Theatre of the Ungrateful: Why Kinky Musicals Sell Better than Old School Plays

The 22nd International African Writers Day of the Pan African Writers’ Association (PAWA) chose a very interesting working sub-theme for this year’s celebration: ‘The Discombobulation of a Rookie Patriot.’ Translated into everyday Ghanaian English, it means ‘the confusion of a novice new to patriotism.’ This year’s festival, which is dedicated to “Celebrating the Life and Works of African Literature: The coming of age of African Literature,” also comes with an international conference.

In Achebe’s honour, PAWA tasked the Abibigromma resident theatre company to produce two plays based on two Achebe novels: ‘A Man of the People’ and ‘Arrow of God’. With the PAWA conference holding at the International Conference Centre and the Achebe plays performed over two nights at the National Theatre, there did not seem to be any discombobulation about the 22nd African Writers’ Day.

The publicity and promotion of the PAWA season had been very impressive. In the Daily Graphic alone, there were not less than four full page colour advertisements. The events had also been promoted on the webpage of PAWA and other pro-Ghanaian internet portals. We expected the season to lift off with a literary roar, bringing together all theatre lovers in Ghana to celebrate the works of a great African writer whose phenomenal influence and scholarship outlives and outspans his good life.

Osofisan’s stage adaptation of ‘A Man of the People’ was ready to show at the National Theatre. Enter Prof Atukwei Okine, Secretary-General of PAWA, followed by Prof Kofi Anyidoho from the University of Ghana’s English Department. Then Mrs. Dove, the woman who taught me Speech at the School of Performing Arts years ago. Behind her were old very faces that have laboured to groom and nurture the Ghanaian theatre industry.

These are the patriots who wrote and acted in the old school plays before the National Theatre was built. In those days, we called it theatre and the actors and actresses appreciated acting as a calling, not a business, or even a profession.

Alas, the theatre is full of ironies. Maybe this is where the discombobulation lies. These old school theatre performers should have been very rich after pouring their energies into an art form that predates creation. Drama is life on stage. They looked hearty and cheerful but not as rich as the art they have perfected. These were patriots in whose place some young rookies acting out kinky roles in musical performances are today reaping fat box office sales from an audience that seemed to have forgotten the hard beginnings of the development of traditional theatre.

You would think “Femi Osofisan’s dramatic rendition of a Chinua Achebe novel”, as the PAWA Secretary-General put it in his introductory remarks, would attract a packed audience at the National Theatre, especially if it is also free. Less than a third of the capacity space of the Theatre had been filled when the play opened. The audience composed of mostly old and known theatre enthusiasts, people from the arts sector, and some local and foreign dignitaries. I saw one of President Kwame Nkrumah’s ministers, K. B. Asante, and a few distinguished statesmen. This audience was different from the young, flamboyant and stylish professional class who attend musicals.

This was no small event. PAWA is a body of the finest and intelligent writers on the African continent, including Wole Soyinka, Thandika Nkandewire and Kofi Awoonor of blessed memory. The African Union has always supported the Writer’s Day with its weighty authority, affording it some continental importance. If people pay good money to watch musicals about love, debauchery and raw buffoonery, they should be made to pay to see a good play directed by one of Africa’s fantastic playwrights.

As free as it was, it was quite expensive for the Ghanaian theatre lover. A few weeks, before that performance, I had joined a very long queue at the same venue to see a musical. I had struggled to park my car and had to walk a few minutes to the entrance of the theatre, where young ladies branded in colourful promotional shirts greeted me with expensive tickets. I had been told that it is cheaper to buy the tickets before the show at designated supermarkets, petrol stations and some radio houses.

The National Theatre was packed to full capacity, almost bursting at the seams. It was not just theatre as usual; it was business well planned and executed with a comprehensive marketing strategy and clear brand building tactics. It was after all, a musical.
Why did the Achebe play attract only a few audience, despite the good publicity? Chinua Achebe is a brand?

Who in this country hasn’t heard or read about ‘Things Fall Apart’? Yet we fell apart when a play on one of his plays was showing for free at the best venue any theatre production could offer. This is a theatre of the ungrateful. Why do modern audiences prefer musicals to traditional theatre? Is it the music, the lyrics or the dance that makes the musical attractive to the young audience? Is traditional theatre boring or just too unsexy for a modern audience who cook their meals on social media?

The musical has succeeded in breaking box office records because it is interesting, engaging and active. Even if you were a theatre rookie, you will not sleep in the middle of a musical. The audience is invited to sing along and own the quintessential theatre experience while soaking in the life lessons effectively dramatized on stage.

Traditional theatre is quite strict. Until the joke is clear, you do not get to laugh. In musicals, the joke is on you, and it stays with you. Kinky Boots is a new musical presently showing in Canada and around the world. True to its name, the advertisement of the show is very kinky, with a lady’s sexy leg revealing a real kinky boot for musical effect.

By the way, Abibigromma did a good job with the portrayal of ‘A Man of the People.’ Chief Nanga played by Pius Vordzorgbe and Young Odili by Bright Tefe were good cases of verisimilitude gone right. If you have read the novel, you found Achebe’s power of characterization exemplified in these roles by the Abibigromma group.

While the tattered carpets at the National Theatre need to be replaced immediately before the next major production, there is reason to commend the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare and her deputy, Dzifa Abla Gomashie, for supporting and sustaining the public’s interest in the creative arts. Theatre these days comes with a literary ‘swag’, thanks to Chinua Achebe, Femi Osofisan, Martin Owusu and Uncle Ebo Whyte. Well, PAWA started it all.