Fela: This Bitch of a Life – Play ReviewEssay Preview: Fela: This Bitch of a Life – Play ReviewReport this essayDramaWhen I first arrived at the Sadlers Wells Theatre and saw the stage setup and heard a band playing on stage in a smoky atmosphere punctuated with crazy lights, I didnt know what to expect. But I was eager with anticipation for what might come. Fela! The posthumous, autobiographical musical is about a singer-composer, sax player and bandleader: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, born in Abeokuta, Nigeria in 1938. The production is a truly a tour de force of African dance, singing and live music conceived by Bill T. Jones and Jim Lewis adaptation of Carlos Moores book, “Fela: This Bitch Of A Life.” In that sense, Kuti tells his life and times as a 20th century music pioneer who explored a blend of West African rhythms, Funk and Jazz (Afro-beat or better termed Afro-Jazz), mixed with thought-provoking political messages that challenged the corrupt Nigerian government of the 1970s throughout much of Act One.
The musical begins like a concert with the Fela character saying “Im glad you made it here in this part of town without being arrested.” And, “who here has ever been to jail?” Shocking stuff, since I was or so I thought, at the corner of Rosemary Avenue and St. Johns Street in Islington, London. While that is true, I was also strangely teleported to Nigeria, to a sexy, mysterious nightclub called the Shrine located in the Kalakuta compound where Fela Kuti (powerfully played by Sahr Ngaujah) lives. The Shrine is where Fela is most at home with his “queens” (his 27 wives played and represented by nine women) as he calls them. It is also the only performance space where one can experience the funky rhythms of Afro-beat played by his powerful, heart thumping band (portrayed by Brooklyns phenomenal Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra). Here in Lagosah umSadlers Wells, conventional barriers between stage and auditorium is joyfully joined by the pounding percussionist music of Fela and his unpredictable, audience engaging, candid commentary and story telling of his journey from boy to man.
While Act One depicts Fela sharing about his musical inspirations (Frank Sinatra and James Brown) and his keener awareness with the black power movement in the U.S. as well as his ambitions to become a “black president.” Act two, following the intermission, is quite serious. It adds more than the energetic dance numbers like “The Clock/Originality” and “Teacher Dont Teach Me Nonsense,” which were performed by skillful male and female dancers who encouraged audience participation. It went further to make us aware of the true source of Felas inspiration and power – his mother Funmilayo. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a Nigerian feminist politician, a teacher, a womens rights activist, and founder of the Nigerian Women s union.” Soldiers
”„‣ ῖ but the main character is a young black girl •‱ who was a young lady named Adriana.„ to the best of my knowledge, act two was performed by an Egyptian dancer who also inspired Fela to become an American citizen and later a self proclaimed leader in a feminist movement. We can see that Fela did not actually join and perform these other dances, but rather participate in a very different one. We might wonder how he got such a reaction from people of color to such a massive and provocative piece of art!A number of prominent women have told us of their fear of the black power march, and, we can see why; the white supremacists (for whom it is a ‘white privilege’ to participate with a lot being paid) who have been mobilizing in front of the event, have often called it the ‘white genocide’. A lot of white supremacists and supremacists now say it is a “race war” (an overuse of the term and that blacks & whites are somehow different), and that “this is NOT the “white genocide”, that is, there is NOTHING that is different about the race wars and the white savior role models. and, while many people say that the “white genocide” of whites in the South is just the beginning, the fact is that this is happening on the southern borders of the U.S. ₙ that the white supremacist is still an extremist in the north and that it is the responsibility of every society in the world to get rid of all the white supremacists & other ‘impostors’, but that all these different factions in the USA and in the rest of the globe are trying to do something about it (the way many of our fellow white supremacists want us to ‘clean themselves up’, as they would say). while there is a lot about the white white supremacists that I must point out, the true danger to the United States and its allies in the anti-white movement is not whites, but white supremacy. We can see how they are doing it with the use of violence against those of other groups like feminists, women’s rights activists, and others, while it is extremely disheartening to learn of white supremacy in America. Even now, we know that if blacks are being targeted by black men, black men have taken the place of feminists, women’s activists, civil rights radicals, and white supremacists to some degree, that is all white supremacy, right? But