Colors Colors, a lovely and alluring display of creativity

Art can be coined in its professional focus in relation to the communication between how the audience would perceive an idea in his own set of mind compared to how it is portrayed. People understand art in their very own confines of knowledge; which is mostly common but they angle at which a person paints it their minds of the audience. Stage drama, has been one tentacle of art that has gained grounds in recent times in the history of theatre art in Ghana. The evolution of a few uprising stage drama back in the days has paved way for the current pool of astute and dexterous productions. These days, competition rains from the respective productions this land has seen from the mind-blowing stage setting, excellent storylines, and sharp-edged display of professionalism by cast, technical assets and various means of selling out quality to patrons.

Counting of the massive eruption of gilt-edged stage drama productions, Soul Train Inc. cannot be excused or ignored. Over the years, Soul Train Inc. has fed a massive number of art lovers with drama, poetry and choreography. Its previous production with “Take It or Take It” has made waves across the landscape of Ghana to “wow” audience with ace exhibition of drama to the maximum. Their recent play “Colours Colours” was not an exception when it premiered at Central University- Miotso Campus. It is of no doubt that audience had in return the worth of what they put into buying the ticket for the show. The show run for two days; with one show on 1st May and two shows on 2nd May 2016. As the saying goes “He whom you know during the day need not light to identify at night”, students were once again thrilled with “Colours Colours”. As the title of the play goes, it exhibits several and diverse characters of different shades and attitude. Creativity was well employed in totality.

The setting of the play challenged many minds; with the colourful edifice of Phanny's Pizza, beautifully designed in the brightest of colours and eye-catching decorations. The set on its own is so sophisticated and classic that one would wish Phanny's Pizza were real.

Colors,Colours was  a lovely and alluring display of creativity, The plot of a pizza joint was quite an odd choice or sight to the inflowing audience at the beginning of the play, but all eased into it, as the opening scene revealed what normally transpired when a group of different people with various “Coloured” characters converged with one goal.

Their goal of these “Coloured” characters was simple; to triple sales in 3 months or risk a complete shutdown of the pizza inn. As one would normally expect, such an announcement by the invisible “Management” should spur the employees on to greater heights. Instead, their focuses were rather shifted towards other “pressing” matters, including mysterious packages, love proposals, theft, and the like.

The characters involved an enthusiastic  and  highly theatric church going branch manager popularly known by his subordinates as "Osofo", who later turned out to be  the antagonist of the of the whole  play, the pessimistic  receptionist  with a sharp tongue-Esther who's main aim is to antagonize the other workers  and is later swayed away by a so called Italian  business man   who turns out to be a fraud , A localized "business man "accompanied by two gold digging young ladies ,who in turn get beat at their own game as they are left stranded with the bill and fake dollar bills in the pizza joint, a young couple having a nice  time  and engrossed  in taking  selfies, the very exuberant  , dramatic ,quite naive   and ignorant Fafa ,who's hilarious antics amused the crowd  to no end, she's also  quite  a notorious gossip at that  and never fails to inform any one she's involved in an argument with of  her ethnic status as an Ewe, the temperamental  and  shallow minded stammering waiter Azarya, who later marvels the crowed with his business minded intellect, the shy "undergee" character Ato who confessed his love for  Fafa and got shot down rather cold heartedly, and the modest Abisiga, who’s major trait was to be later than the word.

As the characters combined to tell the story to perfection, the audience were left wondering the outcome of the numerous events in the play, as the use of suspense and irony was perfectly employed to deny the audience any chance of predicting an end to the story.

The use of melodious interludes by the actors helped convey the core message of the play easier for everyone present to fathom. The ever enthusiastic “Red Ginger” band were on hand to deliver carefully selected Ghanaian music to back the play.

Aside the many pluses the play had, a few technical hitches at a point made audience unsettled. Microphone feedback often overshadowed the music, and the singers too were often absent minded during the production. However, these are issues whose fixing would only make the play better and bigger.

As the play drew to a close with the defeated Esther breaking into a “Colours, Colours” song, one could easily tell that the audience had indeed been fed the perfect holiday package, with applause lingering for well over a minute.

The playwright Nene Osiedu, on expressing gratitude to sponsors and audience for their support and patronage after the show, announced that the show would be repeated at University of Ghana in a couple of months, to the thrill of the audience.

Indeed, “Colours, Colours” was a well writen, well-acted, well directed and above all well produced play, which every art lover must make a point to see. Legon edition I hear is going to be bigger. What colour is your smile? Find out this and more, as you make a date with Soul Train Productions in a few months’ time with the Legon edition of “Colours, Colours.”