The performance “Adaku, Part 1: The Road Opens” by Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Fishman Space. The show is a speculative mythology about a precolonial African village at a moment of crisis, blending ritual dance theater with song and play.
Throughout the 75-minute production, a group of women continue to walk in a circle to a near-constant drumbeat, symbolizing the metaphorical road that connects the past to the future. The elegantly spare set by Peter Born adds to the poetic atmosphere, with lyrics of Okpokwasili’s songs setting up the theme of the road and connection to ancestors.
The story follows Ezinwanyi, an exceptional woman who has left an abusive husband and will now take on a wife herself. She has commissioned a carving from another character, Uzoma, but the carving gives her nightmares and prompts a dispute among the characters.
This ambitious performance, while successful in sketching political implications, feels unfinished and like a draft that isn’t quite final. The spoken sections have an amateur quality that may not be intentional, and the production overall seems to still be finding its shape.
“Adaku, Part 1: The Road Opens” continues at the Brooklyn Academy of Music through Saturday.
Historical background: The performance “Adaku, Part 1: The Road Opens” is a unique blend of ritual dance theater, song, and play, inspired by the precolonial African village at a moment of crisis. The speculative mythology presented in the show offers a glimpse into the cultural and societal dynamics of this historical period.
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