The Shoemaker has run away! as Lorca’s ‘The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife’ hits Jos stage
By Omadachi Oklobia
IT was the final play in the 4-day festival. And it was fitting. A rousing, standing ovation, an applause that refused to stop and laughter that echoed long into the night at the premises of Alliance Francaise Jos. The 17th Jos International Festival of Theatre came to a befitting close on Saturday, 10 October 2026. With the active support of the Embassy of Spain, Nigeria and AECID, the Spanish Development Agency, it was a rousing finale to the human spirit seen through the lens of theatre and the hearts and minds of playwrights who spoke to the audience to broaden their horizon and enrich their human experiences.
I have heard some agencies say that investing in theatre in a performance setting is a waste of resources, but that is only because they have never been to Jos theatre festival to listen to the audience enthuse about their experience and how deeply they have been affected.
Federico Garcia Lorca has rightly earned his place in the history of world theatre and the Jos Repertory Theatre has had performances of three of his plays. One other memorable play being the audacious Yerma, set in Kafanchan by the late Biyi Bandele, who grew up in the railway-themed city. Yerma is the story of the childless young maiden, who married a man, who could not consummate their marriage. The speculation was that her husband was barren. This threw up a lot of conflicts that get to a point where Yerma’s husband’s friend offers to help consummate the marriage.
According to the Artistic Director of JRT, Dr. Patrick-Jude Oteh, “this is the kind of boundaries that Lorca pushed in his plays.” The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife, as directed by Eniyome Onoviran, is no different but this pushes another kind of boundary on its own – the issue of imbalance and fidelity in marriage. The imbalance has to do with age – the shoemaker is 53 years old while his wife is 18 years old! The play is a serious comedy that exposes marriage, individuality, social expectations and the influence of public opinion on private relationships. The story is simple enough – grounded on a shoemaker and his young wife whose strong personality and independent nature create tension within their marriage attracting the attention of their community.
The play examines misunderstandings and how gossip and societal judgement can affect relationships. The play combines humour with social commentary, and encourages audiences to reflect on love, communication, acceptance and the challenges people face when their personal choices conflict with society’s expectations. Watching and hearing Onoviran speak after her debut directorial experience after the performance was a lesson in the transformative power of theatre. She spoke about her working style which is evolving, her relationship with the cast and crew and the different roles that enabled the play to be such a hit with the audience which enabled her to gain a better understanding of her cast.
The Shoemaker, at a point during the marriage, runs away as he was tired and doubted the fidelity of his younger wife. She sets up an inn in her house to earn a living, but more suitors arrive and continue to woo her, one of them being the Mayor of the city! The young bride realizes that she is actually better off with her husband, the Shoemaker, who soon appears in a disguise to try her fidelity. She passes all the tests and they reunite again as husband and wife.
Patrick Longpoe as the Mayor (Ali Inalegwu as the Shoemaker in cover image)
There was an opportunity during the post-performance discussions for the audience to talk about their experiences and the different plays that they had watched in four days. There was a level of consistency in the acts, with the actors providing world class performances with ardent and forthright directing. The festival thus became a shared experience between the performers and the audience. The exciting thing about the theatre of Lorca is the fact that most of his characters are rural, simple folks who just want to live and be seen to enjoy their peace. In the process of creating his rural characters, he also created the rural trilogy that are tragedies – Blood Wedding, Yerma, and The House of Bernarda Alba and it is instructive enough that his plays explore in the main repressed desire, social honor, and the oppressive status of women in rural Spain.
However, it is interesting to note that one of his plays, When Five Years Pass, written in 1931, is a complex, surrealist exploration of time, identity, and unrequited love which can be placed in the same mould and genre with Denja Abdullahi’s Chants In A Cemetary which also featured in the festival.
A lot of the audience members gave credence and thanks to the Embassy of Spain and AECID for making this festival possible, considering the travails of Jos city and the cyclical violence currently playing out, especially in villages. The audience also remarked that a lot of them were generally impressed with the quality of the performances and the deeper stories that were told within four days. However, some opined that each subsequent performance was better than the one preceding it. They suggested that JRT could subsequently deploy more social media mentions and traction to enable more people to attend.
This is a busy period for Jos Repertory Theatre, as it is headed for the nation’s capital, Abuja to participate in the Abuja Festival of Arojah Theatre with the repeat performance of Lorca’s The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife, courtesy of the Embassy of Spain, Nigeria and AECID, the Spanish Development Agency.
* Oklobia, a student of Federal University, Lafia, is attending the festival
