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Triple Word Score by Ben Tagoe

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Triple Word Score by Ben Tagoe. Dir. Gaynor Macfarlane. Perf. Tunji Kasim, Adura Onashile, Jimmy Akingbola. BBC Radio 4, 12 Jun. 2015. BBCiPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05xqbmb

The premise is a straightforward one: Yomi (Tunji Kasim) flies out from his native Scotland to Nigeria to try out for the Nigerian Scrabble team. Being born of a Nigerian father, he believes that he can do so. Once there, he discovers that the conditions are very different from what he anticipated: Victor (Jimmy Akingbola) beats him fairly easily in his first encounter, while the other players, notably Amira (Adura Onashile), resents his presence within their midst.

Time proves a great healer, as Yomi discovers the importance of being sound in body as well as in mind. To be good at Scrabble, he has to take exercise, and dedicate himself to learning words on a systematic basis. Moreover, he has to understand the importance of attuning himself to different ways of life and different ways of thinking, a task more difficult than it seems. Scrabble for Yomi is just a game; for his Nigerian compatriots, it is a means of living and a way of being.