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‘The Cost of Living’, a play by writer, Sefi Atta, will premiere on Sunday, March 6, at Terra Kulture, Lagos.

Directed by Nick
Monu, the play is part of the ‘Theatre at Terra’ initiative spearheaded
by Terra Kulture and will be performed every Sunday in March at 3pm and
6pm.

‘The Cost of
Living’ is a one-act play about a botched kidnapping during which an
American and his Nigerian abductor learn about the value of life.

Known for her debut
award winning novel, ‘Everything Good will Come’, which received rave
reviews and won the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in
Africa in 2006, US-based Atta has also written plays for BBC Radio.

In 2005, her play
‘The Engagement’, featuring Dejumo Lewis and Ibidun Allison and
produced by actress Joke Silva, was staged at the MUSON Centre.

Nick Monu was trained at the American University in Washington DC and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

The director,
actor, and producer has a career spanning 20 years in television,
radio, film, and theatre, playing in many of London’s major theatres
including The Royal Shakespeare Company. He directed Wole Soyinka’s
‘The Swamp Dwellers’ in a much talked about production staged at the
National Theatre, Lagos, in 2009.

Monu will be
teaming up again with Atta on another of her play, ‘The Sentence’,
which will be staged in Germany later this year.

‘The Cost of
Living’ boasts a small but sound cast and crew which includes actors
Frank Adekunle Macaulay and Toyin Oshinaike, costume and set designer,
Simone Monu, and assistant director, Bayo Abifarin.

Oshinaike, a known
name in theatre circles, has featured in numerous notable theatre
productions such as Wole Soyinka’s ‘The Lion and the Jewel’, directed
by Chuck Mike (2005); and Femi Osofisan’s ‘Yeepa, Solarin Nbo!’,
directed by Niji Akanni (2010).

Only recently at
Terra Kulture, Oshinaike had staged ‘Wats Dis All About’, his
adaptation of the South African play, ‘Woza Albert’.

The second actor on
the play, Macaulay, studied acting as well as film, TV, and video
production in the United Kingdom. He has worked in various capacities
as a filmmaker on films, documentaries, and commercials.

Assistant director on the production, Abifarin, is senior stage
manager of the National Troupe of Nigeria. A graduate of Performing
Arts from the University of Ilorin, Abifarin has worked on a number of
productions including Wole Soyinka’s ‘The Swamp Dwellers’, which was
directed by Monu; Ahmed Yerima’s ‘Ameoboni’; and Ola Rotimi’s
‘Kurunmi’, directed by Ben Tomoloju.