Lagos Fringe Honours Oduneye, Ajai-Lycett, Kelani

The on-going Lagos Fringe International Festival which runstill November 24 at various venues across the city of Lagos is a 6-day festival, organised in partnership with Multichoice Nigeria, British Council Nigeria, Freedom Park and the Alliance Francaise. Featuring participants from Senegal, UK, South Africa, Canada, Brazil, Ghana, Portugal and Nigeria, the Fringe opened on Tuesday at Alliance Francaise, Mike Adenuga Centre, Victoria Island.

A highpoint of the event would be the conferment of meritorious service award on three notable personalities who, have contributed immensely to the development of the theatre profession and as well as the shaping of the creative industry of Nigeria.

The three honoured artistes are Adebayo Adisa Oduneye,Taiwo Ajai-Lycett and Tunde Kelani. Oduneye trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in England and at the Carnegie Melon University, Pittsburgh, USA. He had served as Artistic Director of National Troupe of Nigeria. His first play as a director in Nigeria was Hassan by Elroy Flecker (1992). Others include, Wale Ogunyemi’s Langbodo, Ijaiye War (1974) and Divorce (1981), Wole Soyinka’s Child Internationale and The Trials of Brother Jero (1973), Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband has Gone Mad Again (1980/’81), Foursome by Eugene Ionesco (1970/’73), Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka (1987), and many more.

Taiwo Ajai-Lycett made her acting debut in December 1966, in Wole Soyinka’s ‘The Lion and the Jewel,’ a two-act comedy directed by William Gaskill at the Royal Court Theatre, London. Subsequently, she enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. While in England, she also featured in ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em,’ the popular British sitcom alongside the popular comedian, Julius Spencer.

Her acting career flowered at the prestigious Royal Court Theatre, Sloane’s Square, London, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). (1969-76).She has performed in many leading theatres in the UK. She was conferred with an Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in 2006 by President Olusegun Obasanjo.