Prone to bickering and sibling rivalry, sisters Dede (Nana Mensah, left) and Ayamma (Sandra Okuboyejo) share a quiet, comforting moment in Jocelyn Bioh’s Nollywood Dreams.
Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play was a huge hit for MCC Theater when it premiered in 2017. Set in an all-girls Ghanaian boarding school, the play offered a trenchant examination of teen bullying, fat-shaming, and colorism, and it showed that the United States does not corner the market on adolescent cruelty. Nollywood Dreams, Bioh’s play currently running at MCC, focuses on the Nigerian film industry, but it similarly demonstrates that shady business practices, cutthroat competition, and rabid celebrity worship are not exclusive to Hollywood.
Nollywood Dreams takes place in Lagos in the early 1990s, at a time when, as Bioh explains in a program note, there was an upsurge of low-budget, independent films by Nigerian directors. This gave rise to a booming movie market (dubbed “Nollywood”), which would join India’s Bollywood and the U.S.’s Hollywood as the three highest-producing film industries in the world.
This historical and cultural context provides the premise for Bioh’s very funny and jauntily-paced comedy, which draws on familiar commoner-to-superstar Hollywood tropes. The play begins with wide-eyed and determined Dede Okafor (Nana Mensah), who has scored an audition for the new film by director Gebenga Ezie (Charlie Hudson, III). In a national publicity move rivaling the 1930s search for Scarlett O’Hara, Ezie has posted an open casting call for Comfort, the leading role in his upcoming film The Comfort Zone.
Awestruck and starstruck, Ayamma and Dede are thrust into the life of Nollywood.
Ayamma (Sandra Okuboyejo), Dede’s tell-it-like-it-is sister, is not nearly as optimistic. Ayamma informs Dede that the one thing keeping her from leaving their parents’ travel agency, where the two women work, is a lack of talent. When Dede reminds her sister of her astonishing performance in the church play when she was eight, Ayamma responds, “And you were not good then. It’s only we were in church. We couldn’t be honest.”
Dede’s chief rival for the role is Fayola Ogunleye (Emana Rachelle), whom we first meet as a guest on an Oprah-like talk show, hosted by the effervescent Adenikeh (Abena). Fayola, considered the “Nigerian Halle Barry,” has been in the business for more than 20 years and is on the comeback trail. She also has some compromising information on the film director, and she threatens to divulge it if she is not offered the part.
The only sure thing about Ezie’s film is the leading man, Wale Owusu (Ade Otukoya). Wale is the foremost face on fan magazines and the primary subject of gossip pages. Onscreen and off, Wale is the epitome of charisma and sexual allure—and he knows it. If Dede doesn’t win the part, she may at least get the man.
Whereas Nollywood Dreams lacks the bite of School Girls (which Bioh has said was written several years after Nollywood), there are some pointed satirical jabs at the United States. Ezie, for instance, explains that American movies tend to represent Africa only through images of poverty and war. Also, the sisters endure daily inquiries from geography-challenged American tourists about safari packages, not realizing that the Serengeti is nowhere near Nigeria.
The play sags somewhat in the middle, and it tends to rely on the alternating talk-show scenes to convey important exposition and commentary on the film’s progress. The payoff, however, is worth the wait with the presentation of the film-within-the-play trailer.
Ayamma contemplates the recent Nollywood gossip. Photographs by Daniel J. Vasquez.
Under Saheem Ali’s spirited direction, the cast is topnotch. As the sisters, Mensah and Okuboyejo are endearing, and in the role of the haughty leading lady, Rachelle is a perfect foil. Hudson and Otukoya, playing the director and his star, are likable even as they manipulate with their charm. As the obsequious Adinekeh, Abena offers a spot-on parody of an afternoon talk show without becoming cartoonish.
The production design elements contribute to the cinematic motif. Arnulfo Maldonado’s ingenious set smoothly transforms from the travel agency, movie-studio office, and the talk-show set, and David Weiner and Jiyoun Chang’s lighting effectively supports the transitions. Dede Ayite’s costumes and Nikiya Mathis’s hair and wig design perfectly capture the time, place, and social status of the characters.
Nollywood Dreams explicitly riffs on a familiar Hollywood genre that has produced some excellent films, from A Star is Born in 1937 to La La Land in 2016. Flipping the lens and switching the script, Bioh’s play offers a fresh and illuminating perspective on an old story.
Nollywood Dreams plays through Nov. 28 at MCC Theater’s Newman Mills Theater (511 W. 52nd St., between 10th and 11th avenues). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and at 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. There will be an additional performance at 7 p.m. on Nov. 22, and there will be no performances on Nov. 25 or 26. For tickets, COVID guidelines, and information, visit mcctheater.org.
