By Lari Williams

The Nigerian stage has lost a Jewel. The follow spot will never find her again, the cameras will Roll and she won’t be there any longer to thrill her fans. The spotlight blinked a pause, and the screen shed tears at the departure of an ever refreshing actress, Toun Oni, fondly known as “Mama T”, a dedicated theatre practitioner, who for over 35 years graced the stage and screens with passion, sang her swan song’ last Thursday night. The stage lights blinked a long pause, and the screen shed a tear at the departure of this enigmatic Nigerian, Stage, Screen, Radio Actress and Dancer.

She was an incredible character profound and puzzling, full of energy. Indeed the departed actress was known for her grace when she danced her walk, usually towards the theatre.

I met her just after FESTAC 77, 33 years ago. We shared the Stage, Screen and Radio Severally, she was a member of my playhouse her energetic and bubbly countenance never portrayed her age. Even after her departure the newspapers are at variance as to her real age. They ranged between sixties and seventies.

She took part in all my playhouse productions when colonel Tunde Akogun as Sole Administrator of the National Theatre established the “Open Theatre” season for Repertory Theatre companies like Agbeyegbe’s Ajo Theatre, Sowande’s “Odu Themes” Lari Williams Playhouse, etc. we (Lari Williams Playhouse) presented my plays “Awero”, Home to Ajegule, which we took on tour to Ilorin, Benin, Ojo Cantonment, including the Nigeria’s Premier Club- The Island Club and back to the National Theatre. We sometimes played for “Peanuts” as pioneers of Nigeria’s Commercial Theatre.

She was a pioneer member of NANTAP (National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners), member of the AGN (Actors Guild of Nigeria) and  L. W. P (Lari Williams Playhouse).

A versatile performer at home on stage – “period” and ‘Contemporary’ as well as ‘Musicals’ and Cabaret with unflinching sense of duty as well as a hilarious sense of humour. An ‘actor’s actor’ and a ready performer. Indeed she earned a deserved national award MON (Member of the Niger) bestowed on her four years ago.

In her generation as a young actress she was the ‘belle’ of the Nigerian stage, then came the era of screen plays when she dazzled her fans with her innocent child like smile and a mischievous glint in her eyes.

She played her various characters with such sincerity and emotion. In her latter years, she thrilled her fans as senior wife in the Amaka Igwe’s Fuji House of Commotion, a hilarious Soap-Network production.

 “Life waits for death” 
“As death in duty wrench the body and releases the spirit into a weightless world. The invisible spirit world, where the soul is light and free as air”.

But Toun Oni, the actors’ actor! Left her echoes in the theatre halls all around the country from Ife, Ibadan to Lagos and the rest of Nigeria, thrilling the people, as the ‘characters’ demand in the play, with fire in her eyes when she is hard and hot and with a glint in her smile, when she was seductive and her graceful steps when she danced, and when she walked. Naturally, she danced her walk-gracefully..Adieu!.