Efunsetan Aniwura : A Set Design for Ages

Can a story truly come alive on stage if the world around its characters fails to convince us? In theatre, the set is never just a background. It is part of the storytelling, shaping what the audience sees, feels, and how deeply they connect with the world before them. In Efunsetan Aniwura, staged on 5 October 2024 at the National Theatre, Iganmu, the relationship between the visual and the dramatic is particularly important. The production takes audiences into another time, and its set design helps make that journey feel real.

Written by Professor Akinwunmi Isola and directed by Ademola Quadri, Efunsetan Aniwura tells the story of a formidable woman whose wealth and influence place her among the most powerful figures in nineteenth-century Ibadan. Following the loss of her daughter and her inability to have another child, Efunsetan turns her pain into suffering for the enslaved people under her authority. Her determination to kill Adetutu, a pregnant slave, despite pleas for mercy, brings the devastating consequences of her power into sharp focus.

Through Efunsetan’s story, the production explores the darker side of authority and the human cost of power exercised without compassion. At the centre of this drama, Ayomide Adefuye delivers a masterful performance as Iyalode Efunsetan, capturing the character’s commanding presence and unsettling complexity with conviction.

Bringing this world convincingly to life requires more than strong performances and dialogue. It requires an environment that feels as though it belongs to the period, allowing the audience to settle into the story rather than remain conscious of watching actors on a stage. This is where Bright Osaigbovo Tobi’s set design makes a meaningful contribution to the production.

Osaigbovo Tobi’s work demonstrates the value of thoughtful set design in historical theatre. By giving Efunsetan Aniwura a convincing visual world, he helps bridge the distance between the audience and the period being portrayed. The cultural details establish a sense of time and place, while the arrangement and atmosphere of the space draw viewers further into the characters’ lives and conflicts.

Through a considered use of earthy brown tones, Yoruba-inspired patterns and traditional furnishings such as mats and stools, Tobi establishes a visual atmosphere that speaks to the time and cultural setting of the play. These details give the stage a distinct identity, helping the audience recognise the world being represented before the story has even begun. Rather than feeling like a collection of props arranged for a performance, the space feels inhabited, as though the characters belong there and their lives extend beyond the scenes we witness.

That sense of immersion is one of the production’s greatest strengths. The audience is not simply told that Efunsetan is a woman of wealth and influence; the environment gives that status a physical presence. Her household becomes a reflection of the position she occupies, while the action that takes place within it gradually reveals the fear and suffering hidden behind that authority. The setting therefore does more than establish a historical period. It supports the central conflict of the play, contrasting outward status and private cruelty more immediately.

As the play moves through moments of tension and confrontation, the arrangement of the stage shifts to accommodate the changing action without losing the identity of the world already established, thus allowing the setting to remain part of the storytelling rather than interrupt it. Working alongside the performances, costumes and lighting, the set helps create a unified theatrical experience in which the different creative elements merge into one to create a spectacle.

The strength of a compelling production lies not merely in showing the audience where a story unfolds, but in immersing them in its world. In Efunsetan Aniwura, the set becomes an integral part of this experience, deepening the drama and allowing its history, tensions and emotions to resonate far beyond the stage.

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