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Festival of Theatre 2015 from Jos Repertory

By Oludare Richards, Abuja
24 February 2015   |   11:00 pm
THE 9th edition of the yearly Jos Festival of Theatre 2015 is billed to open in Jos, Plateau State from March 10 to 14, 2015. The festival will feature five plays, with a pre-festival play to be staged a few days to the official opening.   With Telling Untold Stories... Making a Difference through the…

THE 9th edition of the yearly Jos Festival of Theatre 2015 is billed to open in Jos, Plateau State from March 10 to 14, 2015. The festival will feature five plays, with a pre-festival play to be staged a few days to the official opening.

  With Telling Untold Stories… Making a Difference through the Arts as theme, the five-day performance will also feature art management workshop that will focus on proposal writing alongside directing and acting classes. Jos-based theatre professionals will serve as facilitators at the workshop.

  According to Director, Jos Repertory Theatre, Mr. Patrick Jude-Oteh, the plays outlined for the festival include Barclays Ayakoroma’s Castles in the Air, Adinoyi Ojo-Onukaba’s Body Parts, Sefi Atta’s Last Stand, Jacinto Benaventure’s The Bonds of Interest and August Wilson’s King Hedley II.

  Castles in the Air exposes traditional prejudices on mixed marriages between diverse ethnic groups in Nigeria.  Aminu and Stella are promised the sum of N10m if they got married within a year and give birth to a son.   

  The race is on, but are they ready for the wedlock?

  Body Parts is the story of a group of young men who, out of being unemployed, create jobs for themselves by hawking their vital organs to the highest bidder. There is a strong demand for kidneys and they have healthy ones to sell. But there is a snag, as they sell to someone who has a history with their family dating back 30 years.

  Last Stand is the story of a family torn apart by the will of their dying patriarch, a retired military General. Who does he leave his estate to? The designated heir is not interested in the wealth and that leaves the estate open to a fight between two wives, a dead wife and their children. Last Stand premiered at the Terra Kulture in Lagos last November.

  Bonds of Interest tells the tale of two young men who are fraud personified. They extend this dubious living by getting a lot of services on credit. They then plan the ultimate scheme – one of them is to marry the daughter of the wealthiest man in the city in the hope that when he dies they will inherit his wealth, pay off their debts and live happily as respected men of the society. The plan backfires as the one pretending to fall in love actually falls in love. Being chased by the law and their creditors, they decide to split up but this further compounds their woes as the daughter in question decides not to let go of her inheritance.

  King Hedley II depicts life in Pittsburgh in 1985. King Hedley II is out of jail. He comes back home, gets married and tries to make his own rules. He lives with his mother and his wife whom he would very much love to see get pregnant. She eventually gets pregnant but decides to have abortion, as she would not want to have a child who would not know his father. His mother’s lover of 30 years appears and decides to formally marry his mother but before this happens, he asks her to tell King Hedley II who his real father is.

  Unfortunately, he had killed his father during a row over some gambling debts. On the day they decide to get their marriage license, all the secrets which she had thought she would take to her grave come tumbling out with disastrous consequences.

  According to Jude-Oteh, “The 9th Jos Festival of Theatre 2015 will open at 5pm daily with workshops and exhibitions during the day. The U.S. Mission in Nigeria, Grand Cereals Limited and a host of corporate and individual citizens support the festival.

 

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