THE SWAMP DWELLERS: A SHOW I’LL CARRY WITH ME

On Wole Soyinka, extraordinary collaborators, and the kind of theatre I want to keep making.

There are some jobs you know are going to stay with you.

The Swamp Dwellers is one of them.

I feel incredibly lucky that I got to be part of this production of Wole Soyinka’s The Swamp Dwellers with Utopia Theatre in Sheffield.

And now that the show is out in the world, I’ve been thinking about what the experience actually meant to me.

Not just playing Makuri’s wife, but being part of a piece of theatre with such a rich history, such extraordinary writing and such an incredible group of people.

The production was directed by Mojisola Kareem, and from the beginning there was something special about the room.

It was intimate.

Focused.

Curious.

We were working on a play first written in 1958, a work that had not been seen in this country for more than 50 years. The Guardian described the production as a revival of a rarely performed Soyinka drama, highlighting the scale of the world Mojisola created within Utopia Theatre’s 50-seat space.

But for me, the experience was much more personal than that.

WORKING WITH MOJISOLA

Mojisola created a room where we could really work.

There was space to question things.

To explore.

To make discoveries.

To sit with the text.

To find the relationships underneath the words.

And I loved being directed by someone who understood the world of the play but also allowed us to bring ourselves into it.

That relationship between director, actor and text is one of the things I love most about theatre.

You can read a play on a page.

But then you put five actors in a room.

And suddenly it becomes something else.

AND THEN THERE WAS THE CAST

I feel very grateful for the people I got to share this experience with.

Jude Akuwudike. Obi Maduegbuna.Theo Ogundipe.Joshua Roberts-Mensah.

What an incredible group of actors.

There is something about being in an ensemble where everybody is completely committed to the work.

You feel it.

You don't have to manufacture it.

You can just get on with telling the story.

The Guardian's review specifically described the performances as bold and sharply defined, and wrote about the central relationship between Alu and Makuri, played by Jude and me.

Reading that was surreal.

Because when you're inside a production, you're not thinking about how it will eventually be described.

You're thinking about the scene you're in.

The note you just received.

The line you're trying to get right.

The costume change.

The next entrance.

The thing you haven't quite figured out yet.

And then suddenly someone outside the room is seeing the whole picture.

MEETING WOLE SOYINKA

And then there was Wole Soyinka.

Meeting the writer of the play I was performing was something I will never forget.

There is something quite extraordinary about standing in front of the person whose words you've been living with every day.

As actors, we spend so much time trying to understand a writer.

What they mean.

What they want.

What sits underneath the dialogue.

What happened before the scene.

What the characters aren't saying.

And then suddenly the writer is standing in front of you.

It made the whole experience feel even more significant.

To have the opportunity to perform his work, and then meet him, is something I'm genuinely grateful for.

I LOVE THEATRE LIKE THIS

I think this experience reminded me of something.

This is the kind of work I want to keep doing.

Work with incredible writing.

Work that has something to say.

Work that asks something of me as an actor.

Work with brilliant directors.

Work with generous, ambitious actors.

Work that connects me to history, culture, people and stories that deserve to be in the room.

I want more of that.

I want to work on productions that make me go home and keep thinking about them.

I want to work with people who care deeply about what they're making.

I want to be challenged.

I want to keep learning.

I want to play characters that scare me a little.

I want to work on new writing.

Classics.

African writing.

Black British stories.

International work.

Theatre that moves between cultures.

Theatre that feels intimate.

Theatre that feels enormous.

I want to keep putting myself in rooms where something exciting is happening.

SO, I'M PUTTING IT OUT THERE

This is me saying it publicly:

I want more.

More extraordinary writing.

More ambitious productions.

More brilliant directors.

More rooms full of generous artists.

More stories that make people feel something.

More opportunities to work with people whose work I admire.

More theatre.

More film.

More television.

More collaboration.

I'm at a point in my career where I'm not interested in simply doing the next job.

I want to keep building a body of work that means something to me.

And The Swamp Dwellers reminded me how good it feels when the work, the people and the moment all come together.

THANK YOU, THE SWAMP DWELLERS

Thank you to Utopia Theatre for bringing this production into the world.

Thank you to Mojisola for directing us.

Thank you to Wole Soyinka for writing a play that we had the privilege of bringing to life.

Thank you to Jude, Obi, Theo and Joshua for sharing the stage with me.

Thank you Victoria Shannon for taking care of us as stage manager all and for keeping me sane. And thank you to everyone who came to see us.

The show may have finished, but I know I'll be carrying parts of this experience with me for a long time.

And hopefully…

I'll be back in a room like that very soon.

WATCH THIS SPACE.

I'm ready for the next story.

Urii’s Orbit

The work. The people. The places. The stories that stay with me.