LOVE TAKES CENTRAL STAGE IN OSOFISAN’S ‘ONE LEGEND, MANY SEASONS’

Philanthropy is not an easy virtue. Among the rich, it is not easy to come by. And for most of the affluent, the slogan is ‘the wretched should die so that the city would become cleaner and safer’. Such is the story of Alowolodo in Femi Osofisan’s One Legend, Many Seasons.

Alowolodu is a mean spirited and miserly rich man who detests rendering assistance to the poor. For him, the poor deserve nothing but to die so as to enthrone a cleaner and safer city until he is visited by three spirits, the spirit of Christmas past, Osetura, the spirit of Christmas present, Orekelewa and the spirit of Christmas yet to come, Orisania.

With the aid of the spirits, Alowolodu is transformed into a new person after taking him on a journey of his past and the consequence of his actions. The command performance of the play at the National Arts Theatre on Sunday, 15th December, 2013 could not have been better. The cast and crew were in their best elements and delivered their roles so excellently in drumming home the need for good neighbourliness and to be good towards all, more especially with Christmas just few days away.

The narrator, (Alkbert Akaeze), Orekelewa (Taiwo Adeyemo) and Alowolodu (Muyiwa Odukale) were quite exceptional in their roles in helping the director, (Josephine Igberaese) to drive home the intended message.

Kudos also needs to be given to the duo of Rakiyat Yusuf and Friday Ahiaba for the props in the subplot featuring the meeting in the animal kingdom. It couldn’t have been better. At a time that filmmakers seems to be devoid of ideas for good films, Femi Osofisan’s One Legend, Many Seasons no doubt has potential to take Nigeria into the Oscars if made into a film.

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The use of multimedia – synchronization of video recording in the play is indeed an innovation worthy of commendation. But the technical hitches in launching the shots could be corrected before the major show slated for 21, 22 and 25 to 29 December 2013 at the National Arts Theatre.

Emmanuel Ukudolo