Esthers Revenge is an experiential play inspired by true life events of Esther whowas reported to have murdered her white lover in 1953. The sentence is death byHanging. This very participatory play as devised, explores themes around Race,Colonization, Sexual abuse, violence against women, political and social injustice.Esther takes us on a journey through time into the events leading up to the death ofMark. The Jury is given the responsibility to vote in favour or against a stay ofexecution.Esther Ada Johnson murdered Hall in 1953 in a savage attack with a pair of scissors.Hall was a Colonial Railway worker and apparently she had killed him because hehad returned from a home leave in England to tell her that he had married an Englishbride and had used the 400 Johnson had lent him to buy a taxi for his new bride sothat she could start a business. Johnson was tried and convicted in 1956 andsentenced to death. She remained on Death ow in Broad Street Prison (nowFreedom Park) Lagos. Her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. In 1961, on the first anniversary of Nigeria's independence, Governor-General NnamdiAzikiwe pardoned Esther Johnson in the name of the Queen.
