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“When the gods command, we men must obey!” This statement from the play sums up the thrust of this classic play, The Gods Are Not To Blame. For those who do not know about the 1968 play and 1971 novel by Ola Rotimi, the central character is destined from birth to “kill his father and marry his mother…” a taboo in African socio-cultural setting.

The play is based on Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and it touches on the nerve of an African society where a man by fate is “condemned” to fail. Odewale, born to King Adetusa and his wife Queen Ojuola, the King and Queen of Kutuje, as a baby is to be sacrificed to the gods because his birth is considered as bad omen: a child pre-destined to kill his father and marry the same woman who gave him birth. Gbonka, King Adetusa’s special messenger, is asked to carry out this rite, but he allows compassion to take the better part of him and he spares Odewale’s life, giving him instead to the hunter Ogundele, in another village in Ijekun to foster. Soon after, King Adetusa and Queen Ojuola have another son, Aderopo “to fill the nothingness left behind by the first”.

Starring: Dejumo Lewis, Moji Bamtefa, Toyin Oshinaike, Olarotimi Fakunle, Segun Ogunfidodo, Tolulope Yesufu , Ayo Oyebade, Ahmed Aliu, Prince Tade Olusile, Cecilia Sanusi-Olawale,  Nike Bammeke, Bidemi Alaran, Felix Ologbosere, Yemi Oyeyebi, Frank Oluwole Williams and Jubril Sulaimon

DIRECTED BY: LOOKMAN SANUSI

PRODUCED BY: AYO JAIYESIMI

VENUE: LOST THEATRE 208, Wandsworth Road, London, SW8 2JU,

DATE:  SUNDAY 26TH – THURSDAY 30TH APRIL 2015

TIME: 8:00PM EVERY DAY

ENTRY: £15, CONSC | £12.50 (STUDENT WITH ID) |£8 (CHILDREN)

TICKET BOOKING:  tickets@losttheatre.co.uk

BOX OFFICE: +44207 720 6897

FURTHER ENQUIRIES: +44753 357 2784 www.thegodsarenottoblame.com

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Playwright, Ola Rotimi (April 13, 1938 – August 18, 2000)

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