NOTIONAL THEATRE.tv

episode 1

National Pop-Up Theatre, Lagos, curated by Constanze Fischbeck and Daniel Kotter.

Executive producer- Marc-Andre Schmachtel

Naijroid is a creation of Design And Dream Arts (DADA) Studios for the Goethe Institut’s National Pop-Up Theatre, Lagos project.

Story, character / environment design by Ayodele Arigbabu using Daz 3d assets.

Additional architectural visualizations sourced from the Festival City design by B+TIC courtesy of the Jadeas Trust Consortium.

Photography by Constanze Fischbeck also featured in the comic.

Notional Theatre Pop Quiz created by Adenike Arigbabu.

National Pop-up Theatre ads courtesy Tolulope Bamgbose/ Noah’s Ark.

© 2013. All rights reserved.

Credits

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Ladies and gentlemen, the information you are about to receive is classified. You are not to share this with anyone, not even on the pain of death. You have been chosen amongst a select few to be told about the origins of the nation's greatest hero...

Forged in a secret laboratory, hidden away from prying eyes, The N1 suit was created in 1976 as part of a project code named Naijroid by Professor Tanko Waziri, who had retired from teaching at the Federal University of Technology Minna to pursue his private project; - an android exo-suit designed to combat the growing menace of urban crime and for the defence of Nigeria's national interests....

Early tests proved successful, the exo-suit offered unparalleled advantage to the wearer's combat abilities and forensics / intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities.

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Unknown to the world, the N1 suit was built within the bowels of the National Theatre complex in Iganmu, Lagos...

...in preparation for its first public unveiling during the FESTAC 77 expo.

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All seemed set for a successful demonstration at the expo. Professor Waziri concentrated his efforts on surpassing even his own expectations, he wanted to stun the world.

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Three months to the launch of FESTAC, however, Prof. Waziri was found dead lab in his lab under mysterious circumstances. He had died before completing the final programming required for his creation to become fully operational. His blue prints and designs for the suit were also missing.

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Unable to present the suit anymore as the pride and joy and showcase of an African Renaissance in science and technology at FESTAC '77, the Naijroid project was effectively shut down, especially when several attempts to reverse engineer Waziri's work failed.

Waziri's prototype remained entombed indefinitely in the subterranean bowels of the National Theatre where no one knew of its existence...

...apart from some rumours that persisted within security and intelligence circles which of course, could never be substantiated and therefore died away slowly.

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Tolani Adeeko

Chibuzor Anichebe

Then in the year 2023...

Tolani Adeeko, a young applied computing expert given to adventure and her mechanical engineer- wiz-kid boyfriend- Chibuzor Anichebe had hidden away after watching a stage play at the National Theatre...

...all of that was set to change.

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you are the

best thingto happensince theinvention of slicedbread

you are the

sugar in my bread,the butterin my tea

...to have a private moment.

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Stop it!

what are you doing there? but na my

boy friend nah!

oga, na only this small kissI say make I kiss am o!

that one na smallkiss??!

boyfriend ko,boyfriend ni!

no worry, yougo explain yourself

for station.you are under

arrest!

arrest ke?

rubbish!

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i’m wayahead of

you!

’ol it!

let's getout of here!

this man is stillafter us, he

should leave usalone nah!

I tire foram o!

una no wanstop abi?

una no get respect

for elders abi?

stop for what?

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*gasp*stop!you can’t

go that way!

*gasp*

I think

he‘s getting tired

stop!this is a

restrictedarea!

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wow!what is

this place?

phew! it seems

he’s finallygiven up

holy sh*t!lookskindacreepy

never knew

the buildinghad such a huge

basement

feeling brave todayabi?

let’s go see what’s in there

you too dey fear

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let’s goin

er....tolani...

...do wehave todo this?

brave?not reallycurious,maybe

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holy

sh*t!I hate itwhen yousay that.how can shit be holy?

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it’s justa figure of

speech

now this is

interesting

it’s nota robot...

it’s more of an

exo-suit

now I understand why the old fart

didn't want us hanging around

are we actually

staring ata robot?

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Their curiosity piqued, they cleaned up the suit and studied it. Soon enough after days of eluding the building's security staff and stealing into the basement, they had set up a makeshift lab of sorts...

I want tostart the

reprogrammingof the

circuitrytomorrow

maybe two

days...

how longwill that take you?

the auxiliary thrust

mechanism still needs

to be cleaned out

fine, I will work on something else while

you do that

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funny howa machine so old is so

advanced even for this age?

