The ninth edition of the annual Jos Festival of Theatre ended in the Tin City of Plateau State on Saturday, March 14, on a very impressive note. The closing play by Sefi Atta titled ‘Last Stand’ elicited a lot of applause as well as comments from the many members of audience drawn from different walks of life. It was directed by the festival’s artistic director/producer and founder of the Jos Repertory Theatre (JRT), Patrick-Jude Oteh.
From around Jos and beyond, theatre-goers came to support the one festival that brings together people of different faiths in the city that has endured crisis in recent time. For the five days that the festival ran, all thoughts of the uneasy peace that has become the hallmark of the home of peace and tourism were jettisoned from the minds of those who attended, and what a multitude that was, with each day averaging 300 guests.
After the last play was staged, Oteh was all thanks to the audience, sponsors and the actors whose contributions made the festival possible. Despite the challenges of programming, before and after the general elections were postponed, Oteh said, it gladdened the heart that the festival, which took place in the grounds of the Alliance Francaise in Jos, recorded such a high turnout.
“We are hoping that our 10th festival will be bigger than this,” he said, and the audience responded with a resounding “amen”. However, laughter followed when he added: “And we would all pay gate fee.”
He said that by next year, election would have come and gone, hence the programme of the festival is expected to be smooth, unlike this year which resulted in a lot of pressure.
Indeed, it was a very theatre-aware audience that graced the five-day festival which opened on March 10 with August Wilson’s play, King Hedley II. Oteh had also directed the tragi-comedy that had members of cast including Mark Musa, Olajumoke Olatunbosun, David Maisamari, Ejiroghene Oghenechovwen, Patience John-Ebute and Terna Torkwembe.
The audience laughed, applauded and even cried as the action unfolded. Even the representative from the United States Mission in Nigeria, one of the major supporters of the festival, Robert Kerr, was enamoured by the production, which he watched. He told reporters that the events took place in Pittsburgh, a city in the United States of America (U.S.A.) where he was born, and that the performance was good.
“I was very impressed,” he said. Refusing to say who his favourite actor for the night was, he just said: “I like them all.”
Other plays staged at the festival were Adinoyi-Ojo Onukaba’s Body Parts, Jacinto Benavente’s The Bonds of Interest and Barclays Ayakoroma’s Castle in the Air. Body Parts, directed by Sogie Guobadia, was premiering at the festival and the playwright, who said he wrote the play last year, and delighted with the performance.
He said the play was about the issue of unemployment, especially among young people and the desperation it creates in them to want to sell a part of their body.
“In doing this, I am highlighting what most people call a time bomb in Nigeria,” he said.
Reuben Embu of the Department of Theatre Arts, University of Jos, who taught the master class workshop on directing and acting, was equally impressed, so was the medical doctor friend he had invited to see the plays in the festival.
There was also a master class in art management, which was taught by Oteh.
Evangeline Walters, who is Brand Manager (Edibles) of Grand Cereals Limited, a major supporter of the festival from the beginning, was not only impressed with the festival, she said her company supported it because it saw the zeal in Oteh to make a success out of the festival.
“This is the way we feel we can give back to the society, as a corporate social responsibility (CSR), because Jos is our base,” she explained.
She called on other corporate bodies and individuals to support the festival, since it helps to develop the youths. “If we don’t support the youths, how will they grow; how will they see acting as something they can feed from?”
A guest, who gave his name simply as Musa and has followed the festival since inception nine years ago, said the festival has always produced top notch performances that are very interesting.
“Basically, each of the plays they have reflects what happens in the society, with a moral imperative for us to learn from the political, social and economic angle, and what family values ought to be and should be,” he said.
