Theatre:Becoming… Sonuga Takes Women’s Issues To The Big Stage
BEYOND the entertainment and
feminine spectacle which it provided in
amplitude inside Agip Recital Hall,
MUSON Centre, Lagos, the Titilope
Sonuga-inspired Becoming show last
weekend is somewhat difficult to
describe. Perhaps, architect-turned-
spoken word poet, Sonuga’s telling title
of her first act ‘Have you seen a woman?’
gives insight into the direction of the all-
women’s concert.
Who exactly is a woman and happens in
her world? How do men perceive her,
relate with her? Does she get the best
from the world she inhabits? What are
her fears? What gives her happiness and
how does she get it? How do the men
around her help her achieve happiness?
In all, what is her place in society?
Have you seen a woman?’ is Sonuga’s
loaded question for society and for the
men who co-inhabit different spaces
with the women in their lives. At what
point does a woman’s ‘no’ translates into
‘yes’ that encourages men to inflict all
manners of emotional pain on her? It
became the defining question for the
show, as Sonuga explored the many
facets of a woman in the course of the
evening in her enchanting, impeccable
spoken delivery in a poetry that
transported the audience’s soul to
magical realms. Hers isn’t the usual ball-
bashing type like her co-performer in
music Ruby Gyang, but a firm
engagement with the male folk. Neither
does she spare women either; Sonuga
wants her kind to be clear-eyed in their
relationships and to know when to pull
back.
So, it was an enactment of a woman
story from her beginning, early years
and its travails, her midlife and its
inevitable crisis, with her men. This was
Sonuga’s story of epic proportion told
with warmth and empathy.
But it was the free-spirited Falana,
formerly based in Cuba, who started the
showpiece evening with her skills on the
drums that produced a stirring
performance, as the hall boomed with
her voice and hands in an all-female
band – two guitarists, one saxophonist,
one drummer, Chopsticks and two
vocalists. Falana’s stage presence was
inspiring as she traversed, possessed it
with the ease and fluidity of a nymph.
The set design by Jude Okpala and his
crew provided a magical accompaniment
to the near-all white-clad female
performers; it was a set for angels, and
it lent a certain halloo to the acts.
Sonuga’s second entry with the story of a
girl-child’s birth and on which the
question hangs, came with the
accompaniment of Yoruba chants
supplied by Deborah, an enchantress of
some power. And so, at what point does
the gloriousness of such birth begin to
transform into something other than
what it was to an object of uncertain
future to be toyed by men? From here,
Sonuga begins to explore love found and
lost.
When Omloara came on with ‘I’ll be
your love,’ she really got the hall rocking
to her beats. Then Sonuga came back
with ‘There are a few things more
beautiful than a sunset…’ that ends with
the inevitable pains a woman is plunged
by the one she loves. Falana then
intervened before Sonuga could begin to
rebrand women and lift them up from
the ashes of a bitten love with her 10
receipts, as she sings softly, ‘Know when
to leave…/know when to burn the
bridges…’
But Ruby Gyang will have none of that
softness from women who are spurned
in love as her music ‘Ok’ takes a turn
and asserts that a woman be strong and
bold to take the exit and not allow
anyone crumble her world for her. She
toughens the ladies ‘on how to handle
breakups and not beg.’ Beyounce is her
inspiration on this score.
From Sonuga, ‘a woman is not your rite
of passage…/she is not your game of
numbers…’ explores how very useful a
woman is, ‘a woman is busy… working’
and ‘ a woman is a writer, painter,
dancer, singer…/they are all dreamers…
follow your dream, but don’t screw it
up…/somewhere, there is a dream
waiting for you to start…’ Also, Sonuga
affirms that there are second chances for
love ‘even (love) scars are masterpieces’
that a woman bears as trophy of her
triumph in love because ‘the heart is like
a fist, (that) feels like throwing a punch’.
On a conciliatory note, Ruby Gyang
wooed the men after she’d first bashed
their balls with ‘Shout out to my babe’
and enjoined the ladies with their men
in the hall to publicly affirm their love
for them!
In ‘love scars don’t scare,’ Sonuga brings
her poetry class act to a beautiful
denouement, as she says ‘…rock bottom
is a perfect place to start…’ as she
enjoined women never to be shy of
starting all over again as they may be
twice lucky in love. With ‘the victory
dance is just about beginning…/loving
yourself without shame…’ she brought
the show that was part musical, part
poetry and part dramatic journey of the
ritual of becoming an uninhibited
woman to a close.
The applause was as warm and
encouraging as was the support Intel
gave the show in believing in women’s
performative power. Surely, an encore
performance that enjoys support from
women’s product makers back by strong
publicity blitz would help expose these
amazing women of immense talent to a
wider audience than attended the
November 6
Titilope Sonuga (standing) with Falana
(drumming and facing the audience) and
the all-female band at Becoming
performance recently
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