Press Release

2015 London Production of The Gods Are Not To Blame by Ola Rotimi

“When the gods commend, we men must obey!” This statement from the play sums up the thrust of Ola Rotimi’s classic play, The Gods Are Not To Blame.

Odewale, the central character is destined from birth to “kill his father and marry his mother…” a taboo in African socio-cultural setting. The play is based on Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and it touches on the nerve of an African society where a man by fate is “condemned” to fail.

Odewale, born to King Adetusa and his wife Queen Ojuola, the King and Queen of Kutuje,as a baby is to be sacrificed to the gods because his birth is considered as bad omen: a child pre-destined to kill his father and marry the same woman who gave him birth. Gbonka, King Adetusa’s special messenger, is asked to carry out this rite, but he allows compassion to take…