the gods are not to

The Athenian tragedy of Oedipus Rex tells the tale of the eponymous protagonist Oedipus, a mythological king of Thebes who was prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother, and in his parents attempts to avoid this prophecy, end up accidentally fulfilling it. First estimated to have been performed in 429 BC, this play has had a great influence on culture for centuries after its conception; perhaps most famously in the form of the Oedipus Complex conceptualised by Sigmund Freud. But its legacy as a play has echoed in the history of theatre, with various adaptations being written throughout history. One such adaptation is The Gods Are Not To Blame, written by Nigerian Playwright Ola Rotimi in 1968. Ola Rotimi was one of the first contemporary Nigerian writers after independence. He went to the USA to study playwriting, and when he returned to his homeland, it was embroiled in a civil war. It was when he returned that he conceptualised The Gods Are Not To Blame - a play centred around the issue of identity, that resonated deeply with a 9-year-old Bisi Adigun. It was this play that sparked his desire to become a playwright, and so many years on to create his own take on a play that defined a generation of Nigerian

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Bisi Adigun is a Nigerian-Irish playwright who has worked on a number of productions in his extended career, and his work has taken influence from the original perfomance of The Gods Are Not To Blame; his original play titled Who’s Child Am I Anyway also deals with the same issues of identity, and conflict between family. Speaking on The Gods Are Not To Blame, Bisi said: “The reason why he wrote it was because he thought it was a very good way of using the micro to discuss the issue of the macro – the civil war. Brothers who are fighting brothers, thinking they were enemies.” This relation to the civil war in Nigeria, of brothers fighting brothers, is reflected in the play; the protagonist, King Odewale, fights against his brother from his home tribe, and unknowingly kills his father, purely because he was raised away from the place of his birth - creating an artificial divide, when really they were kin. Watching the original play as a young boy, Bisi says of the experience “As young as I was, I cried, I laughed, I had a good time in the theatre, and I said to myself that if someone can make me, a 9-year-old boy, feel like this? That’s what I want to do.” This inspiration to become a playwright persisted through his youth, and in 1996 he moved to Ireland to study a masters degree in drama studies at University College Dublin. After graduating, he founded Ireland’s first African drama company Arambe Productions, and the inaugural production of this company was, of course, The Gods Are Not To Blame - produced by Bisi in 2003, alongside Jimmy Fay. His experiences at this stage of his life are reflected in this play. He says; “When Ojala (Odewale’s wife & mother) says ‘you have lived long enough among us to be one of us’ Odewale says ‘Monkey and gorilla may claim oneness, but monkey is monkey, and gorilla is gorilla. Ojala goes on, but Odewale says ‘No no no, when a mangrove tree grows in a river, does that make it a crocodile?’ I used that analogy a lot when I was in Ireland.”

Bisi’s productions of The Gods Are Not To Blame are not mere copies of the original though - he has a distinct flair and creativity that allows him to evolve the play into something that suits modern audiences, and he’s accustomed to working in unorthodox situations with small resources to still produce a high quality play. For this reading of the play that he did in collaboration with Liverpool John Moore’s University, Bisi has a small cast to work with and only a month in which to get them up to speed. But with the play holding such importance to him, it was a challenge he was willing to take. “It’s a play that I thought I would love to share with Liverpool John Moore’s university because of the issues that it addresses, and also because it’s an adaptation of a well-known classic,” he said, “So if they don’t know the classic, they will know it now, and if they knew it before, they will know it better.” Bisi understood that with the play being based off of Nigerian and specifically Yoruba culture, there would be a cultural barrier between him and his cast & audience - so some adaptations were made. “There is a point where Odewale is accusing the chiefs, and he’s being cynical. He says ‘we are friends? Yes, we are friends, like he-goats and cocoyams. A he-goat is a goat that loves eating cocoyams, but they didn’t get that imagery, and that’s why we changed it do ‘We are friends like seagulls and chips.’” But despite these changes, the play still very much holds true to the traditions of Nigerian & Yoruban culture. Authentic cultural songs are played live, the cast were taught proper pronunciations of Yoruban places and names, and the overall message, relating to identity and the Nigerian civil war, remains the same. The reading, for what it was, was a fantastic rendition of the play. The story was portrayed dramatically by the cast, and the set was staged in such a way that the audience almost become part of the performance. Some things had to be cut, as they only would’ve worked with a full set, but the message of the play still held true. As the reading came to a close, and Odewale tragically gouges out his eyes in shame, the audience was silent, enraptured, and applause followed after the final curtain. With a makeshift cast of students from all different backgrounds, Bisi staged a reading worthy of the National Theatre.

In the original play, there was only one song played. But in Adigun’s rendition, various cultural songs are played throughout, adding to the atmosphere of the play.

For the darker, more dramatic scenes, the lighting changed, giving an edgy atmosphere matched by a change in music and pace. By Mackenzie Argent Pg 25