Damiete Braide

The Thespian Family Theatre and Productions has a big deal for lovers of the stage this Easter as ITAN the Story, an exciting play directed by the company’s founder, Ayo Jaiyesinmi, will be performed at the MUSON Centre, Lagos. 

The play coming up on Saturday, April 20 and running till Monday, 22, is coming back repackaged, with a 70-man cast that comprise some of the best in the country.

These include Albert Akaeze, Nissi George, Efe Mayford Orhorha, Omololu Shodiya, Henry Arnold, and Omowumi Dada playing major roles. But it will also pleasantly the audience on the basis of some unusual faces it is parading. Among them is top fashion entrepreneur, Funmi Ajila-Ladipo and popular online comedian, Broda Shaggi. For those who might have also seen the play before, some surprises yet await them as the producer has reinforced its theme, structure and style so that it invokes new meanings and sensation.

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One of the things that Jaiyesinmi, producer and director, did to redefine the theatre culture is boldly going for very engaging plays, including those by legendary playwrights such as Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi. In this wise, she has staged Soyinka’s Lion and the Jewel and The God’s are not to Blame by Rotimi. But she has also, along the line, procreated a new set of plays that reconcile modernity and old values. ITAN is simply one of them.

Another factor that endears the Thespian Theatre to many people is the fact that Jaiyesinmi always stages her plays at inspiring and safe venues, with the MUSON Centre, Lagos, having provided a good base for her several times. It is again thus not surprising that it is hosting ITAN this April.

She said, “We’ve had over 500 shows in Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Abuja, Ghana and UK. I have also worked with a number of brilliant persons in the Nigerian theatre space- artistic and technical directors, actors, choreographers and dances, singers, designers.

Every stage production is a ‘factory room’ of different skill-sets using their individual and collective creativity to birth what comes to stage. This, for me, is a unique blessing, because I’ve not only had good quality productions but also been able to learn from some of the very best in the industry.”