From left: Modupe Thani, Etisalat Head Events and
Sponsorship, Henshaw, Omonor, Fafunwa, Silva, Akintola and Lolo Eremie, Head of Events, Cool FM.
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The stage is set for ‘Hear Word! – Naija Woman Talk True,' a play based on a collection of
true life stories which aims at dressing and highlighting the challenges of Nigerian women through theatrical performance.
The play directed by Ifeoma Fafunwa premiers on
Saturday, May 2, at MUSON Centre, Onikun, Lagos, by 2: pm. It is produced
by iOpenEye production.
This theatre production
kicks off with a special performance
at the University of Lagos on April 29. The production will subsequently
run at the MUSON Centre every Friday and Saturday in May,
alongside satellite performances in public spaces around Lagos.
Joke Silva during
press session which recently held at Goethe Institute in
Lagos, Nigeria, said: “One of my pieces in
the play is about the pressure parents, especially mothers put on their
children. We think it is our tradition as mothers and we are pressurising our
children into this mindset of incompleteness unless we (women) are married and
have children.
“This is not right because we don’t do the same to
a man. The pressure we put on the man is slightly different. We put the wrong
kind of pressure on our men. We allow our men to get away with things they
shouldn’t get away with it. We allow them as the British will call it ‘sole
their wild oath’ and bring their wild oath into what union they are in and we
also pressurise the men in a wrong way. These are some of the things we examine
in Hear Word!’ she said.
Bimbo Akintola described Hear Word as the best platform to address the issues of violence
against women such as rape and murder “Things I hate about our people is that they
sweep some issues under the carpet, we don’t want o talk about it and if you
are that person that wants to talk about it, they tag you with names. And if
you are not married they call you a prostitute,” she stressed angrily.
Omonor, Deborah Ohiri, Lala Akindoju, Zara Udofia, Rita Edward, Ufuoma
McDermott, Joke Silva, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Kate Henshaw, Bimbo Akintola and Elvina Ibru and Odenike are some of the cast in this play. Hear Word is
supported by Etisalat, Vlisco, African Magic,
Fayrouz, Cool FM and MUSON.