AT THE DRAMA STUDIO

Night. Efua Sutherland drama studio. The audience was excited and expectant. The atmosphere was cool and severe. The one act play entitled (to the drama studio was about to begin. Michael entered on stage with a prologue)

Michael: elementary school. First gate, the millions already eliminated, leaving thousands. No justification. Just the way things are. The way things have been made. Secondary school. Second gate. The thousands dropped. Leaving hundreds. The justification; the exams. A lucky few get in because their relatives push them through. In spite of everything, university. Single survivors in the lost reaches of alienation. The justification: you are the only one” you are not like the others. You are the first…
But it is these the farthest removed from the living realities of the hundreds, the thousands, the millions who are give powers in the imperial system to regulate the lives of the millions, thousands, hundreds.
This system has no justification. Ha! You are being made into the justification for the thing that destroys you and uses you to destroy you people. Our future- a continuation of this past. Night mare? What work awaits us after this academic non-sense/ no work. Just small privileges. Bungalows, car salary, mediocre creature..




Enter Elva as mother legon or spirit of legon.

Mother Legon: (desperate) where are my children, where is central cafeteria, legon hall, school of performing arts, where are my children, I have waked from a terrible nightmare, I am unsettled. Oh, it was a horrifying dream. Is this the reality? Then I fear the worst is inevitable. Something sad is happening somewhere; something strange is taking place somewhere, this cannot be said to be a mere dream: it is a vision. I am haunted. People point to my breast and say this is the premier university. The tower of learning. People come to worship me they drink the milk of all kinds of knowledge, mysteries of religion, philosophy, myth history everything. In my magic pot is BA’s, MD’s Ph D’s. But this dream has really shaken my foundation. (Julius enters as legon hall)

Legon hall: (appalled by his mother’s eccentric reveries) oh mother, mother what is happening?

Mother Legon: call all of your brothers and sisters. Hurry, let them com now. Tell them it’s urgent. (Legon hall went and called them.)

Legon hall: mother, I have brought them. (ELVA as Volta hall came and embraced her mother)

Volta hall: (whimpering) stop crying mother. What is it? Oh stop it your actions embarrasses us. Look mother, your children are in front of you. It is not nice crying. Tell us what is amiss. Tell us tell us.

Mother Legon: (wiping the tears in her eyes with a handkerchief) how can I stop crying when things are getting of hand, I am daunted by the present circumstances. Rumors, the most powerful weapon of modern Ghana, rumors are whirling around and blackening my tower, what crimes are you committing in my name? What dangerous steps are you taking undercover of darkness? That is destroying my name? Eh. (She burst into tears.)

Volta hall: oh, mother, why? (She called brothers) do something, legon hall, say something.

Legon hall: (furious) what can I do? Handle it. This is all your faults. Instead of you to learn, you put on indecent cloths exposing the treasures of the temple and people blame all of us to be immoral and undisciplined.

Volta hall: I won’t tolerate that! And you, you dare to insult me.

Legon hall: I am not insulting you. That is the truth. Let us face facts.

Volta: that is fashion. (she stood up) and don’t pretend, because mother is here. You secretly admire it when we put it on.

Legon hall: look, this is getting too far, you mean I like such dresses?

Volta: yes: do you think I am not aware of your ostentatious life style. Always feasting, celebrating women. Is it not that makes your women appear elegant and attractive? (Nana kwesi as commonwealth hall) stood up and came nearer.

Commonwealth hall: will the two of you keep quiet?

Volta hall: tell him to stop accusing me falsely:

Commonwealth hall: (angrily) I say keep quiet. Do you think we are blind?

Mother Legon: commonwealth hall, don’t be too harsh on them. Look, I didn’t call you here to quarrel. I called you to lay bare what is burdening my soul. I struggling with speculations, scandals, accusations and a dream I had has further aggravated the situation.

Volta hall: A dream?

Mother Legon: yes: a dream. I had a dream which is too horrible to recount.

School of performing arts: Mother all is because your children are not paying attention to the African rhythm but rather dancing to a different tune, imitating blindly cultures they don’t understand. To them, It is normal but to the real African, a taboo.

Commonwealth hall: all our vigilance, energy is exhausted. (Kwame as Institute of African studies)

Institute of African studies: you children are stubborn. They do not want to learn. I teach them everything they need to be taught, yet they do not take it. They see it as strange and obsolete.

Mother Legon: (composed) well, it is okay. I did not call you here to blame anybody. I called you to let all of you know of what is worrying me. I have a premonition of something terrible about to happen. And to avert the disaster, you must all be wary, look at your ways, examine your actions, put a stop to the ones which are inconsistent and contrary, follow my precepts, be guided by decorum, portray to the world that you are matured persons, never be found wanting, live up to expectations. You can prevent the ruin lurking in the shadows. You are my children, my representatives, don’t spoil my name. Now you can go.

All: thank you mum. They go away.