Media Diversified
Foregrounding marginalised voices
Sabo Kpade’s story Chibok has been short listed for the London Short Story Prize 2015. You can find him on twitter at @sabo_kpade
by Sabo Kpade The Artistic Director of Eclipse Theatre Company talks about the Arts Council-funded project Revolution Mix, and reflects on her eighteen years in the industry. Tell us a bit about Revolution Mix. What does the project hope to achieve? It’s about inclusiveness. It’s about legacy. It’s about trying to tackle the sort… Read More
by Sabo Kpade Prefacing a book or the chapters within with proverbs and quotes could be a way of paying homage or unifying its themes. The Fishermen is not littered with them but the references to great works (Things Fall Apart, Moby Dick) and quotes from Yeats and Igbo and Ashanti proverbs soon come to seem… Read More
by Sabo Kpade Chief among the preoccupations of God Bless The Child is skin shade: a slight variation from the skin colour that is a main raw material in many of Toni Morrison’s previous works. The lens is still aimed on the same target but the focus has been narrowed. Bride is a young woman… Read More
Review of Othello at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s starring Hugh Quarshie and Lucian Msamati Read More
by Sabo Kpade Lenny Henry’s rebirth as a stage and screen actor is as surprising as it is admirable. By taking on Othello and Troy Maxson in Fences, roles that have been played by powerhouse actors he hasn’t chosen the easy route. In these productions, he played against his strengths as a stand up comic.… Read More
by Sabo Kpade One thing that tends to never change in past iterations of Othello are the central roles: Othello, the Black or “blackened” flawed general, and Iago, the scheming and racist subordinate. These characters have always been left intact, for their different races and ranks contribute to the strongest charge around which the entire… Read More
by Sabo Kpade Boi Boi is Dead/Watford Palace theatre A formidable stage actor in his own right, Lucian Masmati directs debut playwright Zodwa Nyoni’s Boi Boi is Dead, a play about long brewing family tensions that are brought to a boil after the funeral of the eponymous character Boi Boi in Zimbabwe. His ex-wife Stella (Lynette… Read More
by Sabo Kpade The Royale/Bush Theatre It is often proof of a show’s strength that only after it ends is one free from its power to unpick its machinations. Marco Ramizez’s Royale is one such play. Loosely based on the life of Jack Johnson and his 1910 fight against the retired undefeated champion James… Read More
by Sabo Kpade Play Mas/ Orange Tree Theatre There is a very telling scene in Mustapha Matura’s stage production Play Mas when Samuel (Seun Shote), an apprentice tailor, insists to his employer Ramjohn (Johann Myers) that Ramjohn is not African but Indian. Ramjohn, a descendant of indentured workers, refutes this claim in the firm belief… Read More
by Sabo Kpade The friction between white colonists and indigenous Africans has been covered extensively, not least in the works of masters like Ngugi and, much more relatable here, Achebe. So there is a great deal of familiarity with such preoccupations in Foreign Gods Inc. That a modern day gallery in New York specialises in… Read More
Media Diversified 
You must be logged in to post a comment.