Tuesday, 19th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

“3Some”: The Provocative And Educative Play

By Franklin Ugobude
08 March 2018   |   8:00 am
If you visit sites that track web traffic, you’ll notice that asides gambling and sports, one of the things Nigerians do on the internet is look for sex. This is reflected in the number of pornographic sites with high web traffic from Nigeria. However, for a country that consumes so much sex, it is still…

If you visit sites that track web traffic, you’ll notice that asides gambling and sports, one of the things Nigerians do on the internet is look for sex. This is reflected in the number of pornographic sites with high web traffic from Nigeria. However, for a country that consumes so much sex, it is still pretty much a taboo topic. It is still uncomfortable to discuss publicly and any attempt to do so usually results in people giving judgement in their eyes.

The first time you hear of the play, 3Some, all you can think of is the sexual act involving three people. It is one of the most interesting titles at the 2018 Lagos Theatre Festival, probably closely followed by Kelvinmary Ndukwe’s Panty Liners. It doesn’t also help that the banner for the production is a naked lady with her breasts displayed with the words ‘a provocative play’ splayed across the image. That really is about all you need to make up your mind to see 3Some.

Scene from the 3Some play at Lagos Theatre Festival. Photo credit: Ifeoluwa Nihinola

3Some is a play written and produced by Jude Idada which discusses marriage, desire and morality in the age of the internet, and tackles the sexual and emotional loneliness of the aged and religious. It is set in the home of the Dohertys who have been married for three years and have hit a hard wall in their marriage.

When Chioma Doherty (Uzor Osimkpa), a neglected housewife, is home alone, she spends time on the internet chatting with a stranger. She has turned to the internet for sexual pleasure, dressing up for her lover and wanting to be dominated amongst other fantasies. Her busy, workaholic husband, Dayo Doherty (Etim Effiong) finds out about her escapades on one occasion and requests for her mother, Asmau (Frances Bickersteth) to see the mess her daughter is involved in.

Chioma pleads for a while and, as it fell on the ears of a raged, deaf husband, she speaks out about Dayo’s incompetencies and leaves to explore her sexuality and get to orgasmic heaven. This leaves Asmau no choice than to move in and help hold the fort until either party can reach a decision. However, things do not work out as planned and, somewhere along the line, Dayo Doherty has a sexual reawakening which leads to that door and other doors opening in the family.

Scene from the 3Some play at Lagos Theatre Festival. Photo credit: Ifeoluwa Nihinola

3Some begins on a very high note, earning great reactions from the audience, some of who confessed to having seen the play more than once at the festival. At some point, there’s a little beating around the bush but it picks up eventually and, in the end, doesn’t fall too far from expectations. It also does the job of educating the audience. Within the play, there are full body nude scenes that come off as a crash course on pleasuring a woman, and this elicits the expected responses and reactions from the audience, achieving its goal of provoking the audience. A lady in the audience even screamed: this is not just a play, it’s a lesson.

3Some boasts of a cast that is almost perfect and a pretty good story that will definitely leave you screaming ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ and eventually leave you wondering if this is what a Nollywood take on the popular 50 Shades of Grey would look like.

0 Comments