I think I nowunderstand the thinking behind prof. waziri’sprogramming

I have been thinking about

that too.

I wonder why his lab was built into the

basementof the nationaltheater

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They soon discovered that the smart professor had built in a wiki into the machine's programming which had a virtual reality version of himself answering technical queries.

This was of great help to them as they soldiered on with the reprogramming ...

...updating most of Prof. Waziri’s codes to a more

robust programming language that made the suit

even more powerful.

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yes you

should

you need tobypass the

tertiary nodalstructure to achieve

that

na wahfor this

dead professor o,see as e deyabuse person

oops!I should

have knownthat!

!

Prof, are you there?we were

wondering howto compensatefor the drag in the ai cognition

systems

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Soon, the duo was able to achieve full re-programming and to get the suit back up to operational status.

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I just pickedthis up on the

police scanners....

...there’s ahuge

fire at oyingbomarket...

This is seriouschibuzor....

the whole placeis up in smoke

for real?

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we can do better than that, I'm

wearing the suit, I'm going out there

the cops haveradioed thefire service...hope they getthere in time

we haveto do

something

!

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people may die outthere tolani, I need to do

something

I’m not playing hero...

there is no need to playhero....the

fire servicecan handle it

...I’m just being human

you are doing no

such thing!

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I hope he’llbe fine

don’t worry babe...

I’ve got this one

you

don’t haveto do this

besides, thisis the best

way to test the work we have done so faron the suit

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Chibuzor went to the rescue...

...saving lives and property...

...and proving the superior capabilities of Waziri’s Naijroid N1 Suit.

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Excited with the outcome of their first major test run, Chibuzor flew back to their National Theatre base...

...to share the moment with Tolani...

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That went well!

you’ve become quite

a herochibuzor

I told you we

could doit....er....tolani....

I have not changed anything.

let me checkthe console

to see

what’s going

Have you changed

somethingin the

programming?the suit is not

letting me out!

yes?

what’sthe matter?Is something

wrong?

ask the crazy professor.

ask him why his machine is holding

me hostage.

the suit hasinitiated a boot

sequence that’s drawing on all

the power available to the building.

from the readingsI can see here, if it continues, itcould lead to an explosion.

strange!

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first of all, I resent being called a crazyprofessor.

secondly, your current

predicamentis caused by a virus called black mamba

ah....the deadprofessor

speaks

keep quiet chibuzor

black mamba creates and locks electronic

switches at vital data processing nodes in the suit's internal

operating system. If each of the switches

could be opened in time, the disaster would be averted and the National

Theatre complex would be

saved.

I discovered it in my code for the n1 suit and Idon't know where

it came from.I found a

work-around just before my unfortunate termination

if black mamba is not stopped,

the power overload will

cause an explosion

that will takedown the whole

building

oh

sh*t!

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this is serious, but I think I knowwhat to do.....I can

programme a crowd sourcing protocol

that can fool black mambainto openingthe switches

can you pleasehurry

up with it?

quiet chibuzor,I need to

concentrateon this

easy for youto say.

I'm the onetrapped in atin suit here!

hmm...you’re one smart

womanit does seem

t0be working!

yes, but now,we must get the crowd to help deactivate the switches!

we need help!

is it me or is thecrazy professortrying to flirt

with my girlfriend?

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IS THIS THE END???

Visit www.notionaltheatre.tv to help Tolani, Chibuzorand Prof. Waziri defeat Black Mamba and save the

National Theatre from impending destruction!

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The Notional Theatre contribution to the National Pop-Up Theatre exhibition draws precedence from previous preoccupations with the space and situation of the National Theatre in Iganmu; perhaps starting with a 2-part piece written for The Guardian Life sometime in June 2006:

Rhetoric and polemics on the National Theatre.-Ayodele Arigbabu

No one should mess with the National Theatre. That big baddie of a national monument just won't be trifled with. Even Ex-President Aremu who birthed the monster some three decades ago in the orgasmic excitement of post colonial, pan-africanist affectations of that era under the aegis of FESTAC '77 could not reign in the brute during his recent eight years of reincarnation as Nigeria's head of state. Now, President Umaru can't be finding it funny- the sort of static the ongoing concession-ing of this weird building is raising from the most innocuous quarters. Artists are staging protest walks, and the newspapers are filled with rhetoric from different quarters.

