And here is my acceptance speech delivered with thanks to Debo Adebayo and Gail Babb!

I’m Debo Adebayo, Mojisola’s brother and the Producer of STARS and I’m / this is Gail Babb, the co-Director of STARS. We are delighted to accept this award on behalf Mojisola (who sadly can’t be here) and the fantastic collective of creatives. Thank you to the Offies who said – ‘keep your speech short!’ So, instead of taking time to list the brilliant names of people who were a part of STARS (you know who you are), Mojisola has asked us, instead, to take this moment to mention those unnamed. This is from her:


‘Old ladies, orgasms and outer space – what’s not to like?!’ – that’s how I pitched the play. And despite the laughs we had more rejections for this script than any other I have written. So, thank you to Tamasha and the ICA for being brave enough to stage STARS and to all the artists who had the creativity and courage to illuminate the issues behind the tag-line. STARS is dedicated to women and children, like me, who are survivors of gender-based violence and abuse. As we speak, many people are not going to survive the mass abuse that is war and the sexual assault against women that is used as a weapon in war. There is ‘a-war’ in ‘award’ and the Palestinian people, who have lived under occupation since 1948, and the innocent children and women, who are the vast majority of the victims, are all I am thinking of at this awards ceremony tonight, these are the only words I have: cease this war, stop the genocide, end the occupation, free hostages and prisoners, no to apartheid, bring justice and peace, free, free Palestine.