Co-founder and director of Lagos, and Abuja Theatre festivals and PAW Studios Africa, Kenneth Uphopho spoke to LEADERSHIP on discovering and writing the story of Esther Johnson, whom his protagonist in theatric production Esther’s Revenge is about.
Uphopho said he happened upon the story of Esther Johnson while reviewing his time, accomplishments and results as the British Council’s Lagos Theatre Festival (LTF). Upon the observation that a good number of the performances staged at the Freedom Park were still ‘adapting’ work to the space as opposed to the original concept of developing performances that responds to the available space (site-specific play), the LTF advisory board urged him to demonstrate to theatre groups what ‘theatre in unconventional spaces’ looked like.
At the Freedom Park (former colonial prison turned cultural and events space), is an upstairs bar called Esther’s Revenge. It was named after Esther Johnson, a Nigerian woman who allegedly stabbed to death her white lover Mark, in the 50s.
His interest peaked, he sought more information from Freedom Park architect and operator, Theo Lawson. Lawson, who redesigned the prison into the recreational space, showed him a painting of Esther Johnson and Mark. When further research provided little information on Johnson, Uphopho turned to two historians and a few lawyers around that period that were familiar with the story.
After nine months of research, he sat down to write the story and play. The final story seen in the production Esther’s Revenge is a blend of reality and imagination, designed to fit the cell Johnson was incarcerated.
“There is a space which also had a courtyard area at the side. I would go sit there, and write. I tried to go into Esther’s mind, to picture a time in the 50s when agitation for Nigeria Independence from colonial rule was ongoing and all, and what it meant to the privy council of the time, or whoever was in charge at the time to decide the fate of a black woman. That’s how the play came about,” said Uphopho.
At the core of the story, is the place of empathy and humaneness. Having observed humans instinctual tendency to judge others, and the susceptibility of young people to peer pressure, Uphopho inserted certain elements in the play to draw out audience’s initial reaction – and later post their immersion into the protagonist’s experience – via the use of immersive storytelling and physical theatre.
“She (Esther) is a human being. And every young person has gone through what she had, wanting to be like their friends, to be accepted or influenced by somebody. We have been influenced so much (by colonisation) that we have lost ourselves trying to someone else. That is exactly what happened to Esther who tried to be like her friend. The one night that she decides to follow her friend to wherever she goes (and returns with money she throws around), that is the one night that changed her life.”
Esther’s Revenge featured at the 2023 Abuja, and Lagos Fringe festivals, and is enjoying successful jaunts at international performing arts festivals.
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