Bradford’s cultural landscape was enriched by theatre, music and storytelling at the Bradford African Festival of Arts (BAFA) 2026, where African creativity found expression through a diverse programme of performance. Among the festival’s theatrical offerings was The Crown, an immersive production written and directed by Daniel Okezue and produced by Prolific Arts.

Set in a bustling market square, The Crown explores leadership, public trust and the relationship between power and ordinary people. The story begins with the arrival of a King, played by Debola Akran, amid rumours that taxes and levies imposed on market sellers have increased. His appearance is intended to reassure his subjects, but the unease within the marketplace reveals the deeper question at the heart of the play: can authority truly understand the people it governs?

Among the performers who gave that question its human dimension was Irene Agbo, who played one of the market women.

Agbo’s performance was notable for its naturalness. Rather than treating the role as a peripheral character within the King’s story, she inhabited the marketplace as though it were a genuine social environment. Her interactions, reactions and physical presence helped establish the sense of a community whose daily life had been disrupted by rumours of economic hardship.

The strength of Agbo’s performance lies in her understanding that immersive theatre requires more than delivering lines. The performer must help create the world itself.

In The Crown, the market is not simply a backdrop. It is where people work, exchange information, express concerns and encounter authority. Agbo’s market woman becomes part of that social fabric.

Her performance is grounded rather than exaggerated. She allows the character’s personality to emerge through interaction and reaction, giving the impression of an ordinary woman whose concerns are inseparable from the economic realities of the marketplace.

“I saw my character as somebody who represents the everyday person,” Agbo said. “She may not have power, but she has a voice, and what happens to her livelihood matters.”

That understanding gives the role greater dramatic weight.

Agbo is not simply responding to the King. She is helping the audience understand why the King’s arrival matters.

One of Okezue’s most effective choices is the contrast between the royal world and the marketplace. The King wears the crown, but the market women bear the consequences of decisions made within the structures of power.

Agbo’s performance captures that tension without turning the character into a political caricature. Her character remains human, concerned about her livelihood, attentive to the developments around her and connected to the wider community.

“What I liked about the role was that it wasn’t about being the loudest person,” she explained. “It was about being present and making the audience feel that these people have real lives beyond what we see on stage.”

In a production built around immersion, subtle reactions can be as important as dramatic declarations. Agbo’s ability to remain engaged with the action around her contributes significantly to the illusion that the marketplace exists independently of the audience.

Agbo shared the marketplace with Adeyinka ‘SuperGirl’ Akinremi and Issifu Dee Amponsah, who played fellow market sellers. Together, the three performers supplied the social energy of the community.

Their collective performance created a sense of everyday activity against which the King’s arrival acquired significance.

Around them, the wider ensemble, Antonio Ghattie, Big Johny and MC Sege as village chiefs, Kemisola ‘Erioro’ and Emmanuel Yanmife Faremi as town crier and chanter, and Adeoluwa ‘MC Crown’ Adebisi as talking drummer, contributed to the production’s distinctive African theatrical vocabulary.

At a deeper level, The Crown uses the market woman to explore the relationship between governance and lived experience.

Taxation may be a political decision, but for the market seller it is an economic reality.

The King may speak of welfare, but the market woman measures welfare through the ability to earn, trade and sustain her livelihood. Agbo’s performance helps make this distinction tangible.

Written and directed by Daniel Okezue and produced by Prolific Arts as part of BAFA 2026, The Crown demonstrates how African storytelling traditions can be adapted into contemporary immersive theatre. Agbo’s performance sits comfortably within that vision.

She did not need the crown to command attention. She needed only to make the marketplace believable. And she did. A reminder that behind every political decision are ordinary people whose lives give those decisions their true meaning.