Camden Fringe: Bunmi Aworanti and Tolu Idowu on the Games We Play in Love

Ahead of Love vs Fear’s Camden Fringe return, writer Bunmi Aworanti and director Tolu Idowu talk mobile games, Nigerian mothers and why the audience is the one making Kike’s choices this time

Love vs Fear (and my mother’s prayers) had its first outing in 2024 and sold out. This August it returns to Camden Fringe, still following Kike as she tries to work out whether the biggest decisions in her life, about love, faith and family, are coming from a place of love or a place of fear. What is different this time is how much of that working out is handed to the audience, who use live mobile games to nudge Kike’s story one way or another as it happens.

Ahead of the show’s run at SPID Theatre, Red Bus Londinium put questions to writer Bunmi Aworanti and director Tolu Idowu about what has changed since 2024, why gaming rather than a show of hands, and what it has meant to bring a Nigerian diaspora story to a Camden Fringe audience.

Red Bus: Love vs Fear started life in 2024 and sold out. What made you want to bring it back for Camden Fringe this year, and has anything changed in the show since that first run?

Tolu Idowu: From what I’ve heard, the response to the first run was incredible. For Camden Fringe, we’ve refined the show, tightened the storytelling and developed the interactive elements so audiences have an even bigger role in shaping Kike’s journey. At its heart, it’s still the same story, but it’s a richer, more immersive experience than before.

Bunmi Aworanti: We really loved the reception from the first show, so a lot has changed from the 2024 show. We took on a lot of feedback and made a lot of improvements, particularly with the games, to make sure the audience loves it even more.

Red Bus: The audience shapes Kike’s story through live mobile games rather than just watching it unfold. What made you choose gaming specifically as the mechanism for that, rather than more traditional audience interaction?

Tolu Idowu: The show asks a simple question: when we’re making life’s biggest decisions, are we choosing from love or from fear? I believe Bunmi didn’t want audiences to just think about that but to rather experience it as well.

Bunmi Aworanti: When it comes to love, it’s easy for us to give advice. I wanted a way to give the audience some kind of stake, to help them feel empathy for the character. Gaming was the first choice for me, as it came naturally to me as a software engineer.

Red Bus: How much genuinely changes from night to night depending on what the audience chooses?

Tolu Idowu: The emotional core of Kike’s story remains the same, but every audience creates a different experience. Their choices influence the games, the atmosphere and some of the moments within the performance, so no two audiences react in exactly the same way. What’s fascinating is seeing what different audiences collectively choose and what that says about us. Sometimes people lean towards hope, sometimes towards caution, and that may change the tone of the play slightly.

Bunmi Aworanti: The changes are less about the end and more about what the audience brings from show to show. I see the audience as a new character in the play, and each audience plays that role in its own unique way.

Red Bus: Kike’s story is shaped by religious pressure and a pushy Nigerian mother, alongside universal themes of love and fear. How much of that is drawn from lived experience?

Bunmi Aworanti: A lot of the play is a combination of lived experiences of me, my friends, stories I have heard, or things I’ve seen in passing. I wanted to make the story feel real and vulnerable.

Tolu Idowu: There are certainly experiences and conversations that feel familiar to me as well and to many people in the Nigerian diaspora, but Kike isn’t me. She’s a fictional character created from many different stories and perspectives.

Red Bus: What’s it been like bringing a story like this, rooted in Nigerian diaspora experience, into London theatre?

Tolu Idowu: It’s been really rewarding because London’s diversity means audiences connect with it on different levels. Nigerian audiences will recognise the humour, family dynamics and cultural references immediately, while audiences from completely different backgrounds may say, “My family wasn’t Nigerian, but similar conversations could have happened in my house.” That’s exactly what we hope for. The details are culturally specific, but the emotions, wanting to make your family proud, questioning yourself, searching for love and trying to find your own voice, are universal.

Bunmi Aworanti: It has been great telling a story from a unique perspective and seeing people with those experiences connect, as well as those without that particular background connect and see that we all suffer from the same things in love.

Red Bus: What do you hope audiences take away, beyond an entertaining night out?

Tolu Idowu: I hope people leave asking themselves whether the biggest decisions in their own lives are being driven by love or by fear. I also hope it sparks conversations between friends, partners or even between individuals and their parents. The play doesn’t try to tell people who’s right or wrong. Instead, it invites us to have a little more empathy for one another and, perhaps most importantly, to trust ourselves a little more. If people leave feeling seen, reflecting on their own relationships, and talking about the show long after they’ve left the theatre, then we’ve done what we set out to do.

Bunmi Aworanti: Love is complicated, and we are all trying our best. We shouldn’t let our mistakes define us, it’s all part of living.