Soyinka is the man I look up to – Wole Oguntokun

If Professor Wole Soyinka were to have disciples one of them would definitely be the Nigerian playwright, stage and film director, theatre administrator, poet, lawyer and newspaper columnist, Wole Oguntokun.

In this interview at his office in the Yaba area of Lagos State, Oguntokun talks about his Wole Soyinka story, among other things. 

What book are you reading at the moment?

I put aside reading for the past couple of weeks basically because I had to intensely study Professor Wole Soyinka’s books. I had to read You Must Set Forth at Dawn, Ibadan: The Pekelemes Years and Ake: The Years of Childhood. So it was so intensive and I said I will leave reading for a couple of weeks and then come back to it.

One would have thought that as someone who has done Soyinka for a long time you didn’t need to revisit the books...

I suppose the devil is in the detail. One can take things for granted or assume. Also, a part from the chronology of his writings, there is also the spirit behind it. So I try to have an ideal of how he felt, how he was at certain periods of his life before writing a play out of his biographical works.

Apparently the writing of that play is done now?

Yes Eni Ogun and we are rehearsing.

Why Soyinka, and for a want of a better word to use, you seem to be fixated on him?

That is an interesting word. I wouldn't call it a fixation but Soyinka is the man I look up to in many things. Fixation makes it sound like a disease, an illness so no. But the way some people look at (Nelson) Mandela is how I look at him. The things that he has done, I think I understand why. It is that kind of...that is how I see him. So, when you say fixation I think he will be troubled.

Except for your own plays you have produced and directed more of Soyinka’s plays than any other playwright?

But Soyinka has probably written more significant works than anybody else. Soyinka’s plays, maybe 15 to 20 or so but Death and the King’s Horseman if that is the play he ever wrote, it would be a masterpiece. If The Lion and the Jewel was the only play he ever wrote, it would be a masterpiece. The list is endless, A Dance of the Forests, The Road. The point is Shakespeare has the Royal Shakespeare Company, we are Renegade Theatre but you can call us the Renegade Soyinka Company as well, RSC. Many generations have seen Death and the King’s Horseman but how about those coming? How about those who are here now? I’m just saying. So a thing of beauty is a joy forever that is why we do Soyinka.

Are you recording your productions?

We keep them and in some we want to translate some of our works to the screen as well. My Tarzan Monologues for example, it is something that we have filmed more akin to what Tyler Perry does with his works sometimes. So we want to do things like that so we want to embrace that medium as well because of its ability to reach out.

Because you have done a television series one wonders if you will revisit that medium?

Even before the series on DBN there was a play, Who is Afraid of Soyinka? it was just that DBN offered us an opportunity and we took it. TV might be more commercially profitable and reach more people but personal satisfaction is in theatre.

But you do get a lot of support compared with other stage producers?

I’m a magician. I’m an illusionist. But that is what theatre is about isn't it? It is the ability to suspend disbelief, carry people into a place. We do get some support, I cannot deny it, we are going to Scotland in three weeks...

You've been there before on the bill of the British Council?

British Council took me there as a producer and I selected a play, The Animals and Children Took to the Streets by a British company (which was staged at the Muson Centre last year) but this time we are taking the first Nigerian play ever, first Nigerian entry to the world’s biggest theatre festival, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (The Fringe) and are spending a month there.

You wrote this play?

Oh yes, The Waiting Room.

That was staged at the last edition of Lagos Book and Art Festival, LABAF.

Yes, that’s it. It was at LABAF and at the Black Heritage Festival and Lagos Theatre Festival. It is been around and now it is going to Scotland.

After you produced Who is Afraid of Soyinka? in 1998 there seemed to be a lull on stage till 2002. What happened?

It was economics. It was after that we did TV. We tried it for a little over a year and I retreated to see how it might work for me then came back in 2002 and I haven’t stopped since.

