By Anote Ajeluorou
Perhaps, it is no longer news that two Broadway-style
musical theatres – Kakadu and Wakaa! The Musical - will rock Lagos
city this Christmas. But what may be news for both new and old enthusiasts of Kakadu, written and produced by Mr. Uche
Nwokedi (a Senior Advocate of Nigeria - SAN), is that a painter of immense ability
has also set to work to paint some of the scenes and performers onto canvas as
a way of immortalising the fleeting historical moments captured in the musical
drama. From this part of the world, this is obviously a first, and Nwokedi is
excited about it.
At his Five Ways law
chamber in Lekki last weekend, Nwokedi expressed enthusiasm towards the new
synergy and praised Alakija’s passion in working among the cast, taking
photographs and painting furiously to realize the project. The paintings will
be on display alongside the performance of Kakadu
starting from December 29, 30, 2015 through January 1, 2 and 3, 2016 at
MUSON Centre.
According to
Nwokwdi, “Kakadu has its own energy;
there’s a certain temperament all its own about it. We’ve also made a lot of
changes to it, especially in the musical rendition. There are some drastic
changes although it is the same story. Of course, you don’t want to change a
successful story”.
Although the same theme the cast is 80 per
cent new, it tallies with Nwokedi’s historical projection of the musical theatre.
As he put it, “I
thought that since this is essentially our 4th run of Kakadu, it would be useful that the emphasis be placed on youth and
relatively new talent. Why? Nigeria at the time of independence in 1960 was a
very young country with plenty of human capital and potential. Some of our
ministers in the First Republic were in their mid-twenties, and when Yakubu Gowon
became Head of State, he was the youngest in the world at the time. Casting
this time was more to emphasise the historicity of the production”.
Kanayo Omo is
director while Benneth Ogbeiwei is musical director.
Kakadu is a dramatic and musical recreation of Kakadu Night Club in
Lagos’ 1960s that mirrors the unbounded optimism and feel-good mood of the
period shortly after Nigeria’s independence in the music and the lifestyle. But
things soon come to a head with violence in the north that would lead to
avoidable bloody civil war that pitched one part of the country against another.
What has become of the soul of Nigeria after that needless war 45 years on
since the war ended in 1970?
An artist statement from Alakija on the
synergy between Kakadu and her
artistic rendering of it on canvas, says, “When I was approached by producer
Uche Nwokedi, to be a ‘visiting artist,’ to tell a visual story of the cast of Kakadu whilst they rehearsed, I was
expecting that this would be a wonderfully hedonistic way to end the year. I
had in my mind the visual feast of the first production, the costumes, the
colour, the music and dance routines. How wrong I was.
“This production is no mere indulgence in the glamour and optimism of
the 1960s. Sitting in on the rehearsals was so much more than this. What I
witnessed was producer, director and cast re-living and learning about the
political situation in Nigeria in the 1960s and how optimism turned into
destruction and the pain and suffering that ensued. So my imagery could not be
a mere visual representation of a cast in character. The line between being in
character and living the pain has become blurred for this cast. I am not sure
myself if I am representing cast or character, but the emotions are real, be it
pain, outrage or joy”.
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