REVIEW OF SAINTS AND SINNERS

Yesterday Latif Abubakar and his drama troupe made a stopover at Takoradi with their latest play, 'Saints and Sinners'.

The show went down at the Ankobra hall located at Best Western Plus Atlantic Hotel.

As usual, madeintaadi attended the event and the overall verdict is that the organizers came to town unprepared and took patrons for granted.

Usually my reviews talks about the high moments and low moments of the event, but this time around I would focus on the low moments because I have a lot to say. Let me add that my review is based on what transpired during the first show.

Time: As expected, the organizers did not prove critics wrong, the show started more than an hour late. And the usual Ghanaian phrase "we apologize for late start of the show" was also mentioned. The only Ghanaian who respects time when it comes to events is Rev Albert Ocran and his Springboard Road show team. I have attended two of his shows and both shows I was there before the show started.

My first encounter with him was in 2012 at Sunyani Polytechnic (that was how it was known back then). We were less than 20 people in their big auditorium, it was 6pm, the time stated on the flier for start of the show. Initially Rev Ocran was quite reluctant but he said: "what is written must be obeyed, for the sake of those who are here on time, we cannot wait any longer for anyone, let's begin the show"  Earlier this year he came to Takoradi, the TTU auditorium was not one-quarter full to capacity, he proved me wrong again. The show started exactly according to the time on the poster. Not even one minute late. May be Latif Abubakar needs to tap into that anointing, because after the galamsey fight, we need to educate people through play to respect time as well. 

Acting skills: One character in the play was Mr Blinks who is a supposed illegal mining businessman  (supposed because we never saw his boys bring him gold from work neither did he step foot to his concession) and probably spent part of his life in the Americas, judging from his accent in the some scenes. Mr Blinks was played by Ekow Smith Asante, a very popular Ghanaian actor who has auditioned and featured in uncle Ebo Whyte's play. Of course his involvement in Saints and Sinners pulled crowd to the auditorium.

Unfortunately, among the nine characters that featured in the play, I would award him the worst performer for the night. The Police Commander in the play who answered his daughter's mobile phone had a better accent. Boga Blinks was heard mispronouncing mortuary as "morchere". He also said he was going to 'ring' his daughter. He kept referring to his houseboy as Paa at one point and another time as Agyeman. He was heard saying very soon Nana Korkor will be named "Sifu Korkor". Anyone who watched GTV's popular series Journey to the West, growing up knows Sifu simply means master and it is a respect form of address for older men. That is why there is no Chinese character for a female Sifu.

I am not sure, there was any script for the play. But if there was, then may be Mr Blinks did not rehearse his lines well.

Whoever gave the idea that Mr. Blinks should have a history of staying abroad must do his homework well. The choice of profession for Mr Blinks was incongruous. When it comes to protecting natural reserves, a Ghanaian who has lived abroad before will stand taller than the Ghanaian who has spent all their lives home. If you doubt me, check someone like Kofi Wayo, he might not be a saint, but the man won't go and cut forest to make money. Their exposure to the western culture makes them reluctant to pollute nature. 

Accent: What is this gradual attempt to create an impression that anytime an Ashanti person appears in an English-speaking movie, they should speak 'bad' English, either full of grammatical errors or miss their Ls with Rs? In the Kejetia vs Makola comedy series, the 'stupid' lawyer identifies himself as someone from Kejetia a suburb of Kumasi. There is this episode called "Crient murder" I watched where the judge (played by Louis Lamis, CEO of the production) said 'what you people call kasakoa", referring to the people of lawyer Ntim. Yet he refuses to accept that the intention of the show is aimed at teasing Ashantis. 

Legend has it that veteran highlife musician A. B. Crentsil was assaulted on stage when he went to perform his Atia Special song to a group of tribes in the north who did not like the lyrics of that song.
Not too long ago Taadi's popular comedian Too Much was assaulted in the same manner.

But Latif Abubakar will stage his play in Kumasi later this month and everyone in the room including the Ashantis would not pinch him in spite of the annoying Character Nana Korkor, who is supposed to be a queen-mother. May be someone has to remind Latif Abubakar that Yaa Asantewaa was a queen-mother of Ejisu. But hey, it tells us all to tolerate each other, no matter what. 

Stage design: Someone told me that, the stage was too small so I should bear with the organizers. Patrons who attended Ebo Whyte's One Million Pounds play at the same venue will attest how he managed to put to full use the Ankobra hall. The stage set-up for the Saint and Sinners was very bad.

For the benefit of those who did not attend the show, let me break it down. They wanted viewers to know that Mr Agyman was living in the village and Mr Blinks in the city. But the guy who was paid to set-up the stage clamped the two together. It was very difficult for viewers to take their eyes off the other house when action was going on in the other. 

As for the whitewash paintings, I won't go there. The characters had their attires stained with paints throughout the play. Ekow Smith always had troubles opening the door to his bedroom. The handle had broken, and even though the organizers have seen it they do not see the urgency to fix it because people keep telling them "oh the play was okay".

Again whose idea was it to put broom, grinding stone, etc in Mr Agyeman's house without making use of them? His wife never sat down in the entire movie. I am yet to see a household in Ghana where couple wakes up and all they do is brush their teeth with chewing sticks and do not sweep their compound. How about making Mrs Agyeman use the broom one morning? 

Sound: The sound engineer in the team must be fired ASAP. How could you cause so much pain to our eardrums? The sound was too bad. Patrons were heard shouting "do something about the sound". Do something about the sound slogan seemed to have annoyed the sound engineer. He removed all the microphones from the characters and the characters had to speak without the microphones. I pity the crowd at the back who do not hear low volume sound.

Because the characters had to resort to their natural voice, acting had to be paused whenever patrons wanted to laugh. 

Light: The officer who was controlling the stage light was doing well until the last scene. He was seen chatting with friends when the play had not ended. Whiles they were moving the sofa off the stage, he was heard shouting to his colleague, "light light light" and the guy gave light to the stage. For me that was unprofessional on his part.

Songs/Music: Shatta Wale is definitely getting paid from the organizers, right? If the answer is yes please pay him directly but if it is no, then that is quite unfair. For a moment I thought Shatta Wale was coming to perform on stage. It was okay using Ghanaian songs, but how about doing it such that the characters sing the songs live on stage? Don't you think that would make it more lively? It was getting boring with the miming. Even if you cpull not afford to play live band, next time get the instrumentals of the songs and let the characters do that singing. 

For me the show was overhyped!