Jude Idada’s 3Some is sinfully delicious – Toni Kan

Jude Idada’s riveting play, 3some is cinematic, edgy and addresses taboo topics. Described as psycho-erotic, it is also irreverent and all shades of wrong. But wrong can be subjective.

Directed by Jude Idada, the play features Nollywood darlings, Daniel Effiong and Uzor Osimkpa as well as Kemi Bickersteth and Marvellous.

The play revolves around Chioma, her husband Dayo Doherty and Asmau, Chioma’s mother. Chioma is an unhappily married woman who begins an online affair in her search for adventure and excitement. And she does find excitement aplenty engaging as she does in all forms of BDSM from bondage to choking, golden showers to spanking.
One night, her husband discovers her chat and blows a fuse. Dayo reports his wife to her mother calling her a “vile, conniving harlot” who lets another man call her his bitch.

Chioma is immediately remorseful but when Dayo refuses to listen to her pleas and apologies Chioma flips and tells her husband to go to hell declaring without equivocation that “I am leaving you Dayo for him. I will go where I am loved…That guy sees me. I am so very happy to be his bitch and we will have as many threesomes as we can.”

Refusing her mother’s entreaties to calm down, Chioma packs out of her matrimonial home and there begins the craziness. With Chioma gone, Asmau moves in ostensibly to counsel him and help him understand how to work at getting his wife back.

But her words are double edged and her intentions shrouded in subterfuge. When she gives her opening speech the audience is enraptured and intrigued to see where it all leads.

“Nature abhors a vacuum. It is up to me to teach you how to be a good husband. The way to a woman’s heart is through her mind and in between her legs.”

Jude Idada employs dramatic irony to devastating effect in 3Some. The characters’ words are laced with innuendo and double entendres. The audience is in on the joke but the players on-stage remain clueless lacking s full understanding and appreciation of the sexual and erotic dynamics playing out.

As the son-in-law and mother-in-law cross moral, legal and religious lines, the play becomes much more than the sum of its parts. It becomes a potent examination of love and marriage, faith and duty, aging and sexual attraction.

When Asmau tells Chioma that “love is not everything” her daughter counters with a very contemporary definition of love. “Love is giving me the freedom to choose.”

Religious faith is also a big subject that the play attempts to dissect. When Dayo tells Asmau that “Religion is the bedrock of my existence” Asmau parries with a quick riposte; “Faith must have a human face.”

3Some is a perspicacious exploration of human motive and action. It is an expose of the duplicitous nature of human beings and their interactions. Unable to have Dayo as lover, Asmau contrives to keep him close by introducing him to her daughter but her plan goes awry when the two fall in love and get married.

Jude Idada’s psychological exploration imbues the play with especial depth and gravitas while providing us with some of the best lines delivered on stage at the Lagos Theatre Festival 2018.

When Dayo tells Asmau that “I married Chioma because I couldn’t be with you… Your life is like a funeral mourning a dead marriage” she replies not with rage or discouragement. Instead she provides a mea culpa of her own.

“I found you attractive. Your brilliance. The depth of your faith. I had to swallow my hurt to celebrate your joy.”

Rid of Chioma, son and mother –in-law cross a huge red line but daybreak brings clarity and a fresh perspective. The coast is not as clear as they had hoped and Chioma’s return is a cog in the wheel of their amorous adventure.

Dayo’s declaration to Asmau that “You will be the gas station from where I fill up my tank,” provides a turning point and the play ends with a brilliant twist in-the-tale, one that is completely unexpected but which is already hinted at when Asmau declares in anger – “You are an energy vampire. In psychology you are the classic psychopath.”

Jude Idada, an award winning scriptwriter and two time NLNG Literature prize finalist is a skilled story teller master of drama. His unusual skill ensures that where the erotic nature of the play could have hurt another production, it ends up elevating 3Some which pushes every envelope imaginable including an 8 minute long strip tease and complete nudity, the first, I think by a Nigerian actress on live stage.

3Some was not just the play with the highest entry fee at Lagos Theatre Festival 2018, it was also the stand out play of the festival. Bravo!!!

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Story updated at 8.12am March 13, 2018. Play was directed by Jude Idada not Yemi Akintokun.