Joke Silva, Taiwo Ajai-­Lycett​, others advocate for gender equality

From left: Modupe Thani, Etisalat Head Events and Sponsorship, Henshaw​, Omonor, Fafunwa, Silva, Akintola and Lolo Eremie, Head of Events, Cool FM.

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.