OKC Rep Hosts Inua Ellams ‘An Evening With an Immigrant’ part of ‘UNDER THE RADAR: ON THE ROAD’
Inua Ellams. Photo courtesy of Oliver Holmes.
‘An Evening With an Immigrant’ by Inua Ellams, a modern renaissance man. Ellams is a writer, a poet, a dreamer grounded in reality. Inua Ellams was born in Nigeria in 1984. He and his family left Nigeria when he was but 12, and they took refuge in the United Kingdom. Ellams is the child of a Muslim father and a Christian mother. Moderacy and reason not being appreciated by extremists, Nigeria became unlivable for the family and hence the move to the UK. Outside of three evocative years in Ireland, Ellams is still seeking a country to call home in the United Kingdom. Inua Ellams began writing in the in the first years of the new century. There are many expectations of improvements with a transition into a new century and there have been many significant and ‘improving’ developments technologically in the past 20 years, but how much have attitudes changed.
Ellams writes from his own perspective as many writers do, write what you know is to write what is right for you. And we find that great writers who follow that express a profound universality in spite of the vast differences in experience. This is true of Inua Ellams who has had significant success with his poetry, his plays and screenplays that draw us in to a greater understanding of what he and many others have experienced, but also, drawn in because we find so much that is familiar emotionally because of our own experiences. His work centers on Identity, Displacement and Destiny. These three themes are fraught with universality. The specific uniqueness of his situation as a black man in the UK, a Muslim who is not radical, a Christian upbringing through his mother makes him extremely different from most of us in his experience, but Ellams work reveals that his unusual childhood and then hi situation as a young adult, provides the focus which makes his work relatable, powerful and relevant.
His poems include ‘Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars’, and ‘Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales’ among many others. His first play, a one-man show performed by Ellams, is ‘The 14th Tale’ and he has written many others, since. He refers to his plays as ‘failed poems’ and they have been performed at many prestigious venues, such as ‘The Calm’ presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company and for the BBC, his screenplay ‘Wild Blood and Swipe Slow’ are but a few examples of his work.
Inua Ellams. Photo courtesy of Oliver Holmes.
Ellams is one of those multi-talented and multi-faceted folk who are prolific. There is an old saying ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’ that often traps people who are talented in many areas, but every now and then brilliance is achieved because someone with many talents is not over-whelmed and escapes that trap. Like da Vinci, they are always willing to try things a new way. Clearly that is a recipe for success explaining why Ellams refers to his plays as ‘failed poems.’ And perhaps that is part of the reason that Ellam’s uniquely personal and often devastating experiences encourage the universality that draws us into his work.
The Public Theater’s “Under the Radar Festival” created ‘UNDER THE RADAR: ON THE ROAD’ and ‘An Evening With an Immigrant’ is part of that Initiative in this 18th year of the Experimental Theater Festival. Written and performed by Ellams, “An Evening With an Immigrant’ is being presented by the Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre on January 22 at 8:00 pm and January 23 at 5:00 pm this year. The venue for Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre (OKC Rep) is the Contemporary Arts Center at 11 NW 11th Street in Oklahoma City. For information, contact OKC Rep at 405-768-2191 or visit info@okcrep.org and for tickets call the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center at 405-951-0000 during regular business hours except Tuesday’s.