CHALLENGING gender and societal norms, writer and director, Bunmi Awolowo, recently stepped out with ‘99% Virgin’, an immersive theatre experience.
  
Awolowo, who is the founder of Signpost Studios Productions, in partnership with RISE, weaved the story of a good Christian girl that found herself confronted with life’s curve balls.
   
What happens when fear, faith and desire intertwine? Olamide, the lead character is forced to confront and challenge everything she thought she knew about purity, desire and devotion.
  
With nothing being off limits in the bold and deeply relatable story of her journey between conviction and confusion, Olamide received support from her best friend in the midst of her confusion.
  
Asking the question of what women do when their reputation and even life is on the line, the hilarious drama challenges so many previously held convictions and drives fresh conservations on the remaining’1%’.
  
The drama had in it Seyi sobowale (Simi), Tolu Bishop (Tunde), Audu Israel (Doctor Prestige), Taiwo Oyindasola (Iya Shukura), Debby Whyte (Olamide) and Blessing Boyede (Ify).
   
Whyte, who played Olamide Folarin, traced her stage acting beginning to the church, adding that she made her official debut as a stage actor last year. “The story line is the reality of many women and I was able to interpret it well with the help of my director and fellow cast. We have women who are over 30 years old but are still quite naive and we hope women learn from this.”
  
Awolowo, praised the play’s reception which she said is going to run every weekend throughout April. Touching on the message of the play, she said she intended to challenge the norm that celibacy and purity is strictly for women. “Men are also on that journey and our world today makes people look stupid for choosing celibacy. I want to encourage both women and men that it is fine to wait.”
  
Noting that putting the play together came with a lot of challenges but “having a partner like RISE made it so much easier. Even with all the challenges like rehearsal and production issues, we were able to make a good play.”
  
Noting that theatre is slowly gaining grounds in Nigeria, she said there is room for growth and further expansion. “There is still much more productions coming up this year. I started Signpost in 2020 and our first play was for Lagos Theatre Festival. Since then we have done Alternatives; Unnonticed (a play on mental health and suicide); Mara and then 99% Virgin.”
  
Awolowo said while people have fun watching her plays, she intends for it to be thought-provoking, lesson-filled and relatable. “Mara is a sort film and was recently nominated for the Joint Film Awards. We intend to do more films and theatre shows. I want to see more investment in theatre. I want to bring Broadway to Nigeria and make it bigger. I want to see theatre shows held at National Theatre and see people come out to watch and take pride in our stories.”
  
“99% Virgin is a very relatable and universal story, cutting across all cultures and voices. Many women can relate with it and our stories are very important. I think we should tell it and tell it well,” she said.
  
Nduka Dike, creative director at Risevest, noted that they were happy to come on board to support arts and the creative. Adding that this is the first time supporting theatre, he said they intend to continue to sponsor films and the creative sector as a whole. “There is always room to improve. We have come really far but wherever there is potential, there is always room for expansion,” he said.