Nigeria Content Online

The National Troupe
of Nigeria (NTN) will stage Mike Anyanwu’s ‘The Contest’ to close its
2010 theatrical season instead of the late Wale Ogunyemi’s ‘Langbodo’
it had earlier announced.

The production will
open on December 24 at the National Theatre, Lagos and run till January
2, 2011.‘Langbodo’, which was originally intended to commemorate
Nigeria’s 50th Independence anniversary will now hold in the first
quarter of 2011.Martins Adaji, acting artistic director of the troupe,
disclosed that the production will hold after the April 2011 elections.
“It will be more appropriate to produce ‘Langbodo’ next year in order
to embrace the mood of the election and also celebrate Nigeria’s unity
through culture”, he said.

He also explained
why the epic play could not be staged this year. “We had planned to
stage ‘Langbodo’ in Lagos but we shelved it because we were involved in
the commemoration at the national level”, he said. “We had to honour an
invitation to perform in Germany and as soon as we returned, we
performed at the presidential banquet,” Adaji added.“Besides there were
great plays that were staged in Lagos courtesy of the Lagos State
Government as part of the independence commemoration, so it would have
been an over kill to also stage such a huge production at the period,”
he continued.

Adaji however
affirmed that ‘Langbodo’ would be staged next year, adding that, “We
decided on ‘The Contest’ which is an entertaining piece because we want
people to be entertained this season.”

‘The Contest’, is
set in a local community centres around Archibong who lures Amatu out
of her seclusion, but fails in persuading her into eloping with him, in
his final bid appearance to throw an open challenge to Karibo the
emerging champion of the contest. The riddle of the contest is
eventually solved with love.

Anyanwu, the
playwright and director, is a pioneer artist of the National Troupe of
Nigeria. He currently heads the Legal/Corporate Services department of
the NTN.