An Evening at the Theatre

Abeku had been mentioning to Dan that he wanted to take us to the theatre. Dan relayed this to me with an undertone that he wasn't sure if Abeku was kidding or not. Alas, on Thursday night when we were at Annabel and Peter's going away potluck, Abeku called arranging plans for Saturday's 4pm show. We truly had zero expectations but Abeku picked us up and off we went. We arrived at the theatre, got tickets, and went in. The tickets have no seating assignments but there were 7 of us in total. They said they only had singles left in the first level so we went up one tier and sat in the first row.

Entrance to the National Theatre

The show was called "Forbidden" and it had a decent plot with quite a bit of comic relief. We laughed pretty hard but we're very sure that we missed many of the jokes based on the audience's outburst and Dan and I's blank stares at each other. The songs included were good as well with a mix between church songs, local music, and songs we knew (Jar of Hearts, Can you feel the love tonight and an adaptation to the words of Evita - Don't cry for me Argentina to name a few).

The plot line revolved around a man who has a lot of vices, but meets a really straight edged woman at church and asks her to marry him. He has every intention of saddling her up at home while he continues his partying, womanizing lifestyle considering this a win-win for all involved. All of his family tries to talk her out of marrying him but she refuses to listen. On their wedding night, she reveals to him that she's as wild as he is due to a series of challenges that have shaped who she is. He realizes he really does love her now that he knows her, and we all live happily ever after.

I wish I had taken a photo of the stage but there were multiple signs requesting that you don't photograph the performance. That, of course, didn't stop many Ghanaians but with the security guard two people down from me, I figured not to chance it. The most interesting part to me was that the director chose to use human props, so the sofas, chairs, tables, flower pots, etc were all people. Whenever the scene changed, the actors would exit the stage, the music would change into some upbeat thing with fancy dance/strobe lights and the props would stand and dance. They would then exit and the backdrop would change. During the backdrop change, there were tv projecters on the walls that played advertisements or birthday announcements for people in the audience. Once the scene had been changed, more upbeat dance music a la Beat It, Pink Panther, Chariots of Fire, etc. while the human props re-entered the stage and got in position for the next scene.

Show Program

It was quite well put together with a choir and an orchestra, and the theatre was pretty nice. Apparently, the director puts on one play per quarter and Abeku often attends. We really enjoyed it so we might go to the next one in a few months.