World Theater Day: Reenactment of Bole Butake’s “The Survivors” after 32 Years

It has been 32 Years since “The Survivors”, a play by renowned writer, Bole Butake was first acted and on World Theater Day this March 27, 2021, the original cast of this play will reenact its scenes.

While one of the main actors, Joe Ndanji is dead, the others who are still alive will do a dramatic reading from different angles of the world.

The brain behind this idea is one of the actors, Joyce Ashuntantang who starred as Mboysi. She now explains the concept and raison d’être.

Why did you choose to reassemble this play by late Bole Butake?

Prof. JA: First of all, I am an actor in my core, so I still find a way to honor my theater roots. Now, I chose Bole Butake’s The Survivors for this World Theater Day celebration because it is a relatively short play with relevant content for our times and a small cast.

You say this play is still relevant at this time. What is the play about?

Prof. JA: In this play a village suffers from what seems like a natural disaster. Hundreds of men, women and children die; animals all die too including fish in the water. Only five villagers survive but it seems this number is being kept as a secret. As the five survivors try to leave the village, they are stopped by a military officer who tells them they are not allowed to leave. The villagers are now held as prisoners in tents and used as pawns for the officer and his associates to grow rich from relief aid coming from all over the world. The officer has also made the female survivor, a former school teacher, his mistress. The survivors soon realize they are being abused and exploited, but will they succeed to overcome officer and gain their freedom? To get that answer you have to join the event on Saturday or read the play. This play is still very current. Given t hat the deadly pandemic now ravaging the whole world and violent social upheavals in different countries from the USA to Cameroon to Myanmar, the situation is dire and the need for relief aid has become all too common. Many will identify with the misery and destitution of the survivors.

Tell us how this reassembling was done?

Prof. JA: On February 15, I realized March 27 was World Theater Day. I decided to organize a dramatic reading to honor the day. Choosing Bole Butake’s The Survivors was easy since it is a short play with a small cast and still very relevant.The Survivors was first performed by the Yaounde University Theater in 1989. I was part of that pioneer cast as Mboysi, the lead character. I imagined it would be a great idea if the pioneer cast could come together and do this dramatic reading. I went through the cast:

Mboysi: Joyce Ashuntantang

Officer: Bannavti Joseph

Old One: Stephen Amabo

Ngujoh: George Ngeh

Bolame: Pat Nkweteyim

Tata: Willy Shiyntum

Soldiers: Tala Philip; (Joe Ndanji-late)

Fortunately, I was in contact with most of them except two, Old one and Ngujoh. I created a whatsapp group for former cast members and started assembling them. I added everyone whose contact I had. Together we went in search of the two I did not have. Within a few days Ngujoh joined us and three weeks later Old One got our messages and the cast was now complete, 32 years after!  But with the fluctuations of internet connection in Cameroon, I needed backup  for our Cameroon-based actors, just in case. Consequently, I brought in other veteran actors from the golden years of the Yaoundé University Theater (YUT), Walter Tanifum, Ernestine Ngringeh, Epwene Beatrice and Ali Rih-Reh Usman. I also needed persons to manage the zoom webinar, so I asked two other dynamic Cameroonian artists, Blessed Ngoe, poet and doctoral student and Masem Enyong, professional Dancer and choreographer, all based in the USA to join us.

The reunion of the cast has been amazing; The human brain is phenomenal. The lines are flowing back and we plan on bringing the dramatic action to our voices on zoom.

It seems most of the original members of the cast are still alive. What have they become?

Prof. JA: Actually, all the members of the cast are still alive except one who died relatively early around 1992. We were all in our third year at the University of Yaoundé when we acted in this play. Today, we are all mothers and fathers of grown children who live in different parts of the world:

1. Mboysi -Prof. Joyce Ashuntantang. Award-winning poet and a full professor of English and African literature at the University of Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
2. Officer-Joseph, Bannavti, Published playwright and Adjunct Instructor of English at Union County College, Plainfield, New Jersey, USA
3. Old One- Stephen Amabo, Entrepreneur based in Cameroon.
4. Ngujoh- Ngeh George, MINESEC Cameroon.
5. Bolame- Dr. Patricia Temeching Nkweteyim, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Buea.
6. Tata- Willy Shiyntum- Agriculturist based in Cameroon
7. Second Officer-Tala Philip, Health and Social care professionnal based in UK.

This is a virtual event thanks to digital progress.  How will it happen, concretely?

Prof. JA: Great question! I wish I knew ?. The plan is to do a dramatic reading using the video conferencing, chat and webinar app, Zoom. This would be the first time we would be trying to bring a play to life via zoom so we can only imagine how it will go concretely. Initially, we started with the “zoom meeting” format and realized that it would not work because the actors would be in a collaborative space with audience and we would not be able to guarantee that the audience is seeing exactly what we want them to see. Consequently, we migrated to “zoom webinar” where the actors can have a dedicated space very much like the stage. However, we will only be dealing with upper body movement so we would have to use our voices to bring out almost all of the dramatic action since we would not be using our full bodies. Also, we would have to depend on the effectiveness of the actors and Makeshift crew to get redundant actors off camera and bring active actors on camera. Fortunately, we are actors and are experienced when it comes to improvisation. Maybe there are better video communication apps out there for what we are trying to accomplish, we don’t know. Personally, I love innovation and enjoy challenging my brain, so I look forward to the adventure.

Eleanor Ayuketah and Elvis Mbimba