It was not all about books at the recent week-long opening ceremonies for the Port Harcourt World Book Capital (PHWOBC) 2014 in the Rivers State capital. Prominent among the events was the staging, twice, of the play, Obele & the Story Teller.
Graham Douglas
Produced by Bikiya Graham-Douglas’ Beeta Universal Arts Foundation (BUAF), it first held at the Main Banquet Hall, Rivers State Government House, and at the Main Banquet Hall of the Hotel Presidential.
Some of the guests who only saw the command performance at Government House might have gone home with a wrong impression. This is because not only did the acoustics perform woefully at the first showing, some of the guests were tired from the many activities earlier in the day and just slept off.
The musical is a telling tour of the evolution of the spoken word to the written and then to the book form, culminating in the invention of the printing press and how that changed the Nigerian society.
Obele, played by Sieta Iwu, one of the few members of cast from Port Harcourt, is the mouth-piece for the ageing community story-teller. She takes his tales round the country long before it got the name, Nigeria.
Written by Oladipo Agboluaje and directed by Israel Eboh, it is set in Okriki with village people going about their daily activities and even dealing with rumours of war.
The soulful music score was by Ayo Ajayi, who also handled the music for Saro: The Musical; so it was easy to see people in the not very full hall not only enjoying the acting but also dancing to the music.
It was a befitting production for the PHWBC ceremony deserving of all the accolades the cast and crew got.
The award-winning Graham-Douglas, who was very willing to share the spotlight, said in an interview after the event that Agboluaje did a great deal to put life into the production, as did the rest of the castr and crew.
Also known for her acting, Graham-Douglas said it was because she did not want the production to fail, that she auditioned in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
“I wanted the best to do the job and I got them,” she said.
She explained that a sequel will show soon, where new Nigerian writers will tell their story and how such impact the society.
She added that as a native of Port Harcourt and someone who is in the art, her desire has always been to “come back home and create opportunities for people to be involved in reviving this culture”.
