In Jocelyn Bioh’s Nollywood Dreams, Lagos native Ayamma Okafor (Sandra Okuboyejo) works for a small family travel business with sister Dede (Nana Mensah) but has other career plans for herself. She wants to be an actress and become a part of the thriving Nigerian movie community. Despite Dede’s discouragement, Ayamma plans to audition for The Comfort Zone, the producer-director of which, Gbenga Ezie (Charlie Hudson III), is looking for a newcomer to fill the titular role of nubile Comfort.
Whether she lands the enthusiastically coveted part and through what ups and downs won’t be revealed here. On the other hand, spilling the beans that Nollywood Dreams is a stage sitcom niftily blended with a stage rom-com might give some hint of the outcome. Bioh’s script reliably fires off the kinds of laughs that get things delicious in the same way as do the proper ingredients collected for a first-rate ice cream sundae.
This is to readily admit Nollywood Dreams is a generally lightweight confection that even includes a few weak spots along is merry path. But it’s also to acknowledge that, thank providence, lightweight comedies have an often-forgotten prominent place in literary circles.
[Read Frank Scheck’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Pursuing her goal, Ayamma schedules an audition and shows up at Ezie’s Nollywood Dreams Studios just in time to interrupt a, well, misunderstanding the owner-director is having with ex-girlfriend and established Nigerian star Fayola Ogunleye (Emana Rachelle). Fayola thinks she’s been promised Comfort. Ezie denies this, asking Ayamma to read the part and Fayola to read the part of a strident American woman.
No need to run through the comic developments one by one as various complications arise, some of them caused by scheming Fayola and a few that Dede occasions by fixing her roving eye on Ezie. These occur at about the same time sexy movie idol and Comfort Zone leading man Wale Owusu (Ade Otukoya) meets Ayamma and deems what he sees worth investigating. No spoiler as to the outcome, but once again: This is a rom-com.
Throughout these proceedings there is a series of interludes adding to the Nollywood Dreams hilarity. Every 10 minutes or so, the set showing Ayamma’s and Dede’s comfortable, not to say almost luxurious, living room and then Nollywood Dreams Studios is quickly transformed into the television environ of interviewer Adenikeh (Abena), by whom Ayamma and Dede swear.
It’s not giving anything away (or not much anyway) to mention that eventually everybody in the cast, except Dede, turns up as chatty Adenikeh’s guest. There, the always gorgeous-in-traditional-Nigerian-outfits Adenikeh reigns. There, Abena gets to send up overly enthusiastic entertainment-gossip hosts who behave as if they’re merely waylaying celebrities strolling the red carpet but are really moving in for the kill.
Speaking of Arnulfo Maldonado’s set, it’s eye-catchingly clever, transforming from the Okafor office/home to Ezie’s airy studio to Adenikeh’s tv surrounding. Plus which: Before the intermissionless bauble ends, a screen drops for an entertaining purpose that also won’t be described here.
The well-furnished settings also represent Bioh’s more serious purpose. Yes, she has one, although she’s hardly pushy about it. With all the laughs, chuckles, and guffaws she provides, she clearly intends her message to be subliminal. But there it is: She wants American audiences, presumably more the white patrons, to correct any misapprehensions they have about Nigeria as a strictly impoverished third-world country. She wants it known that the land is also home to a sizable middle-class. It’s unlikely she’s had a “Come to Nigeria” commercial in mind, certainly not consciously.
She only somewhat furthers her implied purpose by giving Ezie a history of trying to make it in the States but having no luck and so choosing to return to Nigeria. At one moment, the dismissive phrase “those white people” is declared to amused audience response.
It’s a pleasure to report that Bioh successfully has her say and has it according to the old and wise observation that if you plan to say something deeply serious, you’re deeply smart to say it with humor.
Earlier this year, Bioh did the same wising up with her Central Park adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, which was directed by Saleem Ali. He also directs Nollywood Dreams. This repeat performance confirms that he and Bioh are a fine team.
The team is only enhanced by costume designer Dede Ayite, lighting designers David Weiner and Jiyoun Chang, sound designer Palmer Hefferan, and projections designer Alex Basco Koch as well as by the cast. The six actors are thoroughly on top of the material they’ve been handed.
Watch especially when Okuboyejo warms up before spouting dialogue she’s rehearsing for her audition. Listen especially when Mensah utters the words “and you were judging my skills.” Watch especially Ogunleye’s expressions when Fayola realizes she has a rival in Ayamma. Watch especially just about every movement Abena makes. Watch especially the life Hudson and Otukoya bring to the two men jockeying among the lively women.
For theatergoers living through parlous times, it’s a treat to know there remain occasions like Nollywood Dreams where partying is the order of the day.
Nollywood Dreams opened November 11, 2021, at the MCC Theater Space and runs through November 28. Tickets and information: mcctheater.org
