Ojo nominated for 2023 BBTAS

UNITED Kingdom-based playwright and lawyer Adenike Ojo has been nominated for the Best Playwright Award at the 2023 Black British Theatre Awards (BBTAS).

The BBTAs is the UK’s first award show to celebrate the excellence and influence of Black performers and creatives within the UK theatre industry.

The fifth edition will happen on Sunday, October 29, at the Lyttelton Theatre in the National Theatre, London, with Ojo vying for the prize with David Alade and Matilda Feyisayo Ibini.

One of the trio will go home with the prize at the glamorous event, which hosts have yet to be announced by the organisers.

Ojo, author of ‘Soupcase’ and the successful ‘In Hiding’ on autism and its stigmatisation, attributed her nomination to God.

“I give God all the glory,” she said while commenting on her nomination with ‘In Hiding’, which sold out the Tower Theatre, Stoke Newington, London’s busiest non-professional theatre company during its run from June 21 to July 1, 2023.

Directed by Kanayo Omo and featuring an all-African cast, ‘In Hiding’ raises awareness about autism and its stigmatisation in the African community. It does this through Bimpe, a talk of the town who unfortunately has not been in town to hear it. She has been ‘in hiding’, shielding herself and her autistic son from the unforgiving gaze of Lagos high society. Her self-imposed exile is abruptly ruptured when she attends a lavish Owambe (party) and is forced to navigate the social norms of a world where tradition is at odds with her experience of motherhood.

Launched in 2019 and hosting live ceremonies over the past four years, the BBTAs support and inspire Black talent through award recognition and a year-round youth development programme. They create an impact by facilitating pathways from the educational system into the arts and empowering diverse talent to create and tell their stories.

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