‘LIVE BURIAL’ MARKS HELEN PAUL’S 17 YEARS ON STAGE

Comedian, actress and TV host, Helen Paul, is already 17 years in the entertainment business! To celebrate this great feat, she released her play, ‘Live Burial’, the event was held at the Guest House, University of Lagos on the 24th of April. The entertainer also used the opportunity to unveil her drama troupe.

Helen Paul’s book launch attracted learned elites like Prof Olumuyiwa Adebanjo-Falae, (Dean, Faculty of Arts, UNILAG), Barrister Femi Bamisile, Chief Charles Nwoji, Dr. Otun Rasheed among others.

According to our source, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, was the chief launcher of the day along with his wife, described Helen Paul as a “special breed, significantly noting that her husband is lucky to have her, and she is lucky to have a gentleman like him too because without his support and sacrifice, she can’t be where she is.”

 According to Dr. Otun Rasheed, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lagos, a genius is someone with one percent aspiration and 99 percent perspiration. He further described Helen Paul as a “focussed lady I have been monitoring from her undergraduate days. She started the idea of writing ‘Life Burial’ five years ago. It is thoroughly edited and I can boldly say that it can compete anywhere in the world.”

Summary of the play: ‘Life Burial’ is a boisterous comedy on gender relationship, but such relationship between a licentious man, Chief, and his assorted women. Apart from Anike, the only woman that Chief married, marriage and love is a game in the life of the other characters. In playing the game of love and marriage, Chief maintains a clear distinction between the woman he married, Anike, and the other women who got married to him. Unfortunately, the whole game takes a fatal turn when envy mixes with desire and denial. In the play, laughter is made an antidote to a confusing and confused world. In an amorphous world where social values are derided, where truth and honesty are evaded and the law is made to look as a buffoon, nothing is left but the surprises of being and becoming.

Another comment on the playwright was from, Dr Osita Ezenwanebe, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, UNILAG,

“She is unique in her quest for knowledge despite being acclaimed as a star in the big screen. What types of drama, then, can one expect from Helen except one carefully designed to instruct by entertaining. The play is a good drama with full potentials for the stage. I recommend it to all without reservation,”

Helen Paul did a showcase in two other universities, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and Redeemers University,  apart from the University of Lagos.  Helen got nods from veteran actors like Olu Jacobs, Joke Silva and Dr. Ahmed Yerima.