Toward the end of “Nollywood Dreams,” a fraught encounter erupts between two characters, a justifiably enraged, bitter woman and her erstwhile boyfriend. The scene effectively stilled the virtually nonstop laughter of an appreciative opening-night audience at San Francisco Playhouse.
It was the only scene in playwright Jocelyn Bioh’s script that made the characters seem real, thanks as well to Anna Marie Sharpe’s emotionally connected portrayal. Prior to that scene, her character, Fayola, had been a cartoon of a snippy, jealous, struggling actress.
But aside from that one scene, the 90-minute comedy, perhaps especially as directed by Margo Hall (one of the Bay Area’s best actors), is clearly intended to garner as many yuks as possible, at the expense of, among other things, the integrity of the female characters or any kind of reality. It has all the makings of a thin, formulaic TV sitcom full of one-dimensional characters.
Would it pass muster—would it be worth the considerable production efforts of an esteemed theater company like San Francisco Playhouse — were it not meant to be a peek, for American audiences, into the wildly prolific film industry (nicknamed Nollywood) in Nigeria?
As the title indicates, the central character, Ayamma (Angel Adedokun), wants to be a Nollywood star, although she has no training and seemingly no talent.
“This is my calling,” she says firmly, and it seems that by the end of the play, we’re meant to believe it’s true. She and her older sister, Dede (Brittany Nicole Sims), run the family travel agency in Lagos, in which they have no interest whatsoever.
Dede prefers to ignore the ringing phone and focus on her movie magazines. When Ayamma chances upon an opportunity to audition for a filmmaker who’s back in town from America, she’s all in. Cue ridiculously over-the-top efforts at preparation: rehearsing the audition scene by reading the script aloud at home to Dede, over-emoting at screechy top volume, cluelessly reading the punctuation, etc.
Later, she refers to a call-back as a back-call. Several times.
Scenes of Ayamma preparing for the audition and arguing with Dede (who’s even more star-struck, so much so that when she encounters a bona fide star, her eyes pop out and she utters nothing but guttural noises, repeatedly) hold no surprises.
But thankfully they are interspersed (on scenic designer Bill English’s nifty revolving set) with by far the funniest scenes in the play: a succession of preening, self-involved movie stars on a TV talk show being interviewed by a powerful, overly vivacious, Oprah-like host. Preening beneath an elaborate array of turbans (costumes by Jasmine Milan Williams), Tanika Baptiste is wonderfully inventive in the role.
But goofy Dede, ingenue Ayamma and her nemesis, bitter Fayola, are strictly silly, cliché characters (no fault of the actors) in a cliché plot. It doesn’t help that the two male characters don’t make much of an impression — nor does the budding romance between Ayamma and the movie star ring true.
Bioh’s “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” opened recently on Broadway, and other plays of hers have made the rounds of the theater world (including the musical “Goddess” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre), but this light comedy has nothing new to offer.
“Nollywood Dreams” continues through Nov. 4 at San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St., San Francisco. Tickets are $15-$100 at (415) 677-9596 or sfplayhouse.org.