On Sunday 25th of August 2019 at the prestigious Terra Kulture by 3pm and 7pm, Park Theatre Lagos would be thrilling audiences with the unbelievably hilarious world renowned stage play titled RAIN written by Biyi Bandele, as directed by multiple award winning Theatre mainstay, Toyin Oshinaike.

RAIN won the International Students Play script Competition in 1989.

It is an absurd but funny play of two crazy street sweepers who find their mental balance in telling each other TALL stories that reflect their warped state of mind made up of and by the state of the nation. The play features Toritseju Ejoh and Timi Charles Fadipe.


Crew list;
Biyi Bandele – Playwright
Park Theatre Lagos – Executive Producer
Toyin Oshinaike – Artistic Director
Oladotun Olagbadebo – Stage manager
Ayobami Aribisala – Technical Director
Bayo Rilwan Sadiq – Production manager
Gloria Biachi – Costume Designer

Cast:
Toritseju Ejoh = Banza
Toritseju Akiya Ejoh is a professional actor for film, television, radio and theatre. Some of his theatre credits include Banza in Biyi Bandele’s RAIN (Eko Theatre Carnival 2019), Baba Iya Tope/Taju in Lola Shoneyin’s THE SECRET LIVES of BABA SEGI’S WIVES (Ake Book & Arts Festival 2018), Bombay in Toyin Oshinaike’s WAT’S DIS ALL ABOUT? (Theatre Arise Project tour 2018), King Baabu in Wole Soyinka’s KING BAABU (Lagos 2015, 2017), Kuru in Ahmed Yerima’s LITTLE DROPS (Niger Delta Development Commission tour 2016), Jero in Wole Soyinka’s THE TRIALS OF BROTHER JERO (Lagos 2014), Claudius in Femi Osofisan’s ORIKI OF A GRASSHOPPER (Theatre Arise Project tour 2014), Royal guard in THE KING MUST DANCE NAKED (Theatre Royal Stratford East, London 2012), Old Major/Boxer in George Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM (Lagos 2014), Igwezu in Wole Soyinka’s SWAMP DWELLERS (National Troupe of Nigeria 2011), Kashi in Tosin Otudeko’s HEARTBEAT - THE MUSICAL (2009 & 2011).

Toritseju has continued to evolve as a performer training under the tutelage of seasoned theatre directors including Bayo Oduneye, Nick Monu, Niji Akanni, Tosan Edremoda Ugbeye, Femi Elufowoju jnr and Toyin Oshinaike.

Toritseju is founding partner at Oxzygen Koncepts & Productions, a frontline Theatre company based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Timi Charles Fadipe = Lagbaja

Timi Charles Fadipe (TCF) is a fully trained actor with years of theatre, film, television and voice over experience. As a theatre practitioner, he is determined: as a thespian, he is dedicated.

Timi Charles Fadipe is a graduate of the University of Central Lancashire, receiving a BA (Hons) in Acting.
Prior to his drama school achievements, he trained at the S.C.C Shakespeare Society in Dublin.

An alumnus of The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, he has performed several plays with NYT including most notably the acclaimed stage production of ‘White Boy’, which was produced by the Soho Theatre in London; his portrayal of a Sudanese refugee was reviewed by the UK Guardian News as a ‘sensitive’ and ‘harrowing’ performance.

Since returning to Lagos, Timi Charles Fadipe has been involved in several theatre productions. His debut performance was ‘Oh How Dearly I Detest Thee!’ a Thespian Muse Productions which was performed at Terra Kulture.

The 2019 edition of The Lagos Theatre Festival saw Timi Charles Fadipe perform in “IT IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD”, a deep play exploring the meaning of life, depression, suicide and what it means to be truly happy with one ’s self. This experimental play was proudly supported by The British Council and Mentally Aware Nigeria.




About the Producer:

Park Theatre is a resident theatre platform established by Messer’s Toyin Oshinaike and Toritseju Ejoh to offer and promote regular theatre culture within the serene atmosphere of Freedom Park Lagos, which was in response to the urgent call for more community based performance spaces that balance the delicate needs of the performers and the community they serve.
Park theatre commenced operations in February 2017 and has hosted 109 shows to over 12,000 audience members.

About the Playwright:

Biyi Bandele worked with the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as writing radio drama and screenplays for television. His plays include: Rain; Marching for Fausa (1993);
Resurrections in the Season of the Longest Drought (1994); Two Horsemen (1994), selected as Best New Play at the 1994 London New Plays Festival; Death Catches the Hunter and Me and the Boys (published in one volume, 1995); and Oroonoko, an adaptation of Aphra Behn's 17th-century novel of the same name. In 1997 he did a successful dramatization of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.[2] Brixton Stories, Bandele's stage adaptation of his own novel The Street (1999), premiered in 2001 and was published in one volume with his play Happy Birthday Mister Deka, which premiered in 1999. He also adapted Lorca's Yerma in 2001.


He was writer-in-residence with Talawa Theatre Company from 1994 to 1995, resident dramatist with the Royal National Theatre Studio (1996), the Judith E. Wilson Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, in 2000–01. He also acted as Royal Literary Fund Resident Playwright at the Bush Theatre from 2002 to 2003.


https://www.allevents.ng/en/events/rain-12628