{"id":106744,"date":"2023-10-08T09:03:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T16:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106744"},"modified":"2023-10-08T09:10:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T16:10:20","slug":"nollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/nollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"Nollywood film about love triangle is central to satirical play in S.F."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Dede (left) doubts Ayamma\u2019s acting abilities in Nollywood Dreams. Photo by Jessica Palopoli.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

First there was Hollywood, an innovative industry that taught Americans how to dream in the 1920s. Then \u2014 in the 1970s \u2014 came Bollywood, the Hindi cinema that taught Americans how to laugh with an entire cast in a big production song-and-dance number at film\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

And in the 1990s came Nollywood, the Nigerian spinoff that now puts out more than 1,000 films each year.<\/p>\n

Now, in 2023, a new breezy play at San Francisco Playhouse, Nollywood Dreams<\/em>, explores Nollywood\u2019s early days \u2014 satirically. With overlays of a romance and madcap bits of this \u2018n\u2019 that (including but not limited to over-the-top gestures and inflections).<\/p>\n

The main thrust of the comedy is to exaggerate the shallowness of both Hollywood and its echoes.<\/p>\n

Ghanian American playwright Jocelyn Bioh centers her storyline on a pair of sisters, Ayamma Okafor, who dreams of becoming a movie star despite having zilch experience (\u201cThis is my calling\u201d), and shallow Dede, whose main \u201ctalents\u201d are is avoiding work, reading gossip mags, and viewing a soap opera.<\/p>\n

Director Margo Hall, a Black omnipresence in Bay Area theatrical circles on and off stage who recently was named artistic director of the Lorraine Hansberry Theater, squeezes rapid-fire laughs out of Anel Adedokun\u2019s performance as Ayamma and Brittany Nicole Sims\u2019s as Dede.<\/p>\n

They roll their eyes and roll their eyes, wiggle their hips, exaggerate facial expressions and shouts, spell out ellipses as \u201cdot, dot, dot\u201d when reading, and get their bodies twisted in a phone cord. Ayamma hides behind a tall plant; Dede becomes verbally paralyzed when coming in close contact with her idol.<\/p>\n

Mostly standard stuff, maybe, but not in the hands of two actors with comic genius to spare.<\/p>\n

\"\"Adenikeh wears her emotions on her colorful sleeves. Photo by Jessica Palopoli.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

More than adequately backing them up are four other gifted members of the all-black cast in Nollywood Dreams<\/em>, Tre\u00b4vonne Bell as shady director Gbenga Ezie who\u2019s casting his \u201cThe Comfort Zone\u201d triangle love story; Tanika Baptiste as TV talk show host Adenikeh, an Oprah wannabe; Jordan Covington as Wale Owusu, a more than a little lecherous leading man; and Anna Marie Sharpe as serpent-tongued Fayola Ogunleye, Gbenga\u2019s ex-lover, a faded star once known as \u201cthe Nigerian Halle Berry with Tina Turner Legs\u201d whose deep southern accent is devilishly campy.<\/p>\n

They all, of course, come across as caricatures. But funny ones. Hall and the actors succeed in making the play more hilarious than the words on a page.<\/p>\n

Adding to the audience\u2019s enjoyment of the show are Bill English\u2019s tri-locale rotating set and the imaginative costume design by Jasmine Milan Williams (Adenikeh, for example, needn\u2019t change garb, merely her flamboyant headwear).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that the playwright wants to humanize Africans, especially West Africans, despite using a lens more than a little distorted by madcap sequences.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ayamma (left) auditions for director Gbenga as fading diva Fayola waits her turn. Photo by Jessica Palopoli.<\/em><\/b><\/p>\n

In the final analysis, Bioh provides the ultimate takeaway \u2014 a semblance of knowledge about a geographical area and industry we most likely knew little about.<\/div>\n

If you\u2019re looking for reality, stay away; if, however, you\u2019re looking for a good time, go see Nollywood Dreams<\/em> even if it\u2019ll take you a few minutes to discern what the players are saying because of their thick Nigerian accents.<\/p>\n

Nollywood Dreams<\/em> runs at SFPlayhouse, 450 Post St., San Francisco, through Nov. 4. Tickets: $30 to $125. Info: (415) 677-9596 or http:\/\/sfplayhouse.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Woody Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a>\u00a0or on his websites,\u00a0https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0https:\/\/vitality press.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dede (left) doubts Ayamma\u2019s acting abilities in Nollywood Dreams. Photo by Jessica Palopoli. First there was Hollywood, an innovative industry that taught Americans how to dream in the 1920s. Then…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"