Bimbo, Toyin shine at Terra Kulture - A Husband's Wife

The crowd that gathered at Terra Kulture, venue of the stage production A Husband’s Wife, was huge reminding one of the days of the NIB sponsored plays at Unilag.

The play, written by Terrece Tyrone, is a one and two character presentation and is mind blowing. Tunmi, played by award winning actress Bimbo Akintola and Femi, played by Toyin Oshinaike, a theatre director, appear like the perfect couple inching toward middle age.

They’ve been married for 22 years and have three kids who live and study abroad.

Tunmi has a thriving pharmacy practice and Femi is a self-made man so you’d expect them to be living a life of bliss, right? Wrong.





We catch what appears to be an on-going conversation between the two as they prepare for bed and from then on, the audience is held captive and then divided as the drama slowly boils into a battle of the sexes.

Watching the audience you could see couples who had walked into the hall holding hands, slowly shift in their seats to take sides.

A good number of the female audience, found themselves taking sides with Tunmi. A woman in her late forties who having just found out that her husband is having an affair confronts him as he prepares to go to sleep. Like most men, he waves it aside and hops into bed but she tells him he might not wake up if he goes to sleep. This immediately sets the tone for the rest of the drama that ensues.






A Husbands’ Wife throws up plenty of issues that deal with aging in marriage and the consequences thereof. We hear Femi fervently utter: "it’s got nothing to do with age…sometimes I need you to see me as if I'm innocent…" to which his wife replied, "…age has everything to do with it. At the bottom of your undeniable crap is your libido".

It questions the role of the woman in a man’s infidelity as we hear Tunmi soliloquizing, "I've known for six months that my husband was having an affair and like most women, I buried my head in the sand".

Her refusal to acknowledge their problem, Femi claims, drove him into another woman’s arms. Tunmi still refuses to accept this: "You are the one who cheated, but I’m supposed to feel guilty. I didn’t push you into another woman’s arms, you jumped!"



It shows us that time and tide can erode the joys of a relationship especially when we take each other for granted. We see this clearly when Femi asks: "When was the last time you demonstrated any affection to anything I did? We have forgotten the simple pleasures; holding hands…telling each other jokes."

Describing his new love, Femi says: "She adores me...she doesn’t judge me…I need to be somebody's hero. I want to be seen with new eyes. I want someone who sees the new Femi."

To which Tunmi replies: "I know and see all your imperfections and I still love you all the same, that is the beauty of my love. If you want to measure true love, do it through eyes that know you, not through ignorant eyes…. Marriage does not expire with age".

On the whole, A Husband’s Wife challenges its viewers to look at marriage and indeed, relationships as a two way street because as Femi reminds us "Marriage is work".