Handled by Bulgarian firm Technoexpotstroy and designed allegedly in the image of a general's cap or as a replica of some other building of theirs in Bulgaria, depending on which version of the rumour you subscribe to, the National Theatre is a hulk of a building, done in concrete with wide lobbies and corridors made all the more cavernous by the empty state of the building in the past couple of decades. If you take a pee in any of the banks of toilets, you will get an eerie feeling, not just because of the row of empty urinals beside you, but because of that feeling that the last person to use the urinal before you might have been an Ugandan or Cameroonian visitor to FESTAC '77, the lingering smell of urine in the place smells at least thirty years old anyway… somewhat like matured cognac. You'll hurry up with your business and leave the toilet before it transmutes into a time machine and flings you back into the seventies.

As you leave, jogging slowly down the huge ramps that lead to the main entrance into the theatre, you look over your shoulder, just in case….but the farther you go from it, the more it looks like an alien space ship that somehow crash landed at the very tip of mainland Lagos. So when later you stop at a news stand to catch your breathe and you see a newspaper headline that heralds an escalating struggle between the Bureau of Public Enterprises (as representatives of the Federal Government) and the community of artists for the soul of the theatre, you wonder what gives.

So, long after you've managed to make it to the safety of your residence, after double checking to ensure that no alien life forms have followed you home with plans of abducting you and taking you back to the National Theatre – that their space ship- in - disguise from which they have been monitoring human existence, especially of the Lagos variant for the past three decades, - you regurgitate all you read about the current conflicts over the theatre at the news stand and find a badly chewed pencil with which to pencil down a few rhetorical questions which

no one begged you for but which you feel most inclined to put on paper before dark, since you can't guarantee that the aliens are not the same ones that are in control of NEPA…PHCN (or whatever that darned electricity regulating body chooses to be called) and have ensured that Nigeria's development has remained stunted for aeons. Your badly scrawled rhetorical questions go somewhat thus:

1. Will it cost an arm under the new National Theatre management to wander through the National Gallery of Art or will school children still be able afford to come in bus loads with their art teachers to gawk at Abayomi Barber busts and Kayode Osinowo paintings at the theatre?

2. Will live theatre performances be rejuvenated by the new 'owners' of the theatre….exclusively for those who can afford bank breaking ticket rates? Will the theatre start to host vibrant Nigerian theatre companies alongside international touring companies? Will tickets to these shows cost as much as the This Day Music Festival tickets…i.e. will one have to be a billionaire to watch a Soyinka play or a rerun of Sikulu at the National Theatre just because some one desperately wants to make some money back?

3. Why are Nigerian movie makers not using the national theatre as background or location for their movies? Imagine a gunfight sequence that begins in a packed cinema hall 2 and spills out onto the open lawns as the combating factions pump several rounds of ammunition at themselves while the innocent erstwhile cinema goers scream and run for safety behind the hedges! Okay, perhaps that's going a bit too far but starring the National Theatre in movies would go a long way in enshrining the edifice as a national monument in our collective psyche and in engendering a heightened sense of ownership in the minds of more Nigerians than a hundred protest marches. Now lets hope whoever 'buys' the theatre won't charge film makers half a million naira to use 'their' edifice as a location, touting the perceived high revenue profile of Nollywood as an excuse to boot.

4. Why haven't the artists – the biggest stake holders in the matter - coalesced, formed one or two consortiums with all the necessary technical and financial mechanisms and gone ahead to bid for the theatre? Like the saying goes, put your money (or your bank's money for that matter) where your mouths are mates…buy the darned theatre, and have the biggest party this county has ever seen to celebrate!

5. What alternatives do the artists have to offer to the largely unpopular sale…or concession if you please? Surely all that creativity can be channeled into devising a workable system for effectively administering the edifice, especially since the theatre has been running under the administration of some of the most respected members of the arts community in the past few years…surely all that experience should count for something?

6. And why isn't anybody talking about the Theatre's prominent role in the urban conurbation called Lagos? (Let's save this one for next week shall we, there are like a million things that could be said under this question alone, some have written books on the topic, unfortunately we seem not to be a reading nation…or is that what the aliens would have us believe?)

You keep scrawling…the questions are many…you await the answers, you await the turn of events…..hoping the aliens (whoever they may be) will not triumph over mankind…. or the Nigerian cultural space at least.

