National Theatre dooms theatre in the nation

Dear National Theatre of Ghana,

The unfortunate incident at the National Theatre last Saturday could, at best, be described as the darkest and most shameful stain in Ghana's creative arts space.

Scribe Productions led by Kobina Ansah, one of Ghana's most hardworking production houses, last Saturday experienced such harrowing experience during the much-talked-about musical, "Once Upon A Riddle". Almost 3 hours of a power outage. This was such an ordeal the devil wouldn't even wish on God's people.

We had used 10 weeks to rehearse. We spent a lot on publicity. We had spent a lot on the technicals. We had spent a lot on procuring props. We spent a lot to ensure that our play served our audience well. ONCE UPON A RIDDLE was our original musical - the most challenging of all our plays. And we were poised to tell that story of 14 original songs.

However, as fate may have it, we were uncharacteristically greeted with doom. The ominous warning did not come earlier for us to prepare. Certainly, this is simply because we thought we were dealing with a 30-year-old institution that knew better. We thought we were dealing with such managers who understood better the creative industry and so would do everything possible to protect the investments of their creative clients.

Unfortunately, we were saddened to note that the National Theatre had no alternative power source. The humongous white elephant of a power plant at the premises stood there. As cast and crew were running helter-skelter to get power back, the theatre workers sat almost aloof.

We made several calls to the ECG. Those calls were to no avail. We had to plead with our patrons to take between 10 and 15 minutes breaks as we sorted things out. The minutes turned to hours. Some of our in-person and online patrons had to make do with only 7 out of the 13-scene drama. Others, especially, the in-person patrons stayed to watch the second show which started 40 minutes past the advertised time. That was also traumatic.

It's six days (over 140 hours) after the incident, yet there's no word of apology from the National Theatre. Do we really believe the creative arts space can grow and will grow in a country like this when authorities at such state facilities care less about the suffering of its clients? Do we honestly think that creatives would be free enough to ink and bring more stories to life with this 'I-don't-care' attitude?

And yes, it is business. Spending such a huge amount just to put up two shows is business. The only source of revenue is ticket sales. Truth is, we sell tickets in advance. And many others also buy theirs at the gate. Are we able to quantify the number of people who changed their minds about attending the second show when they heard about the power outage? We lost money.

Someone must take the blame for this mishap. Someone must be apologizing to Scribe Productions and its patrons. That someone is no other than the National Theatre through its Executive Director. The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture sits directly behind the theatre and also supervises such rot.

Just to conclude, issues of unannounced power outages may not be news in a country like Ghana. However, when this affects businesses and discourages the youth from contributing to national development, then something urgently must be done. Something as simple as ensuring that the standby power plant is ready at all times.

#FixNationalTheatre
#FixNationalTheatrePowerSystems
#NeverAgainNationalTheatre

Joseph Appah
Team Member, Scribe Productions