Akeem Lasisi
Evangelist Tosin should be spreading the gospel in a sacredly structured church or any other venerated ambience but existential issues have pushed him to work in a bar, popularly called a beer parlour. He wants to keep his holiness and sanity intact but the irony his life has become keeps haunting him. The result is a winding dialogue between him and God whom, he believes, called him, with the latter, however, remaining as confounding as the heaven and earth He created.
This is the story of ‘The Call’, a play by written thoroughbred actor, Bimbo Manuel, which will be on stage at the MUSON Centre, Lagos, on Saturday and Sunday, November 16 and 17, 2024, as part of the Lagos International Theatre Festival. Directed by internationally renowned Bisi Adigun, it features two of Nigeria’s iconic Thespians — Toyin Oshinaike and Ropo Ewenla. While Oshinaike is the man of God in the house booze, Ewenla plays God in an engaging way.
Although ‘The Call’ is supposed to be the story of a pastor’s dilemma, it unfolds in a way that everyone can see beyond the personality involved. There is cause to laugh and occasionally dance along with Tosin, but his experiences compellingly remind one about the troubling conversations one sometimes has to have with the spirit, the holy books, religion and God Himself. On a larger note, Evangelist Tosin’s story reflects, in a refreshing way, the consequences of the pragmatic and desperate moves many Nigerians have had to make in the face of unemployment and repression.
Humorous, inspiring and sobering, ‘The Call’ thus promises a memorable experience for the audience.
This perception rang through the veins and voices of stakeholders who saw its preview on Thursday, November 14, in Surulere, Lagos. Among such are actors Seyi Fasuyi and Anne Njemanze, dancer and festival director Muyiwa Osinaike as well Dr Tosin Tume from the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti.
All of them gave the playwright, director and the actors big kudos, saying they were enriching the Lagos International Theatre Festival in a great way.
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