HEAR WORD!: After a Decade, Ifeoma Fafunwa’s Play Still Instigates Social Change Through Moving Theatrical Performances

In 2014, Ifeoma Fafunwa, one of Nigerian theatre directors who can fittingly be described as a “social-impact theatre maker”  wrote and directed HEAR WORD! From its seemingly inauspicious beginning, the play has been performed for local and international audiences to raving reviews. Inspired by the lived realities of Nigerian women, HEAR WORD!  which tells female–driven empowering stories and advocates for women’s economic independence, has inspired social change. Ten years later, in a three-day-free-for-all festival, the play was performed to varying audiences(secondary school and university students, Christian leaders, and stakeholders) to celebrate the play. 

According to the iOpenEye page, the production house behind HEAR WORD!, its core mission is building a gender-equitable world using art for social change. This is done by organizing empowering performances, that sometimes train non-theatre practitioners to host the performances in their local communities. Additionally, it curates open and change-driven dialogues, skill-building workshops, and advocacy and leadership programs. These are strategic ways in which the iOpenEye team has used their poignant show for a decade to instigate social change not just in Nigerian societies but worldwide. Thus, a decade later, it’s only right for the team to host the three-day Impact Festival that, beyond being celebratory, continually pushes their social cause. 

What’s immediately striking is how the dialogue and all–women cast embrace conversations about women’s body autonomy, the damaging and cruel patriarchal rule, and societal expectations from women. The play strongly shows how from childhood, the mind of a young girl has been socially conditioned to believe that her existence and humanity are tied to a man’s identity. Psychologically, the innate agency and personal dreams of a growing young lady are socially subsumed by masculine–focused conversations. Right from childhood, the mind of a young child is wrongly nourished, by her parents, immediate neighbors, religious leaders, friends, and mainstream media, of her supposed place in a traditional setting. What these dialogues and narratives push is the dousing down of the young girl child self identity and worth. The play which is a collage of monologues also captures the gloomy theme of sexual and domestic violence against women. 

Through moving dialogues and well–performed monologues, we witnessed the unfiltered stories of women who have been sexually assaulted by depraved men. With the knowledge that the play first appeared in 2014, it’s saddening that rape cases are on a traumatic rise in Nigerian society and globally. The play also accommodated the fundamental and foundational issues of absolving a widow of her jointly-owned properties by callous and wealth–mongering relatives. Brilliantly, the play accommodates the varying but authoritarian tone and voice of seeming “wisdom” conditioning women to fit into a socially–agreed image.

The play which has been modified to accommodate contemporary vocabulary and music, lends its voice to ever-relevant societal themes and issues. Hear Word doesn’t just present the harrowing stories of sexually abused women to bait audiences’ emotional investment. The play presents this to point society’s gaze to how psychologically and socially damaging abuse leaves its victims. It does this to also show how, in not speaking out against sexual and domestic abuse, we are complicit enablers. We should form a surveillance network that speaks against this horrifying reality. There are parts of the show dedicated to telling empowering stories about single and independent women and pushing for a more healthy and non–non-judgmental discussion of sex and women’s sexual pleasures. These parts of the play propagate the gospel of women’s agency and complete independence from a man’s identity. It’s a fierce and political poking–on–the face to the patriarchal convention. 

The cast members which include Joke Silva, Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett, Ufoma Mcdermott, Elvina Ibru, Zara Udofia-Ejoh, Odenike, Rita Edward, Deborah Ohiri, Omonor, and Oluchi Odii carry their theatrical performances with equal zest. Whenever the performance requires a collective act, their towering performances shine bright. And in the stand-alone performances, you can feel the emotions and passion slipping out of their body movements and voices. From the technical and crew department, Ituen Basi, the costume designer, Emeka Anokwuru, the percussionist, Aja Jackson, the lightning designer, and Jonathan Carr, the projection designer, the visual identity of the performance is steadily pushed. Basi’s costume secures the varying social classes and religious leaning of the cast members. Thanks to the creative insights of Basi, while the dialogue and body movement of the cast members clasp onto the mannerisms associated with their social class and group, at no point do the costume and props leave you in doubt of their affiliation to said, class and group. The sonic landscape of the show is carried with virtuoso zest by Anokwuru and other percussionists. 

As the performance ends and the cast and crew members take a bow, what they want is for society to literally and figuratively listen and cause change in society.  

Seyi Lasisi is a Nigerian creative with an obsessive interest in Nigerian and African film as an art form. His film criticism aspires to engage the subtle and obvious politics, sentiments, and opinions of the filmmaker to see how they align with reality. He tweets @SeyiVortex