Created and performed by Nigerian-Welsh storyteller Phil Okwedy, The Gods Are All Here was greatly acclaimed when it toured in 2022. Reviewing for Buzz, Hari Berrow gave it five stars, calling Okwedy’s storytelling empowering, and now you have another chance to see it as Okwedy brings it to Cardiff’s Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama, concluding a 2024-2025 autumn/winter tour. Okwedy grew up a child of duel heritage in 1960s and 70s Wales; the idea for this one-man performance was sparked by the discovery, following the death of his mother, of a succession of letters written by his father in Nigeria and posted to his mother in Wales. Though a foster child who didn’t live with his family, Okwedy saw his mother regularly and had knowledge of his family history. After the discovery of this correspondence, Okwedy decided to combine personal testimony with Nigerian myths and folktales (which is where the title The Gods Are All Here comes in) in the form of a storytelling show. In a Buzz interview two years ago, also with Hari Berrow, Okwedy said, “I kind of thought I wanted to find the parents I never had, and that’s kind of how the show unfolds: this idea of me reading these letters in order to have some sense of these parents I never lived with.” His background in teaching plays a role in his verve as a storyteller, and he’s at pains to declare that the medium is, not should be, only for children. Tickets: £8-£16. words CHRIS WILLIAMS