Hear Word!

Hear Word! runs for 90 minutes and is delivered by a cast of 10 female performers, 3 male percussionists and 1 female director.[3] It is agitprop theater and can be performed without a set or in a site-specific location, combining song, dance, sketches and soliloquies.[5] The cast will sometimes do street storms, performing the show unannounced in markets, bus stops and university campuses.[7]

Hear Word! is a piece of Nigerian performance art that combines artistry, social commentary and true-life stories of gender inequality and transformation. The show targets real issues affecting the lives of women and which limit their potential for independence, leadership and meaningful contribution to society.

The play starts off with lighthearted and somewhat humorous monologues depicting everyday situations where women navigate a patriarchal world in which they are marginalized. Groping, harassment, exclusion etc. including scenes which boldly highlight ways in which women themselves contribute to their own marginalization.

This lightheartedness soon gives way to a section of vivid monologues portraying harmful ways in which women are victimized and oppressed, including molestation, child brides and gender based violence and abuse. This painful section is punctuated by a shrill call to action chant in Yoruba which ushers in an exhilarating and refreshing second half of the play with powerful portraits of resistance, triumph and celebration. The final piece re-captures the different themes in the play with a direct appeal to audiences to get engaged in becoming part of the solution.

Hear Word! is derived from a Nigerian Pidgin-English phrase, which means to "Listen and Comply".[8] The play was created and co-written by Ifeoma Fafunwa, a Nigerian playwright and director. Fafunwa started her career as an Architect in the United States, where she worked for at least 20 years. She returned to Nigeria and in 2009, began curating real-life stories, from women across Nigeria, as well as her own personal stories to produce the play, Hear Word!.[4]

The play presents an intimate view into the obstacles that Nigerian women face, including stories of domestic violence, absence of women from positions of power, resilience and resistance, shattering the culture of silence, overturning the status quo, abuse, disrespect, bravery, sisterhood and joy.[8]

In 2018, Hear Word! sold out to a diverse audience at American Repertory Theater.[9] The production was featured as the event opener for the United Nations 2018 Commission for the Status of Women in March 2018.[10]

In January 2019 the play debuted at New York’s premiere off-Broadway - the Public Theater, and was described by Theater Mania as a "jubilant act of artistic exorcism".[11] A review in the New York Times stated "By the end of "Hear Word! Naija Woman Talk True," from the Nigerian company iOpenEye Ltd., the brightness radiating from its all-female cast has the glare and heat of a raging bonfire."[5]

Hear Word! has also premiered at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, California the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, Germany[12] and the Royal Lyceum Theater at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland in August, 2019.[8]