbo
Manuel and Olarotimi Fakunle must also be given kudos, for the
ambitious and unique employment of the large cast of the play.