Second Thoughts is a bold, humorous, reflective one-man play about a Nigerian man confronting the dreams, disappointments, and contradictions that come with leaving home to find a better life abroad. Through humour, vulnerability, and sharp storytelling, the play asks a deceptively simple question: what happens when the life you imagined abroad isn’t the life you actually find? Fringe Review’s Dr.Pants interviewed Instinct Pictures’s executive producer Emmanuel Okocha ahead of the show. You can see “Second Thoughts” Sat 24 October 2:30 pm and Sun 25 October 1:30 pm during Colchester Fringe.
NAP: Hello Emmanuel. Thank you for speaking with us today. What is Second Thoughts about?
EO: Second Thoughts is ultimately about migration and the stories we tell ourselves about leaving home.
For many people, especially across Africa, “abroad” can represent success, security, freedom and a better future. It can become almost mythical, the place where everything will finally work out. But what happens when you arrive and discover that moving countries doesn’t necessarily mean leaving your problems behind?
Through one man’s experiences, the play explores identity, expectations, loneliness, relationships, cultural adjustment, regret, and the pressure to succeed after leaving home.
At its heart, it is about the human consequences of choices. We often spend so much time asking, “What if I had left?” that we forget to ask the equally important question: “What if leaving wasn’t the answer?”
NAP: What inspired Second Thoughts? Why adapt this story for the stage?
EO: The inspiration came from conversations and observations around the Nigerian experience of migration.
There is a powerful cultural narrative that says leaving Nigeria, or leaving Africa generally, is automatically an upgrade. People sometimes measure success by the country they have managed to relocate to.
But behind those aspirations are real human stories: people who leave families behind, relationships that change, expectations that aren’t fulfilled, loneliness, cultural shock, and the pressure to prove to everyone back home that the decision was worth it.
We wanted to explore the person behind the migration story, rather than simply the migration itself.
NAP: You mention that the story centers around “What if leaving wasn’t the right answer?” Is Second Thoughts saying that people shouldn’t migrate?
EO: Absolutely not. The play isn’t anti-migration. It isn’t telling people to stay or telling people to leave. Instead, it asks us to look beyond the fantasy.
Migration can create extraordinary opportunities and completely transform people’s lives for the better. But it can also be difficult, complicated and emotionally expensive.
Second Thoughts is interested in that space between the dream and the reality.
Sometimes leaving is the right decision. Sometimes staying is the right decision. And sometimes you don’t know which one was right until years later.
NAP: So what makes Second Thoughts unique compared to other shows at the Fringe? How do you stand out in a crowded line-up of shows from around the world?
EO: I think its biggest distinction is the perspective from which it tells the migration story.
Migration is often presented through statistics, politics, or very serious drama. Second Thoughts approaches it through the personal, the humorous, and the deeply human.
It is also a one-man play, which creates a very intimate relationship between the performer and the audience. One actor carries the audience through different moments, emotions and perspectives, allowing the story to move between humour and vulnerability without relying on a large cast or elaborate set.
Most importantly, it is a story rooted in the African experience of migration, but the questions it raises are universal. You don’t have to be an immigrant to understand what it means to make a life-changing decision and later wonder whether you made the right one.
NAP: Now what if I know nothing about immigration, Nigeria, or even simply don’t like one person shows. How would you convince me to see your play if I was hesitant?
EO: I’d say: come for the humour, stay for the questions.
You don’t need to have any connection to migration to enjoy Second Thoughts. It is about something much bigger: our dreams, our choices and the uncomfortable moments when reality doesn’t match what we imagined.
And because it is a one-man play, there is nowhere to hide. The audience gets a very direct and personal theatrical experience. If you’ve ever made a major decision and later thought, “What if I’d done things differently?”, there is something in this story for you.
Also, it’s Fringe, come and take a chance on a story you might not normally encounter.
NAP: Now, Colchester is not anywhere near Nigeria. It’s a big journey to come all this way to perform. Why did you decide to perform at Colchester Fringe?
We decided to perform at Colchester Fringe because it gives Second Thoughts another valuable opportunity to connect with audiences outside London and to continue developing the production within the UK fringe theatre circuit.
As a Nigerian theatre company, we are particularly interested in bringing contemporary African stories to different communities across the UK. Colchester has its own diverse and growing cultural scene, and we felt it would be an exciting environment for a story that explores migration, identity, belonging and the idea of searching for a better life elsewhere.
It is also important for us to take Second Thoughts beyond a single performance or location. Each new audience brings a different perspective to the story, and the conversations that follow the performance help us understand how people from different backgrounds respond to the themes we are exploring.
For us, Colchester Fringe is therefore not simply another performance opportunity; it is part of our wider goal of building cultural exchange between Nigerian theatre practitioners and audiences across the UK.
NAP: What has been the biggest challenge in producing this work?
EO: One of the biggest challenges has been making a migration story feel personal rather than simply political.
Migration is such a huge subject. There are statistics, policies, economics, and politics surrounding it, but our starting point was always the individual human being behind those conversations.
There has also been the challenge of creating a compelling theatrical experience with a minimalist production. When you don’t have a huge cast, elaborate scenery, or complicated effects, every element has to work harder: the writing, performance, direction, timing, sound, and relationship with the audience.
For a one-man play, particularly, the performer carries an enormous responsibility. The audience must remain emotionally invested from beginning to end.
NAP: Why tell this story as a one-man play?
EO: Because we wanted the audience to experience the story up close.
Migration can sometimes feel like a huge social issue that happens to other people. A one-man play strips away that distance.
There is simply one person standing in front of you, telling you, his story.
That intimacy allows the audience to laugh with him, question him, disagree with him and, hopefully, recognise something of themselves in him.
And perhaps that’s the most important thing about Second Thoughts: although the story is rooted in a particular Nigerian and African experience, the emotions belong to all of us.
NAP: What are you hopeful audiences will leave your show feeling or doing?
EO: I hope they leave thinking.
Not necessarily with one answer, but with questions of their own.
I want someone who has migrated to think about their own journey. I want someone considering migration to perhaps question some of the assumptions they have about life abroad. And I want someone who has never considered leaving home to understand that the decision is far more complicated than simply “going somewhere better.”
Most importantly, I hope audiences leave feeling that home, identity, and belonging are not as simple as geography.
And perhaps, on the way home, they will ask themselves their own version of the question:
“If I could go back and make that decision again, would I?”
You can see “Second Thoughts” Sat 24 October 2:30 pm and Sun 25 October 1:30 pm during Colchester Fringe. While you’re here, read about the other one person shows happening at Colchester Fringe including the story of China’s only female emperor, a one man retelling of Camelot, or Fringe Reviews Dr.Pants and his solo journey into a DARK ROOM.
