Ineh the musical sets to take the stage soon

Ineh the musical, an intriguing, ‘true life’ story, patterned to to determine whether women should be full time mothers or career mothers’ will hit the stage soon. The activities mothers’ choose to engage in and its effect on their children during formative ages is what the play puts in perspective for the new age to savor in a world class musical.

Ineh, meaning mother in the native dialect of Esan in Edo State, tells the story of Fredrick Ijewere, the executive producer of the play’s mother, who gave up her career to take care of her six children. The play written in honour of their mother first aired on her 80th birthday, but will continue in the theatres from September, and beyond Nigeria.

The musical, vibrant with dance and character, is packed full of industry big names technically and otherwise. The artistic director, Makinde Adeniran, is undeniably one of the best around.

The technical director, Abiodun Abe has also designed some of the most difficult play sets. Others include Oretimehin Kehinde, the official songwriter, the costume designer, Juliana Dede and the lead chararcter played by Tosan Edremoda- Ugbeye.

Ijewere said, “We are not saying that it is wrong for women to work, we are simply saying that women who did so were looked down on and it should not be so. We want to bring this message to the fore, that, if within a house, the husband can take care of the requirements of the family, then the wife stays at home, nowadays, it could even be the other way round and the party staying at home may not necessarily take part in the 9-5 job, he or she could be engaged in other activities.”

He continued, “when my mother took that decision at that time, it was expedient for her. She had an experience which made her take that decision she came home one day and saw her first son, all wet and was crying. She didn’t understand and she said the trading she was involved in was not worth the while that she would rather take that time to look after her family, it is a decision she made so we just want to honour her for that, we are just saying these are choices we make as we deem best for us.”

Edremoda- Ugbeye added, “The issue is a pressing one, how do we take care of our next generation, who is watching our kids is what the story is about. Some people have jobs that they can take the kids along and some have the opportunity of living them with their mothers but some people earn so little, they cant afford the fantasy of one spouse staying home to watch the kids.

The older generation was more stable and was able to imbibe the good life better, these days we throw money at them, cell phones, holidays and so we have a generation of children who are rude, cannot recount for money, and we are talking about nation building. We complain about politicians, but do we by chance know how they grew up, they didn’t drop from heaven.”
Adeniran also explained that the choice of the National Theatre as would was a deliberate one “because the issue cuts across all classes of people.”

He added “and we want to break the jinx of the National Theatre not being good enough. The air conditioners are working very well, there is tight security, the environment is beautiful. We want people to come and see these facts by themselves.”
The play according to Adeniran has already gulped a whooping N100 million and the producers are calling on corporate organisations to give it a boost by supporting it financially.