“If I were like you, I’d have never found a man to marry me.
And that right there is a problem.”
Sheffield Theatres today announce the cast for Here’s What She Said to Me by Oladipo Agboluaje with Kiké Brimah playing the role of Aramide, Estella Daniels as Omotola and Ayo-Dele Edwards as Agbeke.
Meet Agbeke, Omotola and Aramide, the three generations of proud African women connecting with each other across two continents, across time and space. Together they share their struggles, their joys, tragedies and broken dreams in order to find healing in the present.
Here’s What She Said to Me combines drama with music, poetry and movement to tell a moving story of daughters and mothers in the world of migrations and shifting identities, braving life with an undying hope, optimism and resilience.
Director Mojisola Elufowoju said:
“We are very excited to be bringing this bold production featuring three generations of Nigerian/British women to the Crucible stage in Sheffield. The staging is stripped back yet inventive. The three actors double up repeatedly in their roles to play over thirty-five characters.
‘Here’s What She Said To Me’ has been a work in progress for about four years and when the Studio co-production with Sheffield Theatres earlier on in the year was cancelled due to COVID, we were very disappointed.
As it turned out, every cloud has a silver lining. The show is now happening on the Crucible stage and we are opening Sheffield Theatres Together Season. As much as this wasn’t how we originally envisaged the show premiering, it is incredibly exciting. It would be good exposure for Utopia Theatre, a good opportunity to link our online audience to our live theatre work. And in terms of me as a director, I am excited to take on a space such as the Crucible, a space I have always aspired my work as a director to live on as part of my professional development. It is also an opportunity to share an incredible story that I believe will resonate with a diverse audience”.
Writer OLADIPO AGBOLUAJE
Director MOJISOLA ELUFOWOJU
Designer AMANDA STOODLEY
Lighting Designer ANDY PURVES
Sound Designer ROB HART
Movement Director KARIN FISHER-POTISK
Casting Director NADINE RENNIE CDG
Kiké Brimah (Aramide) makes her Sheffield Theatres debut in Here’s What She Said to Me. Kiké trained at ArtsEd London School of Acting studying a BA Acting for Film & TV. Her Theatre credits include Custody (Faith Drama Productions) and Some Other Mother (Traverse Theatre - James Tait Black Awards Nomination). For television credits include Death In Paradise, Noughts And Crosses and Doctors. Film credits include Bride Wars, Love Type D, The Riot Act and Extra Time.
Estella Daniels (Omotola) previously performed at Sheffield Theatres in Racing Demon. Further theatre credits include Dirty Butterfly (Young Vic), Iya IIe (Soho Theatre) and Counting Stars (Theatre Royal). Estella’s television credits include Da Vinci’s Demons, Death in Paradise and Sinbad.
Ayo-Dele Edwards (Agbeke) makes her Sheffield Theatres debut in Here’s What She Said to Me. Ayo-Dele trained at Mountview Theatre School. Theatre credits include Becoming (Stratford Circus Arts Centre), The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (Arcola Theatre and Lagos), Iyalode of Eti (Duchess of Malfi) (Utopia Theatre/Leeds Playhouse/Lagos), Voices of Change (NitroVox), No Man is an Island (Tangle) and The Estate (Tiata Fahodzi/Soho Theatre). Ayo-Dele’s Choral Arrangement credits include Sold – The Mary Prince Story (Kuumba Nia Arts/Northwall Theatre), The Secret Lives of Baba Segis’s Wives (Arcola Theatre), Custody (Ovalhouse), The Burial (Stonecrabs Theatre Company/The Albany), The Hotel Cerise (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and Iya Ile (Tiata Fahodzi/Soho Theatre). Radio credits include Fake Heiress, The Secret Lives of Baba Segis’s Wives, Death and the King’s Horseman, Stealing Souls, The Proposition, Nature Calls, Loveness and Me and The Estate. Ayo-Dele’s film credits include Wake Up and The Cowfoot Prince with Usifu Jalloh (Vocalist/songwriter).
Oladipo Agboluaje (Writer) was born in London. He returned to Nigeria where he attended Abeokuta Grammar School and studied for a BA in Theatre Arts at the University of Benin before returning to the UK. He has taught creative writing and post-colonial theatre at London Metropolitan University, Florida State University – London campus, Goldsmiths University of London and University of Greenwich. He has been a writer in residence at New Wolsey Theatre, Soho Theatre and the National Theatre. He is a winner of the Alfred Fagon Prize for playwriting and is a nominee for an Olivier Award and a Writers’ Guild Award. He is currently a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at University of East London.
Plays include: Early Morning, Mother Courage (adaptation), Knock Against My Heart, Immune, The Estate, Iyale – The First Wife, The Christ of Coldharbour Lane, The Hounding of David Oluwale (adaptation), Threshold, The Garbage King (adaptation), New Nigerians.
Mojisola Elufowoju (Director) the CEO and Artistic Director of Utopia Theatre. Her work includes devising and curating Utopia Theatre Creative Hub; staff director at The National Theatre, working alongside Nadia Fall (Artistic Director of the Royal Theatre Stratford East) on Three Sisters by Inua Ellams; recipient of the 2017 Opera Awards Foundation bursary; founding member of Mosaic Opera Collective; guest director at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts and London South Bank University.
Other credits include: How Far Apart? (Work In Progress - Arcola Theatre and Sheffield Hallam Performance Lab 2019) Far Gone (Theatre Deli - Sheffield and Sheffield Theatre Studio 2019) The Bogus Woman (Camden People’s Theatre 2019), On Missing (The Cockpit Theatre 2018), Shadows In Different Shades (Work In Progress - Sheffield Theatre 2018), The Pied Piper Of Chibok Opera (Opera North Residency and Arcola Theatre 2018), I am David Oluwale (Work In Progress-Leeds Playhouse 2018), Iyalode of Eti (Leeds Playhouse, Sheffield Crucible, Cast - Doncaster and Ake Festival Nigeria 2016/2017) London Tales (Rich Mix and Lost Theatre 2015) This Is Our Chance (Cultural Centre Calabar, Nigeria 2013) The Shepherd’s Chameleon (CLF Art Cafe 2013) House of Corrections (Riverside Studios (2012) Wake Me When It's Time (York Theatre Royal 2012).
