Out of Africa, via London
Wednesday, 6 April, 2011New British-Nigerian plays, at the Oval House
London via Lagos is a festival of new British-Nigerian plays, celebrating the work of three African-heritage, UK-based, world-class playwrights. It runs from 22 May to 10 July 2011 at the Oval House theatre in Kennington.
As Lagos grows ever more influential as a world city, and London as a world capital, London via Lagos reveals the political, personal and the domestic stories where these two great cultures meet.
Ade Solanke is the first of the British-Nigerian playwrights to be represented
First of the season is Pandora’s Box, by Ade Solanke, which is to be directed by Ben Evans.
On holiday with her streetwise son in Lagos, a British-Nigerian mother is in turmoil. Should she leave her only child in a strict Lagos boarding school, or return him to the ‘battlefields’ of inner London…?
“What do you see out of that window? People, right? Just people. Because there are no ‘black’ people in Africa. Let him experience life for a change.”
A family spanning three generations and two continents meet together in Lagos for the first time in over thirty years. But the joy of reunion also unleashes long-suppressed truths. An exuberant mix of comedy, tragedy and family drama, Pandora’s Box reveals the heartbreak behind the choices every parent must make.
