A Tale of Lost Biafra
Fight Back 2020 Festival
FIGHT BACK FESTIVAL 2020
Presented by The New Theatre and TakeYourSeats.ie
Acclaimed reggae musician Ben ‘Chude’ Okafor was just 13 years old when his homeland of eastern Nigeria seceded, in the face of widespread pogroms against the Igbo people, to form the fledgling state of Biafra in 1967. Initially the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ was amazingly successful under their visionary leader, Emeka Ojukwu, but when Nigeria, financed and armed by Britain, laid siege to the trapped enclave, a brutal famine began, in which a million children died. Biafra became an international crisis, scandal and humanitarian cause. Volunteers came from all over the world to assist, churches and charities raised funds, and everywhere popular movements protested at Britain’s role in the tragedy, described as ‘genocide’ by then-President Nixon. John Lennon famously gave back his MBE in outrage. Never-before-seen photographs of starving Biafran babies in western newspapers appalled the eyes of the world. Ben and I dramatised his experiences as a child soldier of Biafra in the 2005 BBC Radio drama Chukwudebelu - Preserved of God. Fifty years on from the fall of Biafra, we are honoured to premiere A Tale of Lost Biafra for the Fight Back Festival at the New Theatre, Dublin.
“A magical tale of epiphany and hope in a war-torn country
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The New Theatre and TakeYourSeats.ie are proud to present:
FIGHT BACK FESTIVAL 2020
An initiative of TakeYourSeats.ie & The New Theatre.
12 writers, 12 actors, 12 acts of defiance.
For 23 years, The New Theatre has nurtured, developed and staged new plays and provided Irish writers and artists with dramaturgical and production support. With COVID-19 closing all theatres across Ireland, emerging writers and actors have lost opportunities to have their work seen by audiences.
More pressingly, they have lost their income.
As a response, The New Theatre and TakeYourSeats.ie present FIGHT BACK FESTIVAL, an online theatre festival for Irish audiences to discover short plays written in response to these unprecedented times.
Writers that have worked with in The New Theatre over the last 12 months will present short works about now; their fears, joys, losses, love lives, secrets and pasts, futures and families, isolation and connection.
These short works provide a snapshot of this country in the here and now, shining a light on our tentative first steps into a fundamentally new world.
Each short play will premiere on The New Theatre Facebook page at 21:15, starting on Tuesday, April 7th 2020.
While each short play can be viewed for free, we strongly encourage you to use the donation option - all income generated supports the longevity of The New Theatre and the artists involved.
Stay Safe,
The New Theatre & TakeYourSeats.ie
Come Play
Submit your event for free and join our curated listings of the best of Irish online events taking place in the coming weeks. takeyourseats.ie/come-play
