ÌLỌ́YÁ… the Journey Begins is an intimate one-person performance exploring dreams, family, love, loss and the difficult choices involved in leaving home.
Written and performed by Oluwasegun Lafup Ogundipe, the production introduces audiences to Mokan, a young man in Lagos who believes he has his future carefully planned.
He will secure his dream job, build a house for his father and marry his sweetheart Sade. Life, however, refuses to follow the script.
Jobs disappear, relationships unravel and time with his father begins to run out. As the future Mokan imagined starts to fall apart, he is forced to reconsider what home, success and belonging really mean.
Eventually, he makes one final gamble on a new beginning. But even as he prepares to leave, the past catches up with him through a letter capable of changing everything.
The production combines humour with more painful reflections on grief and disappointment, creating a story grounded in a recognisable African cultural setting while exploring experiences shared by people who have migrated around the world.
At its heart is the question of what people carry when they leave home — and what they are forced to leave behind.
Presented during Sheffield Theatres’ Open Works Festival, ÌLỌ́YÁ… the Journey Begins offers a personal perspective on migration that moves beyond statistics and politics to consider the relationships, memories and unfinished stories that travel with people across borders.
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