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The Mistress Of Wholesome: Omoye, Michelle, Tope Tadela in a funny play about adoption as a social intervention

Published

6 years ago

April 12, 2019

Olu Emmanuel

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By Ediale Kingsley

Thespian Muse Production Company has a stage play for people who appreciate quality stage entertainment. This one is titled The Mistress Of Wholesome, featuring Omoye Uzamere, Michelle Dede and Tope Tedela. It’s written by Jacob M. Appel and Directed by Nnajite Dede. And its showing on between the 11th – 14th of April at 7:30pm (the last two days also features a 5:30pm slots) all at Freedom Park, Broad Street (Lagos). Tickets are sold 5,000 but early birds get 20% off. And they are available at Afritickets.com.

The synopsis: “Wife arrives home to prepare for an important visit, but finds a strange woman in her home, making a strange request at gunpoint! Mistress – wants her to convince her husband, Lakunle, to resume their affair… She would do something about this audacious woman in her home, but her Guest – will be arriving in less than 10 minutes!!! When the bell rings, the captive and captor must work together to secure what each one desires most”.

The Mistress Of Wholesome is an exciting one hour of brilliant actors and play. It is a funny story mixed with some poignant truth for everyone to ponder on. And because of a lot of work that has gone into it, the organisers are “very excited to have people come to watch The Mistress Of Wholesome. We also believe that some of the messages here are important in our world. Thats the reason we are telling it”.

If you know Omoye, you will know her for her excellent body of works that includes lots of stage projects. So as National Daily interviewed her, Ediale Kingsley asked her if she does prefer stage to film.

She explained:

“It’s funny you should say that because I just do the work that I get. I do work that either I am able to create or the opportunity comes for me to do it with somebody else. Yes, I have done a lot of theatres, that’s just the work that I get and every film or television or even radio drama I have gotten, I have done excellently as I do everything else. I am looking also to do more Television and Film work, I guess so that people then see me not just as a stage actor but they are able to embrace me fully as an actor period. And it’s one of those things we are doing with this play having actors who are known better on Television and In Film on the stage because they are seen as TV actors. But there’s no such thing, every platform is an opportunity for the action to show their gift and expertise”.

One of the themes explored in the Mistress of Wholesome is dysfunction and another is desire. You will find that every character in the play has some dysfunction or another. And the question is ‘isn’t that life?’ So art is holding on to a mirror to the world. And showing all that we are the same in one way or the other. Another thing the producer wants to show is adoption as a tool for social intervention. You discover that if you go visit the orphanages you will find a lot of children in there and sometimes you will find that some people will say they really want a baby and try to have a child to no avail. But they can simply adopt. Other times you find people who say they are done having babies and perhaps one of the couples still care to have more. The solution is adoption. “It is about taking from ourselves and giving to society. When more and more people adopt children then you will have few children that when they turn 18 will end up on the street. And not have a sense of belonging in yhe society or have no experience in a home setting. A lot of us when we go out and not come home a certain time, someone is going to look for you. If you haven’t been around for a long time, someone is going to ask for you. That is what Adoption does. It’s an intervention. Also, we are flipping the table of infidelity and looking at it from another angle. And asking, what if your wife and girlfriend met each other. What do you suppose would happen? And who is the real victim in that case? Is it your wife or mistress or you? We are just toying with these ideas and asking the audience to ponder on these issues”.

Omoye’s role in this stage project are producer and actor. She is producing this for her production company ThespianMuse Productions. The next question is if she is the one playing wife or the mistress? “Well, the only way to find out is coming out to watch the play. It’s been an interesting, exciting, a roller coaster experience producing this play. I guess every production is like that. The challenge is juggling two important roles, actor and juggling, you find that your attention is needed for a lot of things. And as an actor you are expected to have the exact same, level of commitment” she says.

It’s exciting, challenging, and Omoye says she likes a good challenge because of the path she sees herself taking. Which is about creating works, and because she is an actor also, she is going to feature in a lot of the works that she creates or produce.