> Beatification of an Area Boy
> King Baabu
«Beatification of Area Boy», 1995
Wole Soyinka's metropolitan kaleidoscope puts the audience amidst the faceted everyday life of post-oilboom-Lagos.
Plakat: Eugen Fleckenstein
The slum Maroko is being burnt down. The very day various persons meet in front of the big shopping centre Plaza in Broadstreet which forms an island of the rich and powerful within the world of the poor.
At the intersection of the two worlds there is Sanda, the clever area boy. New forms of social cohesion, solidarity in misery and self-help in one of the quarters of Lagos, a city where not only public order but also the family structures have failed are at the centre of the play.
The image of beatification freezes into a Nigerian danse macabre. The play was worked as a Nigerian-Swiss-British co-production at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds under the most difficult financial conditions and opened on October 31 in 1995, at a time when intact economic relations were of much greater importance than international cultural projects and intercultural exchange.
The execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his fellow defendants overshadowed the premiere and highlighted the risc taken by Wole Soyinka, threatened and prosecuted himself, with this play. After the Leeds premiere the play toured with great success in Switzerland, Germany and USA in 1996 and also at the Sidney and Pert Festivals in 1997.
Participants:
Script: Wole Soyinka,
Artistic Director: Jude Kelly
Assistant of Artistic Director: Toby Swift,
Actors and Parts: Janice Acquah: Miseyi, Makinde Adeniran: Boyko / Officer's ADC, Femi Elufowoju Jnr.: Sanda, Derek Ezenagu: Cyclist / Groom/Warden, Lilly Friedrich: Foreigner, Folo Graff: Band Member, Marcia Hewitt: Mama Put's Daughter, Miriam Keller: Maid / Band Member, Yomi A. Michaels: Judge / Officer, Anthony Ofoegbu: Parking Attendant / Prisoner/MC, Juwon Ogungbe: Band Leader, Wale Ogunyemi: Barber, Ombo Gogo Ombo: Big Man Shopper / Military Govenor, Denise Orita: Mama Put, Tunji Oyelana: Minstrel, Abu Sidique: Band Member, Olabisi Toluwase: Band Member, Leslie Tuckey: Foreigner, Everal Walsh: Area Two Four / Govenor's ADC, David Webber: Trader
Musical Director: Tunji Oyelana,Juwon Ogungbe, Technical Director: Mike Brown, Richard Grant, Light: Mark Pritchard, Andrè Donzé, Wardrobe: Karin Moffa, Scenery: Niki Turner, Zürich, Production: Niggi Popp, NÀWÁO Produktion Zürich, Organisation and Co-ordination of the Tour: Niggi Popp, Stephanie Guha, NÀWÁO Produktion Zürich
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