Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, the German poet, culture critic and philologist, once said: “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
Paul Ugbede must have seen people tell malicious lies, lovers suffer heartbreaks, communities subjected to different degrees of humiliation and also followed the trends of things, especially as they concern humans across the globe, to write the play, Two Characters Undefined Unclad Truth.
Performed at the Terra Kulture, Lagos, the two-man cast tells the story of how Ikani (Alex Okwumah) exploits Ufedo (May Okanigbe), a 14-year-old.
Though Ikani had saved the hapless teenager from the hands of soldiers, who almost raped her to death, he added pains to the young lady’s sorrow.
The story is simple and straightforward. Six soldiers take advantage of the crisis in Ufedo’s community to violate the young lady. She becomes pregnant. Ikani finds her in desolate. condition and gives her a shoulder to lean on. He takes Ufedo into his house and from then begins to care for her and unborn child.
After her first child, Ufedo begins to cater for herself and in doing this, begins to lead a promiscuous lifestyle. She becomes pregnant again and gives birth to her second child out of wedlock.
Discovering her abode, Ikani becomes her regular visitor. He dislodges other callers and makes her a love slave. Ufedo, for this, also falls in love with Ikani. However, deep in their minds, the lovebirds have different reasons for staying in the relationship.
For Ufedo, it is for the care, protection and father figure for her by-blows; for Ikani, it is to satisfy his lust whenever the need arises.
As time goes on, Ufedo discovers that Ikani has a sly personality and strives to liberate herself, only to discover that she is now in a fix and cannot be set loose.
Ikani tells her, she cannot be free, as they have been entangled for life. He reminds the pauperised young mother, who is now 16, of how he picked her from the streets where the stealers of her maidenhead dumped her and how the wolves will again devour her if she returns to the street.
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Ikani tells Ufedo that since she has been receiving all manner of gifts from him that she has to regularly do his biddings.
Ufedo makes a rethink after remembering the ugly incidents of her life. She remembers how she has been raped thrice by different group of people she trusted and believed could save her.
She remembers she is homeless and without parents, and lives on charity and at times street walks to keep one’s head above water, and changes her mind.
She gives up the idea of escaping and lives with the better devil, Ikani and looks forward to the day she would be able to use her Personal Voters Card (PVC) to change her situation.
Directed by Ifeanyi Eziukwu with Chidinma Nebo as co-executive producer and generously supported by the Chairman, Duke of Shomolu Foundation, Joseph Edgar, and Leke Akinrowo, the play showcases the duplicity and risibility of the Nigerian society and human nature in general.
It mirrors the typical human society full of chaos, disorder and all forms of impropriety.
Ikani is a personification of the rulers, especially dictators across the world, while Ufedo stands for the ruled, mostly the malleable ones who lack the wherewithal to stand for their right or free themselves from draconian rules. It depicts how the ruled have so impoverished the ruled and to the extent that they perpetually depend on them for all they need in life.
These dictators, according to the play, come in diverse forms such as soldiers with their weapon of coercion, the johns with their huge sums of money to make the poor do their biddings or hinky men that masquerade as politicians or charitable organisations to rip off the people.
This can also be seen in Ikani’s affirmation: “We have been sharing things to you to vote for us. Exploring your greed, gullible and poverty and as long as we keep you hungry you will stand for us.”
The play, however, highlights the universal truism that no particular group can survive without the order. It shades light on the need for every group to work towards making the society a better place for all, as any idea for any group to exploit the order may lead to cataclysm or breakdown of law and order.
It also serves as an avenue to warn leaders at different levels of governance that are not interested in impacting the society for good that the people have been empowered with their PVCs to remove them and their cronies in government if they do not change for good. It goes to call on politicians and our leaders to vindicate their images and tell the people the truth.
Presented in unconventional space, the open area of Terra Kulture, the cast mingling with the audience further brought out the beauty of the play. The cast put up a superlative performance, interpreting their lines like one that passed through the ordeals.
The play is one of the low budget plays that could be held in any location, especially as it needs a very simple stage the cast just go and pass plausible messages.
