MAGMA PLAYHOUSE
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MAGMA PLAYHOUSE |
See the StageMight production of "RLW... Night Service".
Other forthcoming StageMight plays by Lifeshots |
Reverend Father John is a man in service of the church. Weak like other men, he is however daring enough to be more relevant to his time and place than to himself. Sergeant Kondo is just another callous, ever armed policeman on the beat where he thrives on extortion of illegal levies and taxes from all who may have whatsoever transaction on the road. Vaniti is the miss-spelt name of a street-wise girl in her early twenties called Vanity. A prostitute, though some have called her a sex worker; she prefers the original name instead. And when she decides to be overtly courteous she introduces herself as an actress. A superstar! She believes the business is not a means to an end but an end in itself. A way of life. A profession. Some believe this is vain. And that everything about her, including her "sisters". Beauty and Savvy, are the same. Lucky is the paradoxical name of a man of many celebrated conquests in several spheres of life, except one that eluded him, because it never appealed to him as something that had to be conquered… until he met… Vaniti. These are the characters that play, "Night Service" - a romantic satire - revolves around. Night Service is about this night Vaniti decides not to venture into new locations with her "sisters" Beauty and Savvy, but to remain at her usual place to conduct her "business" A night Reverend John was conducting a solemn night service alone. The same night Sergeant Kondo wants more than just cash tax from Vaniti. What he wants is what the overtly business-principled girl would never give without price. And so for her safety of life and what-is-property, she must flee. Both run into the church. Vaniti undetected, but not the gun totting police sergeant who John sends out from the place for his sacrilege. Vaniti seeks temporary refuge with John from Kondo. But learns that the priest would rather pitch tent with what is established rule than an individual injury. Disappointed, she decides to manipulate him. Seduce him. Seduce a priest. Rather than be seduced however, John decides to exert himself… In the affair that develops between the priest, the policeman and the prostitute, the men plot to rehabilitate her from her "business" to a more acceptable life, in spite of her obstinacy. However, when eventually Vaniti meets Lucky and all ends well, Reverend John and Sergeant Kondo cannot quite conclude if they were the architects of the girl's new life, or if they had been mere tools in the hands of the irrepressible, counter-plotting daughter of eve.
"The object of this play, being to intimate the individual and the society that man is essentially what he choose to make of his time and place, is sought from the onset with a prologue featuring six (6) remnant folk of a wedding party who are the characters that create and play the romantic satire". |
Curfew is a tragedy where poverty has failed as an excuse for a life of banditry even in a society with little care for the lure of filthy lucre on its youths. It is also the tail of a people who had sown the wind and how they faired reaping the whirlwind. Featuring characters with names like Alhaji Abubakar, Chief Babalola, Mazi Dike, Madam Christy, and Mr. Okon among others, the place the play portrays could be of any neighbourhood in any State of the Federation. The above poster is of the StageMight 2000 production of Curfew in Festac Town, Lagos. PUBLISHER: ...Unlike the proverbial old dog that cannot be taught new tricks a nation, can always be taught new ways. Can always be rejuvenated. Rejuvenated by her youths.... who when they were not at school learning were at the playgrounds discovering their talents and the secrets of the mysteries their parents and their time had posed to them. Then all of a sudden there were no more schools. All their teachers had embarked on long incessant strikes. As for their playgrounds, they had altogether vanished. In their places were big-big mansions, and all manner of unscrupulous business houses: gambling houses, club houses and beer parlours... And so left to these the youths had to thrive on them... INNOCENT: But is it this misery of yours that you call life, Nduka? Is that what is paramount to you?You have no job and may never get any because there is none. Anyone who creates a job for you today only seeks to exploit you in your misery to his own profit. Not to help you better your life, no! SOLOMON: And your parents, why should you listen to them? What can they help you with, when they are so poor and impoverished? INNOCENT: All because in their own time, when they as young as you are now, they grew soft and refused to plunder what was meant to be plaundered and spent! OLOYE: And what is there to fear for, I ask? What? Who is afraid of the police in a society where everything has a price? E-v-e-r-y-thing! NDUKA: For how long shall we go on like this, mother? For how long? These rags I am wearing are all I have. I am old enough to cater for myself but here I am still suckling from you. To nfeed in this house is a struggle against the very pangs of death! Tell me mother, what hope is there for me? What hope? MAMA ADA: Do not be hard on yourself, son. Life is full-... NDUKA: Life? You call these life? Let's be candid to ourselves for once mother. This is not life. This is worse than death! MAMA ADA: (Suddenly indifferent) What would you have then? A share of the nation's loot? NDUKA:Yes mother! And I shall have it. Except I am not born to this nation. * * * * * * * The closing dirge of the play sums it all: There's a mother who lost her son To the whims and caprices of his time And society blames her for the loss Who shall comfort her in her grief? Oh come let us mourn (Mourn for our loss) Oh come let us weep (Weep for our time) When the innocent is taken The wise-one gone The royal-born has fallen The greater life is lost.
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Since then, there's been several other plays written for StageMight. And so the theatre outfit exists today quietly and steadily pursuing social reforms, as it were, and serving as an outlet for recreation and promotion of life and arts in it's time and place...  Cast and crew members of StageMight Makurdi, May 1998
A compilation of overviews and interviews with pics on past, present and upcoming events of the playhouse... |
- © 2002 StateHOPE! Entertainment |
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