A Crown, A Curse: ‘The Regent’

Written and directed by Babatunde Lawal, The Regent was staged at MUSON Centre on 4th November 2024. Set in Ajeromi, the play follows a town caught between the promise of good leadership and the greed that threatens to destroy it. With Eniola Gabriel, Daniel Etim, John Alabi and David Mafuah among the cast, the production tells a story of betrayal, love and the heavy price of protecting a community.

After the death of Ajeromi’s king, Ifa chooses Adewunmi to serve as regent. Her leadership brings prosperity, but when the chiefs attempt to install a king of their own choosing in exchange for money, she refuses to surrender the town’s future to their greed. Her resistance turns brutal, and the woman once celebrated as a capable leader becomes a threat to the very people she swore to protect. Only in the final moments does the audience discover the depth of her desperation; Adewunmi fears that leaving power in the wrong hands will destroy the town she loves.

Can the desire to protect a people become so consuming that it begins to harm them? This was the big question that needed to be answered. 

Adewunmi’s downfall gives the story its emotional force, while her final curse against anyone who uses Ajeromi for personal gain turns her death into a warning. The town survives its ruler, but the question of who deserves to lead it remains.

The production design by Barakat Omolara Rasaki offers an opportunity to consider Ajeromi as more than a backdrop. The stage became a reflection of the town itself. A central royal space, traditional furnishings and earthy textures establish a sense of place, while the arrangement of the playing area gives the struggle for authority a physical presence. The throne becomes more than a seat of office; it represents the future everyone is fighting to control.

A setting that initially suggests order, prosperity and communal identity gradually started to feel like a place of conflict and confinement as Adewunmi’s grip on power tightened. Through the production design lens, Rasaki’s contribution becomes part of the story’s larger conversation about power and belonging, giving the struggle for power a physical setting and a stronger sense of place. 

The Regent ultimately shows how the fate of an entire community can hinge on the choices of those who lead it. Ajeromi’s story is a reminder that power means little without responsibility and that no throne is worth the destruction of the people it is meant to serve.