A Review

Over the weekend, precisely sunday the 25th,I was at the Muson Centre, to watch Laspapi's play,titled anatomy of a woman, dedicated to a special lady,"In whose mind he has walked".

With Jola's encouragement,I am writing this review.
The play lasted for an hour, very funny and precise.

Review of Anatomy of a Woman written and directed by Wole Oguntokun which debuted on Sunday March 25, 2007 at the Muson Centre,Onikan, Lagos.

Introduction
Pre-show entertainment consisted of Ayokunmi Orobiyi who serenaded the audience with her melodious voice, my favorite of all the four songs she sang before the group Nefretti joined her was "Ogorogoro se ki sa!". Nefretti accompanied her on stage, with their "shekere" and sang very well too. I don't know if was the plan of the organisers but the pre-show entertainment went on for too long they sang like eight or nine songs in all.

When it was time for the play to start, the audience was taken by surprise when a young lady seated in audience just screamed all of a sudden, a security man walked in and the lady explains that the young man sitting beside her was trying to "touch" her, the young man quietly leaves the auditorium. The security man asks if she is okay, she responds that she is fine ( at that point, the audience realises it is part of the play) she wonders aloud, "What if he bought me a ticket on put me on a plane to London?" What will he do?

Plot
The play consisted of five main characters - Bolatito – the protagonist is a young modern working woman, pretty, smart, well read and soft spoken.
Aunty Jebe (m y favorite character) is Bolatito's aunt, a middle aged woman, spectacled, sarcastic and funny.
Mohammed is Bolatito's ex-boyfriend, well read, speaks well but jobless, rough looking, always carrying a school bag.
James is Bolatito's friend,who is in love with her. The Boss/Chief is Bolatito's boss, he is not the typical pot bellied type, he is Yoruba, rich and cannot speak English properly.

The play is centred on Bolatito, who lives alone in her well furnished apartment.
She is faced with the challenge almost every young working woman has - Finding the right man? The three men at her disposal, are not good enough for her.

James is a good looking young man who is in love with Bolatito and assumes Bolatito is in love with him too, simply because they often hang out together. He proposes to her all of a sudden, Bola refuses the proposal and she is angry at his assumption, asking James why he did not find out from her if she was in love with him and if she was ready to give up everything and follow him.

Mohammed her ex, is a lazy man, with many words but no job, and no prospects of finding one. He left Bola, eleven months ago, to tour the country - no letters, email or texts and all of a sudden he shows up at her door - expecting to pick up from where they left off.

The Boss: aka Chief, adores Bolatito and wants to take care of her. He is a divorcée with kids. He is gives Bolatito a well-furnished apartment and a car with the hope that she will respond with love.

Aunty Jebe wants to marry of her niece to the highest bidder. She warns Bolatito that there is no such thing as a perfect man, she prefers the Chief, likes James and detests Mohammed, who she calls a stray who Bolatito is trying to help till he can find his feet.
The acting was superb and seamless. It is important to point out that all except Stella are professional stage actors. ( This my first time seeing her on stage, she was great!)

The storyline was simple and short. I feel it should have been named, Anatomy of a Modern Young Woman because it did not define all the underlying issues for the Nigerian woman.

Costumes
Aunty Jebe's costumes were the best - glasses, gele, funny-shaped gown and slippers.

Mohammed's costumes were also good - unkempt afro,corduroy pants,tee shirt,school bag.

Chief's costumes were also good and I particularly loved the damask shokoto and buba he had on at the end of the play.

James' costumes were just okay, but I didnot like the fact that he had to repeat costumes (although he had only two scenes) he should have changed into something sleek, a really nice suit not necessarily a three-piece. In addition, his hair was unkempt and he looked like a Deeper -Life- brother just getting into the groove. He looked too uptight.

Stella's costumes were good, but there was a scene where she wore jeans to work, though with a suit. I did not really feel it.

Highlights
The scene where Bolatito returns from the date with her boss, holding her shoes in her hands. She turns to crowd and asks - What does a woman really want?
Rhetorically asking why nobody ever asks what a woman wantsrather than making assumptions for the woman.
In the words of her mother, she describes the woman as a tiger, saying 'IT IS THE ENIGMA OF THE TIGER THAT SAVES THE TIGER "
In the last scene, when chief sees Bolatito and James together just returning from an outing, he is upset and he, Mohammed and James get into a fight with Aunty Jebe trying to settle it all. Suddenly, they all appear frozen on-stage and Bolatito has a chance to assess the men in her life and analyzes why she cannot marry any of them.

Mohammed: They might be happy for a few years in name of love but he is lazy, and after a few years when he has still found no job (with the lame excuse of not wanting to be treated anyhow by any employer), he will spend all of Bolatito's money demanding for new electronics and all, and when she decides to further her education, he will complain and say it is waste of resources.

James: A good guy too, but he will not want for her to "progress" at work, asking her to decline all promotions that will increase her salary and make her earn more than her man.

The Boss: Yes, he has all the money, but will not want her to work or have any business of her own until she has like four or five kids for him.

In the end, she analyzes all her suitors and decides that none of them is good enough for her.

Overall, the play was good, addressing the issues, most modern young women face today. There are the issues of identity, being who she wants to be and pressure to fit in to what the society and her family expects her to be. This is deeply resonated in the play as Bolatito expresses that all a woman wants is the right to be what she wants to be.

NB: I met the Ibru sisters