Legendary veteran actor, Lari Williams (MFR) is an icon, a celebrated playwright, an interesting musical poet, and a lecturer emboldened to continue doing more by training young people in acting skills, writing and staging plays and passing messages to the society through stage plays and literary books. He is known to mirror the society through his stage plays. He is first in so many ways. But to mention a few, Chief Lari Williams is the first elected President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), member of Writers Guild of Great Britain , University of Calabar Theatre Arts Lecturer, the first actor to perform on The Zuma Rock in Abuja, appeared in the first soap opera titled “Village Headmaster” and first home video titled “Witch doctor of the living dead”. He has also appeared in over 15 other soap operas & 15 other home videos.
The screen chief – Omenka 1 of Akumazi Kingdom (Delta State) and director of the Lari Williams Playhouse, amongst his numerous awards include the “BABA Award” he received for Drama alongside Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (for Music), from the “Extended Family” headed by Tunde & Frank Kuboye of Jazz 38. Lari Williams has been the “Stage & Screen” columnist in Vanguard Newspaper for over 26 years. He studied and produced plays in England and went to one of the best drama schools in Britain – Stratford East-15 Acting School and Mountview Theatre School, North London. Larry Williams is a big name in Nigeria’s entertainment industry. A familiar screen face for many movie lovers, a good performance poet, journalist, the multi- faceted artiste is a recipient of the Member of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, MFR. Sadly, he has literally disappeared from the Lagos culture scene where he was ever present. But City People Showbiz Reporter, DANIJI EMMANUEL runs into him at the Beautiful Nubia Live Concert at the Eniobanke Art Centre where he performed his poetry and he opened up about his works and his been homeless at the moment.
It’s been a while people saw you perform before today, what inspired your performance today?
It’s wrong in saying it’s quite a long time. It’s just that I have been performing just my poetry. My poetry is not just for reading, I perform them as well. Regularly I have performed them once or twice in places like Freedom Park, The National Theater and some other places, but I am developing them more to Jazz Fuji.
You write your poems before performing them, have you got publications out for people to buy and read as well? Yes, I have a collection of my poems, a collection of 128 poems which I titled HEART LINES. Before then I published one at around 1976 in London which I titled DRUM CALL. It was co published by barbican books in London and 4th Dimension in Enugu. I have also published other books. I have published STORM BABY and BLACK CURRENT which are Plays and many more. I am working on a new piece which I just finished. I titled it, A DRUM CALL FOR HEROD which is a Biblical expose. I am currently looking for sponsors for it. It just might be my Sworn Song. Maybe it would be the last of my writings. I want to perform it. Maybe look for sponsors to put have it up at the National Theater and also make a movie out of it, because we have not in Nigeria and Africa let me say, done any drama or play that is biblically inclined like “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, John the Baptist” etc. I want to do something like that. This one that I have written is actually the story of John the Baptist.
As a Veteran, how have you been able to stay relevant over the span of decades in the industry?
It’s been difficult because we have never been supported by the government enough. A Nigerian artist doesn’t have a retirement benefit so if you are not working for the government or a private company it’s hard to survive. So 3 times I have been to lecture. I lectured at UNILAG, LASU and lately I lectured at UNICAL.
Credit: citypeople.com
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