The bold new play by Kessavier Vanille Productions, Hertitude, is back for the high season of theatre and yuletide.
Written and directed by Kesiena Obue, Hertitude is back to the stage after a highly successful inaugural outing in March and April this year at the Wole Soyinka Hall of Freedom Park, Lagos.
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Back to light up the Christmas and New Year season, Hertitude will be staged in the theatre space of the National Theatre in Iganmu, Lagos on December 14, 15, 21, 22, 25, 28, 29 and January 1, 4, and 5, 2020, at 5pm daily.
“Hertitude is a bold move with a punch, a thumb up for legacy, theatrical beauty and professional pride,” Ms Obue said.
This, after all was where the likes of Taiwo Ajayi Lycett, Richard Mofe Damijo, Joke Silva and Olu Jacobs made their names on the Nigerian stage of the nineties, she pointed out in a voice that conveys calm, knowledge and vision.
As the title of the play suggests, Hertitude is a smooth, simmering homage around three young Nigerian female professionals and sisters forced into an uncomfortable reunion by the death of their mother.
They come to play and ever so gingerly navigate the contours of their maturing lives under the glare of social media, Lagos fakery and glitz with a nasty underbelly. While juggling scheming socialites, name‐ dropping wannabes, fickle celebrities, and egomaniac obsessions, the question remains if these sisters still manage to get it together.
Hertitude promises a five-course meal of beauty, music, dance, technical pizzazz and real drama, while examining the past, challenging our view of the future, as well as surprise and inspire the audience!
In the hierarchy of collaborations, this ranks right at the top with partners as ZMirage (the technical Theater and lighting guru) building the sets and lighting the show; Motomedia (ranked as one of the most innovative and successful outdoor advertising agency in Africa); Vida (A new premium household brand) and the Federal Ministry of Culture, offering support through the National Arts Theatre.
Obue has written and directed for theatre, film, television and other multiple creative platforms around the country and the United States. Some of her recent credits include The Bling Lagosians, Moremi the Musical, Fela and the Kalakuta Queens, Wakaa the Musical and Femi Osofisan’s A Nightingale for Dr Du Bois.
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Expressing the readiness of National Arts Theatre to host the event, spokesman of the theatre, Steve Ogundele, assured of adequate security, world class theatrical ambience and technical facilities.
He said: “We are happy to work with the talented producers of Hertitude who know their onions. We want to use Hertitude as a signpost to once again showcase the National Arts Theatre as the hub of theatrical excellence. The Cinema Hall 1 boasts of a mechanised curtain and a proscenium arc, something you hardly see in this part of the world. We invite Nigerians to come experience a feast of thespian art.”
