‘Dear Kaffy’: Perfect performance anchor for New Year romance resolution
* Perfect performance for women seeking their men, rebuke for philandering heartbreakers
By Anote Ajeluorou
AS a single lady in Lagos, what’s your New Year 2025 romance resolution? Sounds crazy? Yeah! You’re right. So right that a lady writer Damilare Kuku titled her short collection Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Crazy (Masobe)! And perhaps you thought she was joking or crazy or both? Maybe. But many a Lagos ladies would think otherwise, and even canonise her. Welcome to the crazy world of the dramatisation of such stories in Dear Kaffy: Diary of a Single Woman in Lagos, produced by Bolanle Austen-Peters (BAP) Production, which has been on stage since December 26, 2024. It comes to an end today, January 5, 2025 after 11 straight days and twice a day non-stop performance. And if you haven’t had time to see it, today is your last chance @3.00pm & 7.00pm at Terra Kulture Theatre Arena, Tiamiuyi Savage, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Dear Kaffy is directed by Bolanle Austen-Peters who has clocked my credits as a stage and film director.
It’s the diary of a single woman in Lagos, yes. But Dear Kaffy is also a diary of single men in Lagos – part of the binary binocular the world is viewed. You can’t have women and not have men, right? And it takes two to tangle in a romantic relationship. Sounds familiar? Of course, because self-love is not enough. The opposite sex is always in the mix, even if a deadly one. That’s how the world rolls, warts and all.
And this New Year 2025, what’s your romance resolution? As a lady, what’s your male romantic fit? And as a lady already clocking 35 years, what’s the status of the alarm bells ringing in your head? What level is he taking the relationship this year? Is he still procrastinating, putting off your day of immeasurable joy? Or you’re thinking of dumping him for a Mr. Right to walk through the door? How’s family taking your spinsterhood at that advanced age? What are your friends saying? And your classmates who have happily been married long ago with children of their own? Are they as welcoming of you in their homes as they should? Or perhaps, you don’t just care, one way or the other, having been bitten by the bug of women’s liberation and want to live your life independent of men and their wahala? Or is it that the men see you as a sex trophy to be toyed with, spend your money and play hard at settling down?
Whatever your situation is as a single Lagos lady, cheer up. You’re in good company with Dear Kaffy, a stage performance that examines the romantic troubles Lagos single ladies suffer and offers ways out for such ladies. Of course, there’s no silver bullet to kill the romance enemy, but we become wise by listening to others share their troubles that are similar to ours. That’s what Dear Kaffy will offer you as a lady, a shared, communal malady many ladies find themselves mired, and how they can navigate it to arrive at a future that holds a measure of promise.
The love of Kike (Uzo Osimkpa – middle) being contested by three men – Mahmoud (Hector Amiwero – left); tamuno (Ralph Okoro) and Femi (Floyd Igbo) in Dear Kaffy... 11-day theatre run ends today… in Lagos
Key posers to glean from Dear Kaffy: why do some men take pleasure in breaking the hearts of women who give them their all? Why does it take such a long age for some men to settle down with a lady? Should women hinge their happiness on being tied up with a man? How should a women handle her spinsterhood status with family? Is the pressure worth it? Is match-making by parents still in vogue? Should marriage be borne out of love or negotiated economic necessity or convenience? Why are men scared of committing to women who are more economically viable than them? Or indeed, why are economically more viable women supposedly bad fit for marriage? And why do economically viable women find it hard to manage their ego in marriage? And is marriage the ultimate measure of a woman’s worth as a human being?
Dear Kaffy has so much to push out. Indeed, Austen-Peters turns out some psychologist analysing the social construct surrounding spinsterhood and marriage, especially as it relates to women. How much say does a spinster have on how her life unfolds? How does she manage her spinsterhood, so all parties are happy? Does she live her life for the pleasures of others except herself?
Dear Kaffy is the perfect artistic construct that reshapes a complex and intriguing societal dilemma plaguing the fairer sex. For those in similar or even more complex situations, they have good company in Dear Kaffy. Performed by some delectably sexy women strutting the Lagos stage today, Dear Kaffy will make you laugh, make you think, make you shed a tear and navigate a range of complex emotions that draw you into the theatrical, magical world BAP Production has conjured to set you on the right New Year 205 romance resolution you’d ever make!
Dear Kaffy‘s opening scene will blow your mind as to how embittered ladies regard men and the killer songs they have composed for them. Vivacious Uzo Osimkpa as Kike performs the lead and shows why she was easily the choice cast for the role. She has two flirtatious Lagos men to contend with – Femi (Floyd Igbo) and Tamuno (Ralph Okoro) and a third but more temperamental, cool-headed Mahmoud (Hector Amiwero). And of course there’s Kike’s father Otunba (Bimbo Manuel) who brings a dapper, mellowing twist to the Lagos tale of a single woman. Dear Kaffy is the perfect New Year 2025 gift to all ladies still waiting for their right men to come through the door. And a rebuke for those philandering men still hopping from one flower to another for that elusive, insatiable nectar! Welcome to the irresistibly dramatic world of Dear Kaffy!”
Mahmoud and Kike lost in the love wood PHOTOS: ANOTE AJELUOROU
