Fela! at the National

So this one is really really late as I saw Fela! at the National back in December. But as I spent winter "break" writing essays and am now starting semester 2 of my MA programme, I figured better late than never. (It's also super short as I have another post to write).

The musical is set in Lagos in 1978 at the Shrine, the last concert by afrobeat father Fela Kuti. The story chronicles his life from his upbringing, education in London and eventual explosion into the blended sounds of jazz, funk and the rhythmic African drums. After encountering the Black Power movement in America, he shifted the focus of his music to the political, spreading activism through music. After the brutal death of his mother, who was thrown off a building by the police, he delved even further into politics, making him an even bigger threat to the unstable Nigerian government.

I knew absolutely nothing about the life of Fela Kuti before stepping foot into the National. Upon leaving I wanted to learn more. Although Fela! is a flawed musical, and doesn't quite follow the life of this influential man, there's a lot to be gained from it.

For brevity's sake, I'm not going to go much further into the actual musical, rather I'm going to focus on the show-spectator relationship. Because I think it's really interesting. Fela addresses the audience as if we were at the actual Shrine and this was a concert in the middle of Lagos, rather than a well-funded national theatre in the heart of London with a bunch of middle-class white people. He encourages us to respond "ya-ya" and even has everyone get up to dance. Sitting by myself, I had no "support" to get involved and get my hip-shaking grove on, because no one else around me was dancing. The boy to my left looked like he was going to die from embarrassment and the couple to my left, with wine in hand, made pitiful, yet joyous, attempts. If I were to really let loose it would have become the "Ashley show" and I just wasn't prepared for that. So I stood there awkwardly, watching the majority of the auditorium stand in awkward solidarity, and looking envious on those with friends who were dancing. Many of the criticisms referenced this aspect (probably old disgruntled white guys). This made me wonder how this scene would have played out with different audiences. And by different I really mean a predominantly black audience vs a predominantly white (and British white to be specific) audience. Anyways on with the show...

A lot of the political problems in Nigeria were the result of British Colonialisation so it was a very interesting subtextual dialogue happening. He talks about the corrupted government, and even makes fun of the British to a (predominantly British audience). It's clear that many developing countries are still trying to get over the repercussions of imperialisation. I'm sure I'm not the only one to have seen this connection but it's ever so slight that I think the entertainment value surpasses any implications of compromising historical ramifications.

Overall, I absolutely enjoyed the show. It's a flawed musical but the music was rhythmic and continuous, the dancing was inventive and energetic and the performance by Sahr Ngaujah as Fela is absolutely phenomenal.