The staging of Bisi Adigun’s adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s Trials of Brother Jero at the National Theatre on Democracy day was indeed a reminder of how hypocrisy and deception constitute the bane of development in the last one decade of democratic rule in Nigeria.

The play aptly picked its metaphors from the religious forge of Christian faith, thus compelling the audience to mirror their political leaders through their allies in the church.

Directed by Jude Udueni as a modern version of the original play, Trials was preceded by a song service that dovetailed into a sermon, followed by a worship session that was comically threatened by two ‘ daughters of discord’and a recalcitrant drummer boy.

The play actually began with Jero’s unveiling of his past and his mission through a recorded prelude. He stood before the camera to narrate his incursion into the ‘religion business’ and ultimately brandished his weakness for women as well as his self-styled strategy for survival. All these explained the peculiar trend in the Nigerian fashion/trade of Pentecostalism.

‘Everybody is born again in Nigerian churches-robbers, touts, prostitutes and even corrupt politicians….’’. This statement by the cameraman (Biodun James) signaled the culture of religious transformation that formed the thematic concern of the playwright and the director. And so, Jero (Kayode Idris)encountered a major trial when Amope(Omowunmi Dada), his creditor and wife of Chume (Kris Ubani-Roberts), his aide in the church, laid a siege in his house to collect her money. None of the church members (including Chume) knew the prophet’s house except Amope. Jero too never knew his creditor was Chume’s wife, until when he got apprehensive of Amope’s early morning siege and suspiciously asked Chume to beat his wife.

The comic episodes in Jero’s house were alternated by the hilarious scenes in and outside the church. And quite expectedly, Prophet Jero of the Tabernacle of God’s Abundance Pentecostal Church succeeded in retaining his customers/followers, including a member of parliament (Jude Udueni) to whom he prophesied a ministerial appointment. What about Jero’s escape from the church in pursuit of the near-nude neighbour (Ojei Anwuu Tessy) and the drummer boy (Olumide Ogunfowode)? The audience savoured Jero’s orchestrated deception such that even the children inside the Cinema Hall of the National Theatre could hardly control their laughter.

The curtain was drawn after Chume discovered his boss’ hypocrisy, and angrily chased him with a cutlass. This ironically coincided with the member of paliament’s visit but which Jero turned into an advantage. Rather than being frightened by Chume’s attack, Jero feigned holiness in his sudden disappearance and eventually reappeared to reaffirm his ‘holiness’.

A well directed play that had its strength in the choice of cast and use of modern words and expressions, Trials, as produced by students of the Creative Arts Department of the University of Lagos reflected the relevance of Soyinka’s creative vision and universal message as far back as 1960s. It is significant that the Nobel laureate captured the future of western religion in the play well before the advent of Pentecostalism in Nigeria.

And to support Soyinka’s artistic injunction, Adigun who is a theatre director based in Ireland invented such modern words or expressions as ‘text messages’, Osama Bin Laden, Nollywood, N7,500 naira debt, born again, among others in the play. Adigun equally made efforts to add to the aesthetic value of the play through songs, choruses, dances and the use of contemporary costumes. The play also benefitted from the creative interpretation of such lead characters as Jero, Chume, Amope, the sound man, the politician and the preacher, Olu Okekanye.