After enjoying a successful play reading session at the Korean Cultural Centre, Abuja, Nigeria, on Wednesday, January 19, 2011, Dance On His Grave, a drama written by Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, who is also the Executive Secretary (ES) of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), is set to open to the public in Abuja.
Disclosing this to the audience at the play reading event, a Director of Arojah Royal Theatre, Mr. Jerry Adesewo, on behalf of their organizing partners, the Korean Cultural Centre, Abuja, said the play will be performed in Abuja on the 7th – 8th March, 2011.
However, an earlier press statement had indicated that the play will be staged in Abuja by Arojah Theatre in collaboration with initiative for Women and Child Development, as part of activities marking the 2011 International Women’s Day, tagged, “Women for Change in the 21st Century Nigeria.”
In his reaction to this development, the playwright, Dr. Ayakoroma, said there could not have been a better choice of drama for the 2011 International Women’s Day Celebration, as the play Dance on His Grave, incidentally was borne out of inspiration from the Women in Nigeria (WIN) activities, in commemoration of the International Women’s Day in 1988 at the Diete-Spiff Sports Complex, Port-Harcourt, Nigeria.
Dr. Ayakoroma said he was among the few men that witnessed the activities of the women at the Port-Harcourt Civic Centre where the then Military Administrator, Col Anthony Ukpo’s wife took the salute, stressing, “the occasion ended and we all dispersed but this was an event that fired my creative imagination,” he added.
In Dance on His Grave, the Women of Toru-Ama decide to take their rightful place. They drive home their point through the weapon of stubbornness. The men think they could nip the revolt in the bud by flogging sense into the heads of the women but failed.
Premiered at the Arts Theatre (The Crab), University of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria, on 6th July, 1992, had Julius Agwu, Francis Duru, among others, now veteran actors and was directed by Colombus Irisoanga and of course, the author/playwright Barclays Ayakoroma, as the production consultant.
Dance on His Grave was also presented by the Bayelsa State Council for Arts & Culture as a command performance on the occasion of the 41st National Day and the 5th Anniversary of the creation of Bayelsa State on Sunday, 30th September 2001 at the Women Affairs Auditorium, Yenagoa. The play was again staged on special request on 15th November, 2001 as part of the activities that marked the 49th Birthday Anniversary of the former Executive Governor, His Excellency, Chief D.S.P Alameiyeseigha (JP).
Enock Etimighan.
Corporate Affairs