With a rather bland story line, 'Marching for Fausa' was never in the running as a cliffhanger. A sixteen year old schoolgirl is about to be married off, ostensibly against her will, to a rather flamboyant Minister of State. Her schoolmates decide to protest and are incarcerated by the security forces. Whether or not they are indeed killed, as insinuated by the 'crusading' journalist Telani, is undetermined at the end of the play.

The play is set in the Federal Republic of Songhai, a fictitious country 'on the west coast of Africa', and the action occurs against the background of irrepressible putschist adventurers in military uniform, who conduct coups with careless abandon. No less than three coups and one attempted coup is indicated within the play.

The journalist Telani, poking into every business, is present for coup d'etat announcements, and is of course available when the minister is strutting about with flap undone.

The Minister confronts Telani

The long spells of narration by Telani, which were obviously meant to provide a 'fuller' scene setting, were unneccesarily long and rather unnecesary, in the larger scheme of things. The play would have done nicely without the narration, since the dialogue provided adequate information.

Unconventional Wisdom: The Editor-in-Chief argues her case.

There were several spells of rich humour within the play, which were brilliantly realised by the actors. The minister, accosted by the group of angry market women, returning ever so often with a snide quip: 'To spare the rod is to conserve the forest', provided one of such lighthearted moments. The oft-swearing cop, replacing every 'f*k' with an 'halleluyah' on account of his 'recently accepting the Lord', provided a rather disconcerting, though funny, scene in which some of the protesting students were arrested. Without a doubt, the humour in the play made for great entertainment.

Props-wise, 'Marching for Fausa' seems to have suffered in a number of ways. The changes in scene, undertaken under the poor concealment provided by the darkness in the open air Folk's place, left something more to be desired. Curtains would have been a great addition. I watched the penultimate and final performances, and I think that the final performance was rather poorly in terms of props. In one startling error, a scene started without the scene being set: the actors appeared on stage before their furniture arrived. The actors however, were rather proffesional in handling this error: they proceeded as if it was absolutely normal to have to wait for hasty props-men to arrange a bench and a draughts board in the full glare of lights. All of which leads one to wonder whether there was in fact a problem with the lights on the final night. It is only fair (?) to mention that there was a light drizzle on the night of the final performance, which first led to a delay in the start of the play (a little over one half-hour delay). Folk's place is an open-air theatre. Could the rain also have led to a technical difficulty with the lights?

Telani and the State Security
The grim final scene of the play, in which two officers of the State Security Services, besmeared with blood from recent executions, accost Telani in her cell to 'encourage' her to incriminate some other persons, did not reflect the full gravity of the occasion. Some more demure lighting, slower speech, and more sadness would have been exceeding powerful. One might have hoped for a a heavy-set, ponderous actor, resigned to his fate as a murderer of state and waxing philosophical about the whole matter.

This play touches on the attitudes of different people to truth and life, under a grim miltary regime. It takes a look at the politics of violence and chicanery that dogged West Africa over the final two decades of the twentieth century, and which sadly continues today, albeit in a refined form. However, it is a look that is slightly out of focus, so that one is not really sure of what he has seen. In a way, watching the play was like listening to a song but not really catching the words.
Martin Egblewogbe for kpokplomaja.com.

Photos: Martin Egblewogbe

Did you also watch 'Marching for Fausa'? What were your impressions? Do let us know. Send e-mail to: theatre@kpokplomaja.com