2 Masks & a Griot
Theatre Company · Abuja
…ghen ghen!
Harmattan Season 2026/27 · Village, Abuja
and the mask is coming off
Seven years since our last full season. We return with a home of our own, three productions, a December Homecoming under open sky, and monthly spoken word beneath the trees.
The season theme
Disruption does something strange to identity. It strips away the performance we keep up in ordinary times and leaves the question underneath: who were we, when nobody was watching?
The years since 2019 asked that of everyone. Of this theatre, which had to become something other than it was in order to survive. Of our audiences, who found out what they actually missed when it was taken away. And of each person who sat in the dark with us and has since had to work out, quietly, what they are made of.
Mask Off is a season about that reckoning. Every play we stage between October and March turns on identity revealed — what people hide, what disruption exposes, and who is standing there when the covering comes away.
Take a hard look. Then look again.
What's On
Fridays at 7pm. Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm and 6pm. Ten performances per production in the studio — and outdoors in the amphitheatre from December. Two world premieres of new Nigerian writing this season.
For the first time we are staging in a house we own. No landlord’s calendar, no borrowed hall, no compromises we didn’t choose. From the walk in from the car park to the last light on the last face, the experience is ours to shape — and we intend to keep shaping it.
Now showing
Coming up
New play · World premiere
As she waits for a German suitor who may never arrive, a dishonoured policewoman and the mentee who became her boss peel back years of unspoken things — between rehearsals, phone calls, and one unforgettable mask.
New play · World premiere
A play for Gisele. She saw through every man she ever met. Until she didn’t.
1 November 2027 · Village, Abuja
The Abuja Festival of Theatre returns with everything that made it matter — the plays, the fringe, the city in performance — and one thing it never had before. Solar staging. Effectual passive cooling. Digital programmes. Trees in the ground you can point at. Not a sacrifice, but the sustainable evolution of African theatre.
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Days
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Hours
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Minutes
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Seconds
Climate, culture, hospitality and brand partners who want to be first movers on a carbon-neutral international festival. We are taking partnership conversations now, ahead of the public programme.
Talk to us about partneringCompanies from Nigeria, Africa and the diaspora will be invited to propose work for the 2027 edition. Watch this space — or join the list and we’ll tell you the day it opens.
Tell me when it opensVillage
Two point seven hectares in Abuja. A studio theatre, an open-air amphitheatre, workshop spaces and a rooftop café, laid out along water and planting — designed for passive cooling, so the theatre costs less to run and the air stays honest.
2.7 ha
Arts campus in the city
272
Seats, open-air amphitheatre
100
Seats, studio theatre
Free
Parking, on site and lit
0
Air conditioners, by design
2MG Live
One night · No replaysComing to this season
We're testing quietly through this season so the experience is right before we open it widely. Join the list and you'll be among the first invited in.
Join the stream listBox Office
Card, bank transfer or USSD. No booking fees — the price you see is the price you pay.
Single ticket
₦5,000 – ₦10,000
Revivals from ₦5,000. New-writing world premieres are ₦10,000.
Choose a dateEarly bird
Save 15%
Opens four weeks before each production, closes when the run begins.
Book earlyCloses 18 October
Homecoming
₦20,000
Four seats under the amphitheatre sky, with café credit.
Book the bundle2MG Academy
From ₦25,000
Voice, script, performance and technical craft — weekday evenings at Village.
See the scheduleFriends of 2MG
Priority access
Members book before the public and hold early-bird pricing all season.
Become a FriendFree to join this season
Partner with us
Open now
Sponsor a production, back the carbon-neutral festival, or partner on training and youth work. We’re taking conversations today.
Start a conversationinfo@2mg.ng
Or scan the season
Pick a highlighted date to see performances and seats.
Community
The list we started in 2008 is still here, and so are you. Come back to the room where it happens.
We did. Every Friday at seven for seven years, some part of us was still counting down to a house light going down.
The Griot has been away, but not idle. This edition tells you where we went, what we built while you weren’t looking, and why we came back to a season called Mask Off — plus the full Harmattan calendar, first sight of two new plays, and how the Ghen Ghen card returns as Friends of 2MG.
Previous editions: Newsletter archive, 2018–2019
2,000+
theatregoers on the 2MG list — join them and book before the public does.
Prefer to write to a person? info@2mg.ng reaches the whole team.
Live from @2mgtheatre
Waited seven years for this. Village at night is something else — those lights through the trees.
2 hours agoTold my sister it was just a play. She's already asking when the next one is.
YesterdayTen performances. A hundred seats a night. The mask comes off 30 October.
2 days agoThe spoken word night is the best-kept secret in this city. Rooftop, real ones only.
4 days agoWho leads 2MG
A producing company held together by four people, two of whom have been doing it since before there was a company.
Creative Director
Directs the work and carries overall management. Actor, writer and arts development manager; Nigerian Film Institute Actor of the Year.
Producer
Producer across the repertoire and writer of Wife Material: 100 Yards and its sequel.
Project Coordinator
Coordinates productions and festival delivery on the ground.
Adviser
Advises the company on artistic direction and practice.
Governance. 2 Masks & a Griot Theatre Company is incorporated in Nigeria (RC 1424208) and operates on 50–50 male–female shareholding. The Abuja Festival of Theatre is separately governed, chaired by Prof. Emmanuel Dandaura (Chairman, NUTAF Board of Trustees; President, IATC Nigeria) and co-chaired by Prof. Nmadili Okwumabua (Kennesaw State University), under the patronage of Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature.
Before you come
Answered plainly, because half of you are asking an assistant rather than us.
A 2.7-hectare arts campus in Abuja. Parking is on site and free. Full directions go out with every ticket.
Revivals start at ₦5,000; the two new-writing world premieres, Frau Ginika and The Pelican and the Shrew, are ₦10,000. No booking fees. The December family bundle is ₦20,000 for four.
Each production carries an age guide. The December Homecoming is family viewing. The opening production is 16 and over.
Yes. Paths are lit, security is visible at every performance, and the car park is enclosed.
About two hours, including one interval.
The Abuja Festival of Theatre opens 1 November 2027 at Village, carbon-neutral for the first time. Partnership conversations are open now — write to info@2mg.ng. The call for plays opens in Q4 2026.
Group rates start at ten seats. Email info@2mg.ng and we'll hold them.
2MG Live streams selected performances as they happen. Live only — no replays.
The carbon diary
Every production keeps a record, updated the morning after each performance. This is the rehearsal for AFT 2027.
0
Paper programmes printed
1,204 L
Generator fuel saved, commencement to date
4,535
Trees on site
