Pages

Monday

Gideon Okeke: ‘Fela’s shoes are too big for me’

Versatile actor, and star of Tinsel, Gideon Okeke, who brought a deeper side of his talent to play   last October and November, after delivering an outstanding theatrical re-enactment of Fela Anikulapo Kuti ‘s life and evolution, featuring some of the Afrobeat legend’s songs, says the Afrobeat King’s shoes are too big for him to step into.

Gideon made this remark, in a chat with HVP, shortly after his brilliant performance at the MUSON festival. He insisted that he was not trying to be Fela, even though  it took him time to understudy the Afrobeat king. “I am not trying to be Fela. I only interpreted in songs and dance some of the things he stood for while he lived, his personality and lifestyle,”he said.
The creative piece, “Fela.. Arrest the music”produced by  Declassical Arts and Entertainment Company in collaboration with MUSON Center was a musical on the life and times of the legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Written by Paul Ugbede, (winner of the Beeta Foundation Playwrights competition), the piece expressed in songs and dance the daily struggles of an African man; how he is being subjected to the forces of suppression and humiliation from the western world, his own government, the society, et al. Gideon has always proved he’s a different specie when it comes to acting.

-