Dipo Baruwa-Etti – författare

This hex has festered,iss roots have been stuckfor almost three decades.I've been obliviousbut now I know.Thuh Lord has made it known.I can't ignore it now iss known.Gotta battle.Gotta fight.Kayode has been unemployed for seven years. His marriage is suffering. He needs to get help. His mother knows exactly what to do.Juju exists, spirits battle, and the witches and wizards of Lagos chant loudly in East London.Dipo Baruwa-Etti's An unfinished man premiered at The Yard, London, in February 2021.

This is bout those menwho stripped him of his crown,treated that charcoal skin like concrete.Peace will only comewhen I make em come undone. Femi is visited by her brother's ghost. He takes her into the past, revealing the final moments before his murder. But with a lack of evidence, and eyewitnesses considered unreliable, Femi is determined to set things right herself.Dipo Baruwa-Etti's The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars explores trauma, rage and the extent one young woman will go in her quest for justice. The play premiered at Stratford East, London, in June 2021.

I've given up on fighting for change.That's a strange, imperfect illusion that allowed confusion to reign in my life.I took a knife to its neck and sliced it open.When a passionate activist, Wunmi, is invited into a middle-class Black family's home, a fire is lit. The family members have always seen themselves as pillars of society: they are charity workers, therapists and politicians. But as they begin to realise what Wunmi really represents, their certainty begins to crumble, the tension rises and a suffocating ash starts to fill the air. Full of forensic fury and incandescent poetry, Dipo Baruwa-Etti's fiercely political new play opened at the Almeida Theatre, London, in September 2022.

I still play to their chords.Livin within conventions.Livin within restrictions.Livin within a structure.Lettin someone write my narrative.Toye is preparing for his piano exam to get into a prestigious music school. He's doing it for the contacts, the opportunity, the love of art. But when he notices the lack of Black British history in his school's curriculum, he begins to question himself and the world around him. Toye wants to follow his dream. but he can't let these institutions write his story. He decides to teach his classmates about Black cultural icons himself, but quickly discovers that not everyone wants Black history to be celebrated.Dipo Baruwa-Etti's inspiring new play about the pressures of being young, gifted and ready to change the world premiered at Roundabout in Kingston, in a Paines Plough and Rose Theatre production, in July 2022.

Three electrifying, fresh takes on Greek classics, adapting their stories to the modern day to address contemporary issues.Protest, desire, free will; the central themes of Greek classics have never been more prescient. In this specially commissioned trio of plays, modern writers utilise these well-known plays and their timeless themes to speak to 21st century issues.Lysistrata by Sophie Ellerby. Between working a zillion part-time jobs and campaigning to save the NHS, sixth year medical student Lysistrata is struggling to stay afloat. When a viral social media thread calls for all medical students to strike, she knows the perfect place to stage her protest – the local STI clinic.The Bacchae by Katherine Soper. When a group of young women discover the mysterious and charming Bacchus, they instantly form an unshakeable devotion to him and each other – it has awakened something inside of them that cannot be contained.The Trojan Women by Dipo Baruwa-Etti. The country is in a terrible financial state and the cost of living destroying lives. At a foodbank, a local councillor works with and helps others, mostly single mothers, though even the volunteers are struggling – not just monetarily, but in their spirits, wondering how much power they have and if they have control over their destinies.These plays were first commissioned by the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre for the SPRINGBOARD programme - a course that finds, inspires, and champions the next generation of performers from underrepresented backgrounds - this trio of plays offers not only imaginative and thought-provoking takes on Greek classics, but fantastic performance opportunities for students and actors.