Ola Awakan’s Echoes Of The Drums Is A Drummer’s Delight Set To Be An Epic If …

Echoes Of The Drums is a feast for drummers and a veritable epic in-the-making if the producers address the professional, characters and technical kinks in the play.

Written by Ola Awakan in 2005, the award-winning play tells the story of Aba’yan (Adewale Ayodeji) whose triplets and gifted drummers, Awogbola (Seun Awobajo), Ayanlade (Kingsley Okoro), and Onlude (Ayinki Ojemakinde) embark on a quest to explore the world, only to learn that despite their individual powers, that united they can overcome any challenges.

The play also extolls the therapeutic powers of the creative arts, particularly, the drums.

Directed by Drummist and Choreographer, Isioma Williams, the production is drummers’ dream come true, as it takes drummists out of the shadows of the orchestra pith to the center stage. It is worth notice that everyone involved in the production from the actors, prop artistes, to stage designers are drummists.

In adapting drumbeats and songs from page to stage, director Williams who had adapted an excerpt of the play’s manuscript to stage in 2021, deployed the experience, his expertise on Nigerian drums, and his familiarity with the Yoruba culture and traditions, to visualize the playwright’s instructions, to convert dialogues/lines into chants/songs, dance or drumbeats.

Elements of the epic around the play, like the quest and the gods, intimate those unfamiliar with the legend of Sango, that the God of Thunder is associated with the Bata drum – and often appears to those who seek his intervention in moments of danger and desperation.

An impressive aspect of the play, is its advocacy of the therapeutic (psychological and emotional) value of the creative arts, in particular, the drums to human health. This is often espoused exhibited by the characters Aba’yan, and the suicidal villager whose psyche was righted via a drum therapy.

The combined results of set designer Art Osagie Okedigun; Costume Manager, Grace Olatunji, and director Williams created a visually aesthetic production, heightening audience interaction and imagination to fill in the blanks (such as rivers, hills and plains) where applicable.

But therein (in the setting) problems arise. Although the aesthetic functionality of the stage setting is commendable, it made for a tedious sight to see props men struggling to swivel the background setting (180◦) amidst scene changes. Besides the performers continued performance amid power outage onstage, technical issues such as poor audio quality often had the audience seated farther off the stage straining to hear the actors.

The latter is also a matter of professionalism. While it is commendable that the performance puts drummers center stage, this should have been a key motivator to build be the motivation to build-up their acting skills, thus, avoid those first twenty chaotic minutes onstage, that left audience uncertain of the plot and what’s happening onstage; and the actors shouting of their lines. There is also that one plotline (There is that one plot hole referring to a cultural practice in Yorubaland in Oko Irese community of Oko Town where the king (Onirese of Irese) supports a family that has given birth to triplets and eventually marries the female part of the triplet), which made no additions to the plot whatsoever.

The aforementioned challenges notwithstanding, the themes of the play – which borders on unity in diversity, and the therapeutic values of music, in addition to the simple humour resulting from the interactions of the triplets portrayed by Awobajo, Okoro and Ojemakinde, and the enthusiastic and skillful drumming talents of GOTHAD members make for an enjoyable theatric experience. For a self-funded production, this is not a bad start.

However, to attain the superheroic heights of Spiderman and Black Panther envisioned by the playwright, effort should be focused on nuancing the protagonists’ unique strengths, and the resulting effects of their convergence, not to mention, building drummers acting skills, and addressing the technical and staging issues around the play.

Hence, director Williams and the playwright’s call for funding support for a more refined production and to ensure a nation-wide and international tour of the play.

Arguably the first Nigerian drums performance, GOTHAD Lagos staged an excerpt of the play’s manuscript in 2021.

The command performance held April 4, 2024, at the National Universities Commission (NUC), Abuja, is the collaborative effort of the playwright, Ola Awakan, GOTHAD Lagos and Abuja chapters, and Artswax Communication, and was staged to mark the World Drummers Day 2024, and the official launch of the play book.