Nigerian Drama in English

NIGERIAN DRAMA IN ENGLISH I NIGERIA HAS HIGH INDIGENOUS TRADITIONS OF dramatic dance and masquerade associated with religious festivals; the parallels with what is known of the origins of Greek drama are close enough to warrant a full-scale investigation, though it seems that for the most part the festivals have remained at the level of dramatic dancing and have not worked through to a full dance-drama. None the less there is reenactment of moments of myth, and a high level of mimetic expression, and it has become clear that more sophisticated drama will wisely and rightly incorporate these elements. Something of this sort has already grown up in the indigenous languages . In the first place among the children, who would take a legendary story, cast it, and then act it out, improvising the dialogue, which would be studded with dance-movements, and ending in universal singing and dancing. One suspects a similar process behind Greek drama. Alongside this, in Yorubaland, where the traditions are strongest, there are at least three companies of actors and dancers who have been presenting what may properly be called dramas. The best-known of these is probably that of Hubert Ogunde in Lagos. Duro Ladipo caused something of a sensation in Germany with his Oba Koso. Ladipo's company is irresistibly reminiscent of Donald Wolfit's old touring company in Britain-an actor-manager of genius, a pretty girl, a character-actor, and after that the field. Kola Ogunmola is the leader 'of the third group; one would wish that he had the opportunities for playing overseas that Ladipo has had, for he too is a man of rare quality. Basically these groups are reenacting traditional stories in the form of dance-drama. Meantime some important experiments have been going on at the University of Ibadan. Students have written plays, as students will, without producing any masterpieces, but with promise for the future. A surprising proportion of these plays has dealt with the rejection of Christianity and reversion to village religion. The reversion would in no sense satisfy these sophisticated authors; they are rejecting Christianity as an import and imposition from Europe, they have not accepted Marxism or scientific humanism, they want to assert themselves as Africans and do not know how else to do it. A second experiment , or series of experiments, has been carried out by Peggy 10 1968 NIGERIAN DRAMA IN ENGLISH 11 Harper; this is towards the development of a constructed dance-drama as a deliberate art-form, in which the plot is conveyed entirely by dance-sequences without use of the spoken word, in short, a genuine ballet based on natural Nigerian dance-expression. A third experiment of some importance lies in the adaptation of European plays. When the University Dramatic Society wanted a play to take round the country they looked for a play which, worthwhile in itself, would have an immediate appeal to unsophisticated audiences. A play with a European setting would have been unsuitable. They chose Moliere's Les Fourberies de Scapin, and rewrote it with a contemporary Nigerian setting under the title That Scoundrel Suberu. This was brilliantly successful; the amusing part about it is that Moliere was adapting a Roman play, which in its turn was derived from a Greek original. There is plenty of room for more adaptations of this sort; I have often thought that a version of Euripides's Medea with Medea an African girl taken back to British "civilization" by a visiting Englishman could be a powerful play and a powerful indictment of British racial prejudices. Certainly no one need scorn such adaptations; Roman comedy was formed from them; so, centuries later, were French comedy and Italian comedy. Fourthly, there has been some dramatization of novels by Nigerian authors. Two call for especial mention. One of the University Travelling Theatre's most successful ventures was their adaptation of Nkem Nwankwo's novel Danda. The book was not quite so funny as it might have been; the play, with an able actor to clothe the name-part in flesh and blood, and with all the spectacle and infectious enthusiasm of the dance to fill it out, was boisterously appealing. More...