Morountodun: A review of stage production

Even before the performance started, the play’s continued significance (43 years after it was first published) was well highlighted in the circulated programme notes. As emphasized by play director Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju in the notes: “Africa, and indeed Nigeria, continues to be ravaged by oppression, underdevelopment, banditry, kidnappings, and the like; Morountodun tonight revisits revolutionary pathways to redemption, through collective action, with ordinary men, and WOMEN, acting in concert to save the nation from ruin. How far can they go, and which revolutionary direction offers certainty?”

Thanks to the characters that give life to the scripts of chaos and courage, the play’s scenarios manifest the bottled frustration triggered by the insensitivity of the privileged ruling class and their predatory orientation. The ruling class will continue to suffer “bad press” as long as the common man - whom Frantz Fanon refers to as the “wretched of the earth” – continues to face adversity and penury. The salvation of the nation lies in resistance to all forms of oppression.

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Like past that refuses to die, Prof. Osofisan’s Morountodun not only takes us to the storyline of Agbekoya uprising of 1960s - when peasants and oppressive governance clashed. The thematic occupation of the play highlights the role of women in every nation’s journey to nationhood. Dominantly, once again, women take the centre stage in confrontational manner, especially Titubi (Oluwanifemi Olawoyin/Rachael Abiodun), daughter of Alhaja Kabirat (Niniola Olatunji/Olushola Ogunshola), with her retinue of male and female supporters, who unleashed the past upon the audience to x-ray the present. In a spectacular show that set the tone for the remaining scenes, Titubi threatens to burn down the theatre if the play denigrating her class and their wealth did not stop; notably, the play’s director added an unscripted touch where Titubi even asks who built the theatre and who wrote the play, and, on learning that both the builder (the VC), and the writer were present in the hall, sends her thugs to fish out the duo.

The play masterfully oscillates between the context of myths and legendary roles of Moremi of Ile-Ife, who in the infiltrated the camp of the Igbo by staging her own capture by them, and the exceptional role of Titubi during Agbekoya era of the 1960s. Titubi’s capture by Agbekoya militants, aided by the incorrigible Deputy Superintendent Salami (Olayinka Adeleye) aided her quest to infiltrate the group, replicating Moremi Ajasoro’s heroism that halted the invasion of Ile-Ife by the Igbo marauders nine centuries back. However, the similarity ended abruptly. Titubi experiences a rebirth in the farmer/warriors’ camp (Titubi actually means to be “born again”). She turns against the decadent establishment, turning her gun on Superintendet: “You can’t win a war against the people whose course is just”, she thunders.  Moremi before her had also tried to wean her people of the undue superstitions beclouding their judgment and preventing concrete action to solve concrete problems:

“Tell me, my friend, what more shall we do to learn that the gods will not help us? I have decided. Moremi shall be the clay which the race requires to remolds itself.”

Obviously, reality is a important being. It has been established time and time again that the courage of a woman cannot be tamed in the quest for her heart desires. Where COURAGE exists, REVOLUTION is imminent. As a result, OPPRESSION cannot live long.  Where FRUSTRATION triggers CHAOS, courage is always at the forefront! These are the few themes the playwright wants the audience to chew over.

Notably, 43 years after Morountodun won the first edition of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) award for Literature, like Sharon Creech’s The Wanderer, the play has travelled across the nation and continues to play itself out into our socio-cultural cum political significances, like a cat with nine lives. While Morountodun takes us back to revolutionary journeys to redemption, can women act in unison to save the nation from the current crisis?

Kudos must be given to the entire cast and crew for being able to give a good account of themselves through sustained tempo, maximised stage and well-coordinated transitions. The play’s Director observed the need to strike a delicate balance between theatre as revolution and theater as an entertainment, and the cast and crew did their utmost to achieve this. The set offered a mix of abstract symbolism and concrete representation. There was also a surfeit of functional dances accompanying the play’s songs. Songs are often a mainstay of Osofisan’s theatre; the production added a few more, and spectacularly complemented all with visually and aesthetically pleasing dances.

The Theatre Arts Department, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, did not fail to live up to expectations once again, transforming play text to live drama in front of the teeming audience. At some points, the audience reminded one of Oliver Twist.

On a technical note, the venue, christened “the Great Hall,” with its majestically high ceiling, parallel walls and hard surfaces, was not designed as a theatre hall. Acoustics was therefore a problem – producing excessive echo, high background noise and poor sound/speech absorption. Again, kudos must be given to the Director and the entire cast and crew for being able to give a good account of themselves despite these challenges. Technical resources in the Great Hall should be improved to enhance voice projection and visual output in theatre productions.

• Solomon contributed this piece from the Department of English, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso.