A good story; Poor Presentation: Umar Ladan and Dexter Lyndersay’s Shehu Umar
— Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy It has been a while since I read a play or wrote a review on one. So, you could say that I was a bit excited to have found Umaru Ladan and Dexter Lyndersay’s Shaihu Umar on my shelf. It is a play adapted from a novel of same title by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Albeit the excitement of seeing the acts come alive on stage is incomparable, I derive pleasure in visualising the scenes and recreating the stage in my mind eyes. In this play set at the period of early establishment of Islam in what is today known as northern Nigeria, the eponymous character; Shaihu Umar; is a young orphan born just a day after the death of his father. Fatimah, his mother, soon remarries into the household of Makau, the Chief warrior of the Village Chief. However, Kwatau; the Chief's younger brother; is envious of Makau's closeness to the Chief, so he frames Makau ...