Nov 17 2009
Let Me Hear You Say “OH NO”
Despite the numerous thumbs up from my fellow peers, I have to disagree with them on this one. FELA, to me, felt like a rushed experience that did not truly depict the struggles of Nigeria and Fela’s campaign against the oppressive government. The whole production was fleeting in that none of the scenes seemed to stand out more than the rest. Under my impression, the musical created a pompous and arrogant self promoting president in Fela Kuti as opposed to the legendary and revolutionary figure that I conceived him as. The dancing felt repetitive and the ridiculously fast tempo of the production created the impression that Fela was rushing to get off the stage as opposed to fighting the corruption of Nigeria. Every one of them featured a commentary, followed by the usual uptempo dancing by Fela and his crew and by then, these sequence of events became routine. In addition, this musical featured too many abstract themes that seemed tedious to the casual theatergoer. For example, much of Kuti’s life was portrayed in an implicit way such that audience members who have no knowledge of the political setting during Fela’s rise to fame, are lost in a bizarre shuffle of songs and motifs. When Fela mentions “black president”, those who are not aware of the fact that he’s declaring himself leader of his own nation are left with the belief that he’s referring to Barack Obama.
OK, based on all the angry feedback as well as my better understanding of the performance after our powerpoint project on FELA! I am proud to announce that I hereby affirm that my decision to annul my earlier argument is valid. FELA! is truly inspirational and even though I did not particularly adore the music, his influence on Nigerian politics and his will and determination were enough to win me over.
I disagree with you Sai. Although there was a fast tempo to the plot you must understand that it was to depict 20 years of Fela’s struggle in about 2 hours. It was very important to have a certain pace. Furthermore, the pace of the events could be viewed as the speed with which life was happening in dangerous Lagos. In addition I would like to add that I watched an interview with Fela and he is the same pompous self in real life as he was portrayed. His arrogance is admirable in the face of such adversity.
Sai, I disagree with you on this one, although I understand the reasons you give.
I really liked the upbeat tempo of the performance.
As you said, the show did focus more on dancing than on his actual political views that he expressed through his political speeches, however, if they had focused on them any more than they did, I believe the show would have started to get a little boring.
Overall, I believe the show was meant to entertain us just as Fela entertained his fans in the shrine, and I firmly believe the performance did just that.
Regarding the “black president” part, I understood he was referring to himself, but it could have been misunderstood as you mentioned.
I second Fabiana, and think that the musical did a great job of portraying Fela’s life.
I don’t really understand your point of view on how it was “rushed.” From the way that I saw it, Fela was a very hardworking, determined man, and I don’t see how the production was set up to evoke a notion that the man playing Fela was just rushing to get off stage.
Besides, if the director made it a point to go into great deal of everything Fela did in his lifetime, I’m sure you’d fall asleep.
As far as the dancing, it wasnt rushed – that’s simply how they dance in Nigeria.
Personally, I feel like I learned a lot about the nation just by watching the performance. Last year I took an AP Comparative Gov course, and one of the countries that I studied was Nigeria. And even thought I learned a lot about the corruption, economic struggle, and so on, I feel like I was finally able to UNDERSTAND it after seeing it through another person’s eyes/life. It really hit me how terrible life must be there after seeing how hard Fela worked to reform it.
But Sai, I’ll confess to something – I also thought that when they referred to the “black president” they meant Obama. Only at the end it hit me that they meant Fela himself.
I think that this musical was very insightful. It helped us not only enjoy ourselves with the music and dancing but it also helped us learn about something that most of us were completely unaware of. It was very clear to me was his political stand were when listening to his songs. For example ITT was all about his feelings towards the corrupt government in Nigeria.