The Music Society of Nigeria (MUSON) premiered the 27th edition of its Festival of Arts themed Resilience.
Scheduled to hold October 20 to 29, 2023, the festival will mark the organization’s 40th anniversary and an avenue to remember the founding fathers of the musical society consisting of both the living and the dead who fought doggedly in birthing and sustaining the MUSON in the past four decades.
Activities will kickoff with the premiere of Akinwumi Sesan’s Efunsetan Iyalode Ibadan scheduled for staging October 20 and 21, at the AGIP Recital Hall, MUSON Center, Onikan, Lagos. Efunsetan Iyalode Ibadan centers around the live of mythical Yoruba female figure whom history has dealt a bad card as a cruel woman without historical value in Yoruba culture.
“The present play re-interrogates this popular historical belief thereby revealing the resilience of the woman to ensure peace and unity among the Yoruba people of her period. In the contemporary society, the play underlines the need to be critical and proactive in our thoughts and actions to ensure fairness, equity and justice,” said the Executive Director, MUSON, and retired Professor of Theatre Arts, University of Benin. The play’s cast include Bello Roseline Temitope who plays the protagonist Efunsetan, Isaac Sanjo Ilori as Osungbekun, Nicholas Akpore as Osile-Egba, Yomi Duro-Ladipo as Latoosa, and Adesola Ogundoyin as Old Man/Narrator.
Other activities in the festival include Collabo – an Arts Meets Technology Night on October 23, The MUSON Brunch and Arts Exhibition, October 22; and My Kind of Music, on October 26.