Waning Review BY Eunice Nwonwo Omasirichi

Genre                                                  -                                               Drama

Author                                                 -                                               Dr. Eziwho Emenike Azunwo

Reviewer                                           -                                                 Eunice Nwonwo Omasirichi

Publisher                                          -                                                  Covenant Daystar Publishers

Pagination                                       -                                                   66 Pages

Year of Publisher                         -                                                       2025

Institution                                        -                                                  Rivers State University, Port Harcourt

Department:                                   -                                                   Theater and Film Studies

Introduction

The play Waning is a stage play actually that passes an intriguing message of “Sins of the Past” or “Nemesis” catching up with you”. It tells a story of a young man, Kanayo, being the core character. It depicts his experience in life generally. The challenges and forces of the past that hurts him. Although, the play narrates how it has difficult for him to provide for the family. Decrease in enthusiasm and passion as a man that once felt wealth or touched money. It also showed decline in vitality or power as a husband as a result of inability to fend for the family.

The play Waning is very interesting and captioned most issues at home and what the society offers. It relates the past and present of a man that was once in power or high in terms of ill- gotten funds to enjoy a lifestyle. However, the play revolves around said major character ranging from Kanayo – the major character, Veronica – his wife but filled missiles in her mouth that can lead a man to depression but loving and caring. She only wanted the best for her husband. There is also a Norah as a character with negative influence to lure Veronica to live her kind of lifestyle as a single lady and enjoy life rather being married and suffering in her husband’s house. She actually tried to convince her, stating all manner of benefits in comparison to what she is facing in her husband’s house. Lack of funds was the order of the day as hunger was boldly spelt in the family. She was actually one of the best friend of Veronica back in the days. Damian happen to the son of Kanayo and Veronica, faced with humiliation in school as result of inability for the parents to pay his fees and provide for him. Hunger was his nightmare because he hardly eat before going to bed.

The play “Waning” also featured characters like L.J, Pst. Joe’s wife and White woman. They all played roles that showed how starvation and poverty deeply affected Kanayo’s family, leading to his loss of respect as a husband. The Author, Dr. Eziwho made us the audience to understand that life most times can be cruel, that your sincerity and genuineness to the society might not provide or afford your needs as a man that once tasted wealth frequently in his past life (Internet Fraudster) but decided to let the past go. The play “Waning” remains an emotionally and reflection of the past life and present life resulting to evil committed and repayment Kanayo could even believe that he was actually the one going through this phase of life. The rejections, loss of job, Veronica insults, inability to carry out his responsibility as a father to Damian and husband to Veronica. However, it ended in comic.

Synopsis

The Waning is a play that tells a story of a Kanayo that was once an internet fraudster but life happened to him that he felt the society was paying him back for his sin. It is an interesting dramatically and well-structured playwright. It captioned the audience when Kanayo stepped into the stage and his pregnant wife follow suit and their altercation, insults with use of provocative words from the couple as the husband could not provide for the family. As the story intensifies or rather develops; the entrance of Norah, L.J and sack of Kanayo from his job lead to devastating moment for them as the job was the only source of feeding, even when they are stilled still starved with the little salary from his company.

Rejection and depression was a reflection on both Veronica and Kanayo as their both friends Norah and L.J respectively tried to lure them into negative means to come out of financial handicap and starvation state of their life. The agony of Damian reminding both parents that he is hungry and might die someday. The story shows a reference or reflection of where both (Veronica and Kanayo) where in life as a result of negative lifestyle and fraudulent activities respectively. In view to change the narrative of their predicament, Veronica alternate the money for food to buy gown for a club party and Kanayo given in to L.J who gave him a laptop to start his fraudulent former lifestyle.

Damian after coming into the picture to thwart the white woman, his father Kanayo was chatting or wanted to dupe. At the end of the play, physical assaults curtained in when Veronica and Kanayo grabbed themselves to query their actions to turn around their poverty state and ended up laughing over everything that happened in front of Damian and Pst. Joe’s wife.

Characterization

The play “Waning” featured seven (7) characters that actually performed exceptionally, reflecting challenges faced in our different homes and society at large. Below are brief involvement of the characters or role played in “The Waning”.

Kanayo – He is the major character, tolerating and found it difficult to get favour from the society or community as he tried to focus on his new path having been known as a fraudster: (Yahoo Yahoo).

Veronica – Wife of Kanayo, she was abusive and bent on pushing her husband to be a better man, genuine, upright and legitimate in endeavors in life having known him as a fraudster. She also at some point gave in to Norah pressure just to assist reduce the starvation eating up the family.

Norah – She was her (Veronica) old time friend, they all rolled together. She was instrumental into convincing Veronica to join her kind of lifestyle, knowing that Veronica is married. She bent on giving Veronica subtle and harsh words, reminding her how unkept she was and how poverty has designed her.

L.J – He is the one time fraudulent friend of Kanayo that lured him to internet fraudster during his rejection, starvation and job lost period.

Damian – He was their (Veronica and Kanayo) son that has given up for a better tomorrow. His starvation in the house and humiliation at school made him gave up on his parents rather tried to device means of extortion from both parents. It can be seen on the play when the mum dressed to party and when he demand for money for exchange of information he wanted to tell the dad.

Pst. Joe’s Wife – She once assisted them financially in providing food which later result to insults and lies against her by Veronica.

White Woman – She was the client L.J handed over to Kanayo to use his brilliance and defraud the white woman before Damian casted the whole deal.

Thematic Analysis

The “Waning” covers wide range of relevant and emotional critical terms.

Depression – This is one of emotional theme that “Waning” play depicts. It was observed in the play that Veronica constant abuse on Kanayo inability to provide for the family, losing his job also lead to depression that gave room to go back to his past (Yahoo Yahoo) for survival.

Societal Influence – This can be denote from the hard work, efforts to provide for the family that failed till he lost his job and thought of going into his former fraudster life.

Truth and Courage – Even when Veronica the wife was suffering as a result of starvation, she refused to encourage her husband to go back to his former, rather encouraging him that his righteousness and legitimate work will see them through this poverty.

Language and Style

Dr. Eziwho Emenike Azunwo choice of language was understanding and maintain a sense of belonging, relating it to our everyday experiences in our different homes. The style in terms of stage, display, lighting and traditional drums gave the drama/play an intriguing and captivating presence as audience and readers were glued to the stage. In a nutshell, language and style vised were emotionally modest, understanding and calm but subtle firm.

Conclusion

Waning is not just a work of fiction or an ordinary drama; it portrays and exposes the issues and challenges many homes face in contemporary Nigerian society. The play addresses values such as contentment, legitimacy, morality, and personal responsibility through the struggles of Kanayo and Veronica, whose endurance and tolerance reflect the harsh realities of postmodern survival. Azunwo (n.d) uses these domestic tensions to highlight societal indifference toward genuine effort and moral uprightness. Similar to Soyinka’s (1976) exploration of moral corruption in The Trials of Brother Jero and Rotimi’s (1977) satirical portrayal of political and social pretensions in Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, Waning functions as a mirror of society, exposing the consequences of greed and moral decay. Collectively, these dramatics employ realism and satire to encourage ethical reflection and personal transformation within the audience.

REFERENCES

Azunwo, E. E. (2025). Waning. A play, covenant Day star publishers, Nigeria. Rotimi, O. (1977). Our husband has gone mad again, University Press PLC Soyinka, W. (1976). The trials of Brother Jero. Oxford University Press