Notional

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Arigbabu

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Rhethorics and polemics on the National Theatre 2.-Ayodele Arigbabu

Apart from a few Lagosians who still reminisce about those days when they watched cowboy films at the National Theatre and a younger generation of a different class who still throng the cinema halls there on Sundays to watch Yoruba films, who else in the country knows this monster building and who cares whether it's pulled down to its foundations to make way for an office tower? Why have the Bureau for Public Enterprises and the community of artists been squabbling over this decrepit, abandoned building that looks like an alien space ship for so long?

Well for one, the Pritzker award winning architect and author Rem Koolhas who did extensive research on emerging mega cities with his team of graduate students from Harvard university at the turn of the millennium (and was perhaps the first to take a concentrated look at the possibilities in the chaos called Lagos) anchored a lot of his research on the National Theatre- quite literally, scouring through the mass of archival material in the belly of the beast and analyzing its role in the development of the city, in tandem with FESTAC town which was built at about the same time.

Essentially, the National Theatre was not devised by the Federal Government as just a one-off event venue and cultural center, but was designed to be a bulwark against which a whole urban planning initiative for Lagos could ride. In fact it will not be wrong to state that the National Theatre, in combination with FESTAC Town and other developments that came up at the same time served a major role in opening up and connecting mainland Lagos. Unfortunately, the initiative has not been sustained, hence the current imbroglio which warrants us asking certain questions:

1. Has the Lagos State Government capitulated in its claim that the theatre is on land that is vested in the State Government and therefore can not be 'sold' by the Federal Government?

2. Is the Bureau for Public Enterprises taking into consideration the tangible and intangible assets that make up the national theatre which include the expansive land on which it is built, the history behind the edifice, the value of the material it houses, its value as a national monument, and more importantly, its prominent role in the urban design matrix of a mega city like Lagos?

3. Surely the theatre can not be expected to function effectively without the cooperation and integration of the Lagos State Government's urban planning initiatives as regards transportation and other social infrastructure?

4. Are the parcels of land adjoining the National Theatre not meant to be developed into a proper cultural precinct that will include a five star hotel, impressive landscaping, an expansive shopping mall, more cinema halls, and other ancillary services that will support the National Theatre in drawing a constant crowd to Iganmu and will appropriate the adjoining Surulere community the same way the combination of Muson Center, City Mall and (to a lesser extent) National Museum in Onikan have appropriated the neighbouring Ikoyi community into a cultural precinct?

5. Do people really expect the National Theatre to fare any better for as long as it is located in a largely decrepit and desolate part of town that is hardly seen unless while being conveyed across any of the network of bridges that abut it?

6. Can't the Lagos State Government see a brilliant opportunity for a massive urban renewal effort with equal and perhaps better prospects than their efforts in the Lekki zone …albeit an effort driven on a cultural platform, but one which for once can attempt to connect the mainland and the Islands in one big developmental effort with all the accruable revenue?

7. Here is an attempt at lateral thinking…how about selling it to a mega church? Churches make money, churches appreciate the value of big buildings that can sit lots of people, churches are fantastic crowd pullers and some churches have blamed all the nation's woes on all the 'juju' that was invoked during the FESTAC '77 at the National Theatre in the name of cultural rejuvenation so they should be interested in forming a consortium to bid for the theatre so that they can embark on some spiritual fumigation which will sort out all our problems by chasing the aliens away once and for all. Imagine a mega church with the National Theatre as its headquarters building! And let nobody scream that it would be a subversion of the nation's diverse cultural heritage; after all church going is now a valid national culture. It's a fantastic thought…why aren't churches falling over themselves trying to buy this building…?

Quite frankly, if a church will buy into this idea and put us all out of our miseries by turning the National Theatre into a Mecca of sorts (forgive the pun), it will be a relief. If it's so difficult working out a cultural precinct, then let's make Iganmu a religious precinct…as a nation we seem to have fared better in that regard, what with the number of religious camp sites on the Lagos Ibadan expressway and the number of churches that have developed whole towns around their mega auditoria- case in point- Oyedepo's Canaan Land in Ota and Adeboye's Redeemed Camp off the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway.

You see, long after FESTAC, some people have successfully tapped into the idea of how large event venues with mass appeal can thrive with effective urban planning and development that incorporates all necessary ancillary services including housing and transportation, albeit at a macro scale. The BPE and the artists should go to the churches for tutorials and spare us all from this macabre dance. That is the design sleuth's final submission on the matter.

Speculative fliers created in collaboration with Manuel Shvartzberg and Fabian Faltin (Hunter & Gatherer) in 2010 as part of the State Theatre project by Daniel Kotter and Constanze Fischbeck.

Notional Musings

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