Wayne Samuel’s ‘Love and Heartbreak in Lagos’ is an audacious blend of film, performance art, and spoken word that deconstructs the lived experience of Lagosians through the lens of a young man’s pursuit of love. It’s poetry’s Hamilton. The hour-long production, featuring 11 performances, features first-time actress Enoma Aito and the sprawling metropolis that is Eko. The poet pairs the gritty with the delicate, creating something at its worst, curious, and at its best a towering ode to the already infamous city.
It begins with an instant messenger conversation on whatsapp, something that’s become all too familiar in the COVID-induced digitisation of all human connection. Here, Wayne Samuel is not just a poet but an actor, exposing the layers of a young man trying to ignite new romance by sifting through the debris of an old one. In all her wild, concrete glory, the city of Lagos is both backdrop and character, omnipresent as the romance unfurls into anger, laughter, chaos, and longing.
When Samuel declares, “I built cathedrals in her name, worshipped at her altar,” with images of Lagos towering behind him, it’s impossible not to see the city as both muse and mistress. The architectural metaphors persist throughout, most notably when he likens the tumult of a relationship to the vertiginous ascent and descent of a lift in one of Lekki’s skyscrapers. Here, the woman and the city merge, becoming almost indistinguishable, so that by the end, one cannot have one without the other. The poet, much like the Lagosian, attempts to reconcile desire with pain, confessing, “…I built a bridge, now there’s sirens, trying to save us. But there’s nothing quite like heartbreak in Lagos. To be alone in a city that never sleeps, awake with all your insecurities..”
“Love and Heartbreak in Lagos” is undoubtedly an ambitious work of art. While budgetary constraints are evident in some of the movie scenes, they do little to diminish the impact of Samuel’s vision. His instinct for disruption shines through, challenging conventional notions of what poetry, film, and performance can achieve when brought together. Wayne Samuel has crafted a narrative that is as complex and layered as the city it seeks to portray, a city where love and heartbreak are inextricably linked, and where every end is merely the prelude to another beginning.
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