(PERFORMED AT THE NEW ARTS THEATRE, UNN ON THE 6TH OF MAY, 2021)
DIRECTOR: Ugochukwu Victor Ugwu
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Kasarachi Okpe
CAST: Kosi Ejikeme, Aina Adebola, Chimaobi Okolo, Lorenzo Menakaya, Chudi Mike, Simon Ebuka Ugwu, Oyindamola Adesunloye.
Runtime: 1 hour 17 minutes
The playwright, Chetachi Igbokwe, displays such mastery of twisting plots and gradually unfurling resolutions that his Homecoming, as Mr Nnamdi Ozioko – a lecturer at the department of English and Literary Studies, UNN – puts it, leaves one “helplessly involved” so that one cannot resist the feeling of fear, pity and sympathy which draws itself overwhelmingly over the spectator. It is with this that one raises the question: what exactly is this thing we call craft? In my own terms, Igbokwe’s play gives off quite a luxurious answer to this. From the carefully chosen characters, to the delightful dialogues, down to the fluid blend of the tragic and the comic, one would easily say that Igbokwe’s Homecoming is good craft, that it would always stir the air, any time, any day.
The play, Homecoming, tells of the tragic hero, Nwakibe, who in search of his only son, Nebeolisa, ends up in greater misery. The play reminds us of the Igbo folkloric Ojaadili who, seeking to prove his ‘warriorship’ in the land of the spirits, murders his own “chi” in a combat. Nwakibe’s case, however, does not arise from an ego unbridled as we see in Ojaadili’s. His is rather borne from the many implications which circumscribe his situation – his tragic situation. For one, Nwakibe is brought to realize that Nebeolisa, his only son, is the root way to the continuity of his lineage, as it’s a thing unheard of (particularly in the Igbo society) to let one’s lineage die in one’s hands. To this, Nebeolisa becomes the kernel of life. Nwakibe’s plight is as well heightened by his wife, Adannaya, who as it is, has lost her mind to the yawning yet unspoken grief of her son’s disappearance. With this, Nwakibe sits with the realization that he is in fact all by himself, a saviour, in whose arms the lives of many are carefully strung.
One would not fail to notice how the playwright laces each event in the play so that it comes off with the overall glam of this thing we call ‘craft’. We notice that each character is woven with his or her own complexities so that no one is exactly left out of the whole. Mr Writer, played by Chimaobi Okolo, prides himself over Nwakibe’s situation. He does not yet see that he is in fact entangled to Nwakibe’s careless fate; he does not see that he is the answer Nwakibe is seeking for, right beneath his roof; a scapegoat. Hence, the complication of tragedy sets in, its wired interlacement. Igbokwe weaves this nest so perfectly that one cannot exactly resist being helplessly involved, as stated earlier. We see how the actor, Kosi Ejikeme, clearly mirrors Nwakibe’s tragic fate. What’s more than the way he “hmms” from time to time, his shoulders stooped, his walking step and walking stick all bringing to light the unseen weight he bears. What interests me particularly is the way this actor so livens the action so that one wonders if the emotion stems from a personal experience, if he was indeed reliving a burden through the play. I so adore the way he sustains the tension in the play, never over-doing it or under-doing it either. The part could’ve been acted by someone else and the weight of the emotion lost but Kosi Ejikeme does not allow this.
There is something particular I find about Adannaya’s insaneness – Adannaya’s part was acted by Aina Adebola. Even though there are no specific scenes in the play to point this out, I still like to think that Adannaya’s case is occasioned by grief; this sort of grief you do not really celebrate because you just cannot believe it, you cannot even bear to infer it so you let it numb you like that, you let time pass, hoping it disappears. Of course, it usually doesn’t disappear. Adannaya’s case heightens, it develops into something like madness so that all she does is write letters to this son of hers, Nebeolisa, who is always on her mind. This is the picture of love we find, hanging high above everything in the play. Aina Adebola, by the way she reflects the character, does not give us room to doubt at any point that Adannaya is indeed mentally unstable. I particularly like the way she says “good, good” like “geed, geed”. She so perfectly merges with the character so that there is nothing stalling the action from being natural. I think I now have an image of her as “Adannaya” in my head.
Igbokwe’s craft is one which reverses the wheel of convention such that inspite of the play’s somewhat glum subject matter, the entire theatre was ablare with laughter. Everyone who watched the play would attest to the swift blend of the comic and the tragic in one piece that would almost leave one literally braying with laughter while shedding tears. The intricate weaving of characters, the patterning of their lives and the careful organization of their actions is something the playwright does with firsthand mastery. By tying the characters’ fate to one man and binding that one man to the conflict of saving himself as well as others, we are again thrown into catharsis, in pity and fear for this tragic hero, Nwakibe, who ends up saving no one, not even himself. His tragedy thus evidently becomes ‘the very blight he was born for’.
In truth, the realness of Igbokwe’s Homecoming is something one cannot help but remark upon. The characters are individuals not distant or unduly high ranked; their dialogues are so relatable and easily comprehensible; the life and action put into the play by the actors indeed transits the play from merely a written piece to a portrayal of real-life so that one is tempted to wonder if indeed the story had happened before. The characters’ blend of English and Igbo language brings to fore a beautiful voicing of culture. The intervallic dimming of lights as well as the piano’s intermittent sounds contributed solemnly to building up tension in the play. Even more, the chorus which spiced up the play gave off such likeness to the Classic Greek plays. Indeed, the play being of good craft seemed enough to tack whatever flaws that might have been there present in the eventual pull-off of everything.
With this, one may now discern, with wide lenses, that thing we mean when we say ‘craft’.
Bio: Iheoma J. Uzomba studies English and Literary Studies at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She is a performance poet and vocalist who loves folk with all her heart. Her works feature or are forthcoming on Rattle, The Shore poetry, Kissing Dynamite, The Rising Phoenix Review, The Muse Journal and elsewhere.
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