After six successful runs in December 2023, George Quaye’s Image Bureau and Naa Ashorkor’s April Communications are bringing back the play, The Gods Are Not to Blame.

The National Theatre will play host the stage play on Thursday, March 21, 2024 and Friday, March 22, 2024 at 7pm.

On Saturday, March 23, 2024, there will be two shows at 4pm and 8pm, also at the National Theatre.

According to George Quaye, the director of the play, the March runs of The Gods Are Not to Blame are occasioned by requests for people who were either willing to see it again or had not seen it when it was staged in December, 2023.

George has promised that there will be some additions to the March runs.

The Gods Are Not to Blame is an adaptation of Sophocles’ original Greek classic Oedipus Rex, authored by Nigeria’s Ola Rotimi.

In the previous runs, veteran actor David Dontoh, who played the narrator, gave a captivating narration of the story.

The Gods Are Not to Blame tells the story of a boy called Odewale (played by Andrew Adote) who was destined by birth to kill his father King Adetusa and marry his own mother, Queen Ojuola (Naa Ashorkor).

Typical of most African communities, Odewale's parents had gone to find out the destiny of their son from a diviner, Baba Fakunle (played by Mawuli Semevo), a priest of Ifa.

According to the soothsayer, Baba Fakunle, Odewale was sent by the gods to kill his father and marry his mother. He said the only way they could reverse this was to kill Odewale. At the behest of Fakunle, the Ogun priest (which was played Fred Amugi), tied Odewale's legs, and ordered that he was taken to the forest to be killed.

But the priest's chief messenger, Gbonka, was so merciful. He did not kill Odewale. He rather handed him over to a hunter, Ogundele, in the forest.

Odewale grew into an aggressive man who had to leave the house of his adopted parents after proving increasingly obstinate.

The plot thickens as he finally killed an old man who he later found out to be his biological father. While he found himself back at Kutuje after 32 years, he was made the king after he led them to war to triumph over their foes.

As predicted by the diviner, King Odewale finally married his mother Queen Ojuole and had four children with her.

However, the plot got even more complicated when a plague hit the people of Kutuje. After consultation, it was revealed that the cause of the problem was Odewale - the murderer of the late king Adetusa.

The Gods Are Not to Blame is powered by Image Bureau and April Communications.