Although a soiree/ press night heralded it on Thursday February 29, Saturday March 2 was the D-day when the Lagos Theatre Festival (LTF 2024) unfolded amidst thrills and spills at the Freedom Park, Lagos.
IN its 9th edition, the Lagos Theatre Festival has grown into an anticipated annual ritual, at which theatre enthusiasts and practitioners eagerly look forward to satiating their longings for a unique feast of the performing arts.
Positioned to explore unconventional methods in the Nigerian theatre landscape, this year’s edition of the LTF was themed — Showcase 2024. By all standards, it lived up to its billings when it held Saturday March 2.
LTF 2024 featured four productions in one day, including three from Nigeria and one from the Republic of Ireland.
Tosin Adeyemi, an experienced stage actor, produced the festival and a play entitled “Before I let you go” for B/Rated Productions with an amazing cast — Tope Tedela & Amanda Iriekpen.
While reminiscing on the festival’s level of success, the delectable thespian (Adeyemi) talked about how much the festival has contributed immensely, in the course of its existence, to the cultural landscape of Lagos and the wider Nigerian theatre scene, noting that it has been monumental in terms of its far-flung impact on the ecosystem.
“Lagos Theatre Festival has been part of us for nine years,” said Adeyemi, while stressing on the influence of the festival on the Nigeria theatre stratosphere which she said translates to: “… nine years of funding, support and tremendous growth.”
Speaking about the level of participation this year and how much of her expectation was met, Adeyemi said, at every edition of the festival, people have always come from all over the world to the Freedom Park, Lagos, to partake in the cultural feast.
“We have hosted nine festivals, with over 203 productions, 52 workshops/panels, and over 590 shows. We have reached over 42,800 physically and over 770 million online. A huge feat, if I must say so myself. We curate plays, concerts, poetry sessions, and workshops that reflect our traditions, beliefs, culture, society, and more. We also have showcases and markets included in the programming of the Festival. Imagine walking into the Hub (Freedom Park), and you are greeted with spectacular views, paintings, materials, fabrics, accessories, and storytelling that are particular to tribes in Africa.”
“This is what Lagos Theatre Festival does. We promote our culture by combining every single thing that is African and present it to you for your appreciation. Providing this platform for emerging and established artists to continue to produce impactful work has been the objective of the Festival, and we are committed to running with this vision,” she further said.
Adeyemi, who doubled as producer of the play “Before I let you go”, said the first hurdle was how short a time she had to prepare and to get a script worthy of expression. However, she concluded that she was more particular about the characters “Irene and Gbenga”, and who the actors would be.
“I was optimistic that we would get the best. She said. “Before I let you go” is a dialogue-driven play and the actors needed to be conversational in their delivery. Eventually, I found the best actors, I must say. Tope and Amanda killed every line, every look, every reaction, and the audience felt every single moment. In the end, we achieved our goal of a befitting show!” She concluded.
Equally ecstatic about the success of the play is its director Bimbo Olorunmola. While it’s pretty difficult to identify the most memorable moment from rehearsals to the stage performance, from the point when he got the script, till the play was staged, remains indelible in Olorunmola’s mind.
“Thankfully, we got Tope and Amanda who are heavyweights in their own rights with a great profile in the industry and we pulled it off. Also, you know directing actors with such profiles, presents its own challenges,” Olorunmola said.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to direct this profile of actors, so that was one landmark for me. Doing a 2-man piece can be pretty hard. The goal was to present something intimate, drawing the audience into the play via Irene and Gbenga’s connection and bringing the nuances of two people, just having conversation without being overly dramatic with unnecessary movements and the actors being “larger than life” like a lot of people imagine that theatre should be,” Olorunmola concluded.
One of the actors, Amanda Iriekpen had limited expectations prior rehearsals which were later stretched and surpassed: “At first, I was scared I didn’t have enough time to get all the lines whilst understanding the character and that I might eventually flop.” Iriekpen said.
“I had to intentionally program my mind to believe it was already perfect even though I had no clue what I was doing. When rehearsals started, it took me a while to adjust to certain rules of stage performances like moving around the space and being audible but I’m a quick learner so thankfully, I could grasp a lot in a short time. In all, I had an amazing experience and I’ll definitely love to do it again.” She added.
Tope Tedela said: “I was drawn to the juxtaposition of Lagos as a character, the idea of love at first sight, witty dialogue, the exploration of family dynamics and the realities of migration aka Japa in this day and age. The play examines these themes without being overly pedantic while setting up an entertaining journey to take audiences on.
Tedela while giving an overview of the festival outing said: “It was an amazing experience working with Bimbo and Tosin of B-Rated Productions who are not only deft at their roles of director and producer, respectively, but also great human beings. It was a marvel watching the director shape and reshape the material while taking feedback from the team. And working with my co-star Amanda Iriekpen was a most pleasurable experience: she grilled me and was willing to go the extra mile. We turned out better for it.”