You did Ajayi Crowther and then you did Shakespeare in Yoruba (Itan Oginintin), which was more challenging to write?

I didn’t write the Shakespeare in Yoruba one; we had an elderly man, Chief Ipadeola in Oyo State. We had him help us transfer it to Yoruba but then the work was in trying to understand it. Even the title I had to change it because Ninu Oginintin was what he called it.

One of the ways in which you perform your magic must be to take people who have never done theatre and are popular on television and film to stage like Kate Henshaw?

Well, Kate had done some stage before but I think we might have given her very challenging stage roles. We have done with Stella Damasus, Joke Silva, Bimbo Manuel, Carol King and with Francis Onwuchei who also is a theatre practitioner but does a lot of movies. He is a movie producer in his own right.

Now that you mentioned him, is that where the Society for Family Health, SFH connection came from?

I didn't know he was connected to SFH. It came through mike Egbu, who was country representative for Pathfinder International and he linked us to the national Action Committee on AIDS then and SFH came in.

Until recently, theatre in Lagos was more or less dead, people were afraid to go out but that has changed and some thanks must go to you. It must have been very challenging when started stage productions in Lagos, why did you stay?

When you are called to something it is different from entering it when it looks promising. I think it is a calling. I studied law but it is a calling. It is what we love to do. It is why we have that strange name, Renegade – people who don’t follow the normal path. It is a calling, that is what I will like to see it as. There were very hard times for example when we went to do the play in England, The Winter’s Tale, everything was sponsored by Shakespeare’s Globe for the Edinburg Fringe where you have 24000 performances and a million visitors, there was a substantial part that we had to look for ourselves. The British Council gave us a grant, which was good. We asked them for it, we didn’t know it was available and they made it available. Even accommodation was almost N1.5 million.

Everyone who knows you would conclude that you are very passionate about theatre...

I am.

But what were you doing in law; did someone insist you had to study law?

No, not at all. I just felt it sounded impressive then. I thought I would enjoy it, I liked the theatrical part of it, criminal law, human rights.

Does that mean you are never going to practise?

I have practised. I worked in two or three law firms. Who knows, I could do entertainment law maybe when I retire as a theatre practitioner.

Theatre practitioners actually retire?

They don’t you know. Not the mighty ones, Soyinka being the flagship. I’m going to own a theatre company. I believe Renegade Theatre is going to own a theatre and Soyinka’s plays will be done there all the time as much as any other plays.

The Renegade Soyinka Company?

Yes, I think he is tired of our trouble so he just lets us do whatever we want to do.

What is your birthday wish for Soyinka as he turns 79?

You know, my birthday is two days after his. Oh yes, there are similarities. I would wish for good health. The man is loved by so many people, I’m not the only one, to use your word, ‘fixated’ on him, I’m just a bit more obvious than some. So I would wish for good health. He is a great man.

You used to write the Laspapi blog. Why did you stop?

Maybe I can start again I began to write for The Guardian, ‘The Girl Whisperer’ every week and then having to blog again. But it is something that I think I will start again.

The writer and poet, Kofi Awoonor said in an interview he granted National Mirror that the National Theatre in Ghana works very well compared to the Nigerian one. You have performed there, is that what you saw?

It is a much better edifice, it is a beautiful place and it is well maintained. It looks like a national theatre in some European country. I don’t know what they did but it is functional. It was a lovely place to be in, we performed there and I really liked it.

You were secretary to the Lagos Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA...

I got tired of the politicking there at that time.

You published one collection of poetry (Local Boy and Other Poems). Are you going to do another one?

I hope so. I like to think that a lot of my stage plays are poetic now, they may not be written in verse but there is a lot of poetry in it. Yes, I hope to write more poems.

Is any of your writing inspired by Wole Soyinka or is it all of it?

Inspire?

Like when you read his play and end up writing a poem.

In that case, Soyinka has inspired the way I think about plays and the way I write them. Soyinka has inspired me in that way. You can be ‘fixated’ on this man and try to take on some of his characteristics, so to speak.

