Ilé La Wà (We are Home) by Tolu Agbelusi starts 6 City Tour in April

After a short run in Stratford, the play by Tolu Agbelusi and directed by Anni Domingo Ilé La Wà, starts a 6 city regional tour at the Proteus theatre in Basingstoke, April 10, 2019.

The play throws shade on immigration laws and concepts of identity and belonging, “where do you call home?” is asked by four detainees facing deportation and is where you call home a place that you can call home? We saw the play are happy that it is back spreading an important and timely message, with strong writing and characters.

Caught in the web of the government’s hostile environment four characters’ lives are interrupted when they can’t produce valid ID in a spot check. Whether they are actual targets or collateral damage is irrelevant. Held without answers as they wait for verification of their legal statuses, the tension will unravel them and lay bare the realities of always being ‘the other’ in the place you call home.

“When I wrote Ilé La Wà, I was contemplating how society decides who gets to belong. It feels very much about the Windrush Scandal, but that’s a new face for the consequences of our government leading the charge to say some of us don’t belong. Government-sanctioned go home vans, institutional racism, threatened deportation of children who’ve lived here most of their lives, and the mental toll of feeling you don’t belong at home, were just a few of my preoccupations”. Tolu Agbelusi said.

Ilé La Wà, which means ‘We Are Home’ in Yoruba, (a Nigerian dialect/language) is based on real stories from interviews, workshops and media accounts. It is a defiant affirmation that says ‘nobody gets to tell me where I belong’. Directed by Anni Domingo Ilé La Wà, starts a 6 city regional tour at the Proteus theatre in Basingstoke, April 10, 2019.

The cast includes Antonia Layiwola, Mamito Kukwikila, Winston Sarpong and Tolu Agbelusi.

Key dates:

Ilé La Wà @ Proteus Basingstoke RG21 3DH

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Ilé La Wà @ New Theatre Royal Portsmouth

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Ilé La Wà @ Arts at Stowe Buckingham

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Ilé La Wà @ Lowry Salford