Arojah Royal Theatre Kickstarts 2022 Theatre Season With Swedish Play, 'Waiting For Her'


One of the leading performing theatre groups in Abuja and environs, Arojah Royal Theatre has kicked off the 2022 theatre season with stage performance of the play, 'Waiting For Her' written by a Swedish playwright, EliSophie Andrée.

The play with the original title 'Waiting For You' is a comedy about grief, daring to move on and friendship.

In his opening remarks at the stage performance which took place at Brazilian Embassy Abuja on Thursday, the Artistic Director Arojah Royal Theatre, and the Director 'Waiting For Her' Om'Oba Jerry Adesewo noted that the production is one of Arojah Royal Theatre's numerous activities under the Cultural Partnership Initiative (CPI), which incidentally was launched in collaboration with the Swedish Embassy in 2014.

Explaining what the play is all about, Om'Oba as he is generally known in the theatre and literary world said, "The journey to self-discovery is one we must all embark upon, either as a person, people or nation. 'Waiting For Her' is a testament to the therapeutic essence of theatre and our desire as always is to deploy the fundamentality of the art as a socio force and I think that's what we have just done here. I hope that like Elina, we all would find our path."

The artistic director explained that there are other exciting programming lined up for the year.

"Yearly, we made plans for for 3-5 plays in addition to other special projects and commissioned works that are not part of our plans from the onset but which we have the capacity to take on."

Arojah Royal Theatre is in the third season of The Arojah Students Playwriting Prize, with focus this time on elections and good governance. It is an annual playwriting competition targeted at budding writers in tertiary institutions across Nigeria and beyond.

"The 4th Abuja Children Theatre Festival is our immediate focus now. It is scheduled to hold between the 27th and 30th of April. ACTFEST is a theatre for young audience Festival and would feature performances, seminar, workshops and experience sharing talk sessions. It is an international edition with participants from Brazil, Norway, Denmark, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

"In June, we hope to join the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day of the African Child with the production of a staged adaptation of the Nigerian classic, Eze Goes to School.

Apart from the 2022 theatre season, Arojah hope to bring back some of her 2021 plays like Cataclysm by Ben Tomoloju, Out At Sea by Mrozek Slawomir in addition to new plays scheduled for the season.

He stated further that The Independence Play in October is one of the highlights of his outfit's plan for the year. "We are planning something bigger this year, hopefully. And we are open to partnerships from individuals and organisations."

Arojah Royal Theatre is one-off one-off foremost theatre company in Abuja with sustained programming that has helped stimulate the art scene in Abuja.