SWAYED BY THE SPIRIT


Odia Ofeimun’s serious gaze was often broken as a smile cascaded across his face, and despite the scarcity of discernible humour from the poet he was still enjoying himself as another play held sway within the dimly lit conference hall of Terra Kulture in the Victoria Island neighbourhood of Tiamiyu Savage. Once again, it was hosting the Jero Plays and the aim was to celebrate Soyinka’s 76th birthday which occurred on July 13. After last year’s performances, the cast had changed. Ditto the Lagos Bar Beach which had inspired the tale of sand, deception and gifted rogues in white garbs.
The costumes were also sporting some improvements as the dominant white hue showed its predilection for blending with virtually any complexion from the colour circle. And if you were one of those still in doubt about the rationale for staying on the beach, the sixties play by Wole Soyinka showed why beach business was and still remains a very religious and lucrative enterprise via Jero (played by Sola Roberts Iwaotan). The duty of the recalcitrant man-of-God after liberating himself from his angry boss is to tender God’s flock on the earth, an effort he tackles via deception and trickery as his disciples like Chume (Kanayo Larry Okani) are suspended in an unsatisfied state due to Jero’s deliberate antics.
The man of God does not hide this strategy during his dialogues with the audience as he explains that he deliberately prevents Chume from beating his wife Amope (Ijeoma Grace Agu). But even immaculate Jeroboam, the articulate leader of God’s Christ’s crusade is an unsatisfied fellow as his time on the beach still engenders comments like “If only I had this beach to myself”. This hunger for bigger things allows a peek into the style of crooked individuals who sway their targets with colour and appeals to the imagination. Like the ventriloquist, his gullible servants are swayed with all sorts of antics and make-believe. Things continue until the lid of his game is blown open when Chume discovers he is actually the debtor his wife has moved house to lay-in-wait for. With the truth overrunning the lies he has fed Chume, the willing disciple becomes an antagonist who chases his former mentor with a cutlass at the end of the first play. This sour conclusion triggers the commencement of Jero’s Metamorphosis, and not much has changed in the sequel despite the crooked man of God nearly losing his head. Armed with a new sidekick he calls Sister Rebecca (Jumoke Lahdi Bello), a former employee of the town planning council, they are up to a new wave of deception. By using the government’s own tool against it, he commences a plot to acquire the beach and conscript fellow beach churches headed by Shadrach (Gbenga Adekanbi), Ananias (Kenneth Uphopho), Isaac (Precious Anyanwu Marcuos) and Martha (Ijeoma Grace Agu). Like Jero, the so-called soldiers of salvation have terrible pasts right behind them despite their professed rebirth, an effort that has increased their demons instead of reducing them. Jero has them all by the balls, and he uses this craftily till a conclusion that can only spell doom for Christianity and the contested beach which eventually comes under the influences of the Church of the Apostolic Salvation (CASA). Chume also stages a comeback to the pack as Brigadier Joshua of the latest army after time in the asylum and a renewal of spirits under the Salvation Army. With an umpteenth christening from Jero, his kissing of Jero’s signet ring signals the dog’s return to its vomit, a pathetic sight which is another nail in the coffin of religion.
Any semblance of resistance is removed after a missing file and the unrelenting stupidity of a missing council official leaves the Tourism Board Executive (Austin Onuoha) powerless to Jero’s demands, and he finally bows to the wishes of the crafty Jero who emerges at the end of proceedings in military regalia, a scene rekindling the veracity of earlier comments that “by the cut of his tailor, a man is known”. He is not alone as his beach competitors minus Shadrach look regal in their new found military uniforms. This denouement attracts a shake of the head from most viewers, the only pitiful reaction to the tragedy of religion and thoughts on how many devouring prophets litter reality disguised as sheep.
First staged in 1960, the Jero plays witness some alterations under the day’s performance by the Renegade Theatre. As always, contemporary incidents like the national team’s recent World Cup catastrophe via Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Sanni Kaita are spread over parts of the first drama. It offers some dynamism, but sadly slows the tempo of the scenes down at some points. The anomaly still allows the play its role of engendering a recall of one of the most popular Soyinka plays, an effort that packs lessons on appearance and reality, different sides to the whole coin of religion and life.