The world should celebrate and no longer wonder if there will be another Soyinka since you are here.

That is something.

When mention was made of V Monologues recently, the first name that came to mind was yours but you are not on the project anymore.

I was head writer for it and I was the first director. I wrote the male version, was head writer for the female one and chose the female writers. It was the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy, KIND that brought me into it before I went and did my own male version. They probably want their play done by many people and I cannot do the monologues forever.

You have produced and directed for stage and television, which would you say you enjoy more?

They all have their pressure points. I have even done a movie, we are going to release it soon, The Tarzan Monologues.

Was it filmed on stage or location?

We filmed it. I wrote a screenplay and we have Bovi the comedian in it and quite a number of people like Helen Paul, Carol King, Francis Onwuchei and so on.

Directors tend to stick with people they know and you also keep mentioning the same people. What informs that?

It’s interesting I gather but I really only work with those I like. Because your work depends so much on temperament an unsuitable person might ruin your work. I have worked with Kate (Henshaw), Stella (Damasus), they are my favourite people. Carol King, Francis Onwuche, Nobert Young, among quite a number of other people who are renegades themselves.

You were once voted Lagos’ best citizen or something.

Islander of the year it was called.        

How did that happen?

I started the Theatre@Terra, it was my idea along with Terra Kulture and for three and half years I put up a play every Sunday through rain or shine. So, I suppose that would be part of it, the impact I had on the Lagos Island. Now we do a lot of our work with the Muson Centre and we want to take a lot of work outside so that we can show Nigeria. We are an international touring company, as we like to say, but this is home.

When will you premiere The Tarzan Monologues film?

In September when we return from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.

You work with a lot of young people, do you think their generation is an unserious one like the one before indicates any opportunity it gets?

Our people are very ‘learned’, they want to learn, develop skill. It is challenging when I work with them. There is where I’m coming from so it is generations merging, bringing ideas. So, basically, a lot of things we do is a medley of everything, we can tell the future, we can go into the past or stay in the present. We have a lot of young people and we can work with...in our play here, **Eni Ogun** we have a 69-year-old man, Amos Olutokun.  

Oguntokun                                                                                                                                            photo courtesy of the director

Wole Oguntokun obtained a Bachelor of Law degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University; Master of Law (LL.M) and Master's degree in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies, M.H.R.S. from the University of Lagos. He has been called to the Nigerian Bar.

In September 1998 he produced his satirical stage drama Who's Afraid of Wole Soyinka?, a lampoon of the Nigerian Military in governance first at the University of Lagos' Arts Theatre, then in October and December at the Muson Centre, Lagos.

After a stint in television, independently producing and writing the TV sit-coms, Crossworld Blues on DBN TV (1999) and Living Free on MBI television (2002) as well as a current affairs programme, The Cutting Edge, on MBI in 2002, he returned to stage.

Who's Afraid of Wole Soyinka?(May 2002); Rage of the Pentecost (August 2002); Ladugba! (September 2002); and The Other Side (November 2002), among many by other playwrights were to follow including works by Soyinka and Femi Osofisan.

In July 2007, Oguntokun started a collaboration arrangement with Terra Kulture, on Victoria Island, Lagos resulting in Theatre@Terra with plays produced every Sunday. That programme continues but even though he still produces plays there now and again, the founding producer and artistic director is no longer the sole producer at the venue.

He wrote and produced The Sounds of Silence a documentary on inner-city violence on young females in 2009 a commission by the Ajegunle Community Project, ACP.

His weekly column ‘The Girl Whisperer’ has been on since March 2007 in the Nigerian Guardian.

He is the Chief Executive Officer of Jason Media, the parent company comprising Renegade Theatre and Laspapi Productions, and a member of the Governing Council of the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA, a leading Arts and Culture Advocacy Group in Nigeria.