Pathetic trauma: Stage on fire 0

U.S writer Scot Fitzgerald once said ‘Show me a hero, and I will write you a tragedy’. This is not neces­sarily because man, by nature, is prone to tragedy, but because a person who selflessly pursues the greater good of his nation automatically becomes a nexus for tragic events.
“Live Theatre on Sunday”, organised by a group of Theatre Arts graduates of the prestigious University of Ibadan, is a production put together every last Sunday of the month by the ebullient Sola Adenugba at Unity Centre, Isaac John, GRA, Ikeja. This group of talented thespians has managed to capture an audience numbering well over 500 people who throng to Unity Centre to watch their latest production.
On Sunday July 27, the group staged a play entitled Another Episode of Trauma, written by Temilolu Fosudo, son of famous scholar-actor, Sola Fosudo, and scripted after the Boko Haram Yuletide bombing in 2011.
The unassuming cerebral playwright brings into the mix a fresh insight to the Boko Haram insurgence by aptly labeling it a political problem as opposed to the popular belief that it is the result of a fanatical religious sect. He captures his audience by ensuring that the true realities are brought to fore without embellishments or unnecessary opacity – just the right dose of trauma to keep the audience alive, animated and interested. Directed by Sylvester Obieze, Another Episode of Trauma lends credence to the realities of today’s Nigeria.
Another Episode of Trauma is the story of Joseph, husband of pregnant Mariam and father to the vivacious Jessica, who, spurred on by the grief of the death of his younger sister in the Maiduguri NYSC Orientation Camp bombing, moves his family down to Maiduguri to fight the insurgency by any means possible. He, however, becomes blinded by his grief and considers the violence he preaches and fights as a means to an end. Deaf to the cries of his beautiful Muslim wife, Mariam, Joseph prefers the life of a hero, especially when it comes with the adoration of his 13 year old daughter, who still believes her father can do no wrong, and the support of Tonye, his best friend (aka Mr. Reliable).
The revolutionary play, which is a reflection of today’s society, opens with Joseph hard at work strategising and planning his next move in the dead of the night. Mariam, as the dutiful and loving wife she is, tries to convince him to come to bed using her sexy appeal and tricks, only  to be interrupted by their animated daughter, whose incessant questions annoyed Mariam.
The plot thickens in the second scene when Mariam, still furious about the events of the previous night (her husband’s refusal to abandon his ‘noble’ cause), fails to acknowledge the presence of her husband as she leaves for the market with Jessica. When called to order, she deftly replies by stating her need to get used to being a widow, as she believes his recent venture is a step away from disaster. Abandonment, using a psychiatrist’s phrase, is the one true originator and motor of grief –and that is exactly what Mariam fears.
In the last scene of the play, Mariam refuses medical treatment in the hope that her loving husband would return to her undeterred by the misguided need for vengeance for his sister’s death. In his defence, Joseph tries to convince her by naming political mavericks all around the world who have employed desperate measures in their desperate times – all in a bid to prove the worthiness of his cause. Mariam, however, also has her own catalogue of names of peaceful men who achieved their purposes without dirtying their hands with the blood of men.
Tonye is another character in the play who is an embodiment of the lackadaisical attitudes of many citizens. He is in the struggle for fame, glory awards and respect, not truly because he feels a sense of patriotism for his nation. He, however, manages to see things from an impersonal angle which ultimately is his saving grace from the death that eventually engulfs Joseph’s family. He is also the first person who sees what Joseph has truly become: an image of the terrorist. Adorable Jessica is not left out of the melee and pays the price of her father’s obduracy. Her eyes has, however, been opened in the third scene of the play when she catches her father applying the very violence he fights on his intractable wife and the thought of that shames Joseph beyond words. She dies with that knowledge, on March 5, which ironically and like a cruel joke, is her birthday.
Joseph pays the ultimate price of a failed hero when he loses his wife, daughter and unborn child to the Boko Haramists, who storm his house calling for his blood. This reveals that the acts of violence are motivated by social and political factors, and the group is only defined by what it stands against not what it stands for; that their dance of death is just that, a dance that will end when the music stops.
Revenge truly is sweet, but, as Martin Luther said, “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind”. Joseph loses sight of the revolution and becomes worse than a guerrilla fighter. Sadly, he becomes a man fighting for ghosts forgetting his true calling.