The Popular Traveling Theatre Movement

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3.1 The Operatic Theatre

Opera is a musical drama. Operatic theatre here refers to the drama that combines acting with an extensive form of music and dance. It is like dance drama. However, dance drama is usually without verbal dialogue but the dialogue in opera is sung. A very good example of opera is found in most Indian films. In this unit operatic is used to describe the performances presented in pidgin or Nigerian languages that evolved from Christian concerts but which are based “structurally and thematically on traditional performed art” (Obafemi 13). It means that this type of theatre made use of themes, materials and the form of traditional drama with elements from western dramatic forms. This theatre was therefore influenced by the colonial experience through education, Christian religion and other socio-cultural experiences that were imported to the country. In Yoruba land, this theatre was very popular because of its roots in the traditional oral literature. The practitioners of this theatre mixes different foreign musical forms and instruments with the traditional forms and instruments.

We saw in the last unit how the Methodist Church banned concerts from their premises. The Aladura church went a step further by banning the use of Yoruba talking drum in their church during worships as these could be linked to traditional Yoruba religion. However, they could not expunge the Yoruba idioms and strains from the lyrics of their songs and hymns. The Yoruba operatic theatre later copied this style.

3.2 Hubert Ogunde

Hubert Ogunde worked as a teacher and later as a policeman. He was the son of a Baptist clergyman. He was a devout Christian and an initiate of the cults of Oshogbo and Egungun. He started his theatre career, under the patronage of the church. He was an organist and composed many songs for the Aladura Church of God to which he belonged. This church favoured the use of Yoruba cultural forms in their worship. He joined the Native Air Opera which existed at the time and his theatrical talents were made manifest. He injected beautiful Yoruba songs, music and dance into the performances of the group and later the group left the church and went into professional theatre practice. His first opera, “The Garden of Eden” and “The Throne of God” was commissioned by the church to help it raise funds for the building of the church. The performance was a huge success and launched him to the limelight. He resigned from the police force, founded a theatre company called The African Music Research Party and went into full professionalism in the theatre. He employed actors and actresses to act on full time basis. With this, Ogunde laid the foundation for the modern professional theatre in Nigeria. Ogunde’s company was the first to engage professional actresses. His employment of “paid actresses” marked the first time in Yoruba theatre that woman were appeared in a play as professional artists in their own rights. (Ebun Clark 296) .

Ogunde treated social and political issues apart from the early religious themes. His plays were used to satirize social vices. For instance, “Human Parasites. A Tragedy in Two Acts” was a satire designed to expose the vulgarity and ostentatious ness of the ‘Aso Ebi ’ Craze, which is presented as a social vice in the play.

His plays justified the dictum that drama mirrors the society because he presented the socio-political issues of his time on stage. His plays “Yoruba Ronu” (Let the Yoruba Think) and “Otito Koro” (Truth is Better) launched him into comments on political issues. The plays were based on the political upheavals in the then western Nigeria, the consequence of which was the declaration of the state of Emergency in that part of the country. The government banned him from performing in the Western region.

Initially, due to financial constraints Ogunde could not perform his plays outside Lagos but later he was able to tour Western and Northern Nigeria. In Jos, he was arrested, detained, tried and found guilty on the charges against him on public provocation. He was fined and released. The play he staged that put him in trouble was “Strike and Hunger” . His play improved with each new performance by the addition of the new elements he learnt from his tours. For instance, his first tour of Ghana was not successful, he came back and fused more music to his performance to meet the taste of the audience there. Thereafter, he undertook another successful tour of the Gold Coast. He also travelled abroad to learn more about acting and stagecraft.

Like the concerts of the earlier period by the Christian missions, Ogunde’s theatre was profit oriented. He charged exorbitant gate fees, married all his actresses and his children were incorporated into the cast to save cost. From Opera, Ogunde started staging plays based on folklore or mythology. The first of such plays was “Half and Half” which was based on the old Owo myth of Igogo. Gradually, Ogunde moved from partly sung and partly spoken lines to an all dialogue play. The first play in this mode was “Princess

Jaja” . Ogunde also produced plays with Islamic themes. He wrote and presented many plays in Yoruba and English but unfortunately none of them was published for posterity, However he has remained the most popular and acclaimed dramatist of his time. He is also acclaimed as the father of Nigerian theatre.

3.3 E. K. Ogunmola

E. K. Ogunmola was another prominent dramatist of his time. He founded the Ogunmola Travelling Theatre. Like Ogunde, he started with staging religious themes in the operatic mode. His plays were presented in Yoruba. Like Ogunde, he produced and directed his plays. He also acted in the plays. He was initially dwarfed by the colossal figure of Hubert Ogunde in the profession as the audience compared the two constantly. He moved later to Oshogbo from Lagos.

Luckily, he got his breakthrough with the appearance of Robert July, a foreigner, in Osogbo. He watched Ogunmola’s performance and obtained a grant for him from the Rockefeller Foundation for a six month study in the Drama department of the University of Ibadan. The grant also aided Ogunmola’s acquisition of a lorry, a generator, other necessities and a revolving production fund. All these were to enhance his professionalism in the theatre. His stay in the University helped him to produce an adaptation of Amos Tutuola’s Palmwine Drunkard. He produced other plays and toured many parts of the country with productions. He became very ill at a stage but contrary to expectations, he recovered and went back to the stage. During the period of his ill-health, his wife managed to keep his theatre company going. When he recovered, Hubert Ogunde helped him financially to re-launch himself on stage.

3.4 Duro Ladipo

Duro Ladipo founded the Duro Ladipo Theatre Group. Unlike Hubert Ogunde who dominated the Yoruba traveling and operatic theatre for some decades, Duro Ladipo theatre was short lived. As the director of the company. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman but was a Sango novitiate.

He started his theatrical productions by adapting biblical stories for the stage.

He performed at the Mbari club in Ibadan and later founded the Mbayo Club in Osogbo. He had three major plays “Oba Maro” that premiered in 1962, “Oba Koso” in 1963 (The King Never Hangs) and “Oba Waja: (The King is Dead) in 1964. His plays were mainly historical though he was not concerned with the historical accuracy but with the impact of the plays on his audience. Duro Ladipo retained Oshogbo as his base though he went on tours within the country and overseas.

Duro Ladipo consulted widely, was open to criticisms and incorporated suggestions of knowledgeable people in his art. He later transformed the Mbayo-Mbayo into a cultural centre, an Arts Gallery and a meeting point for young artists who seek to develop their talents. The centre also hosts the performances of these budding artists.

In his performances, he used traditional musical instruments, chants, music and dance. Apart from stage plays and Operas, Ladipo also wrote T. V. plays in which he acted. Prominent among them was the “Bode Wasinmi”, a monthly series that was shown on the

Nigerian Television, Ibadan.

His most popular play “Oba Koso” was performed in more than fifteen countries abroad, for countless audiences at home and won the first place at the Berlin International Theatre and cultural festivals in 1964. He also represented the country with the play at the Commonwealth Arts festival in Britain in 1965 Duro Ladipo was seen as an ambassador of Nigerian Culture.

3.5 Moses Olaiya

Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala)’s theatre company, the Alawada Group was unique in its own way. It’s entertainment was farcical therefore seen as an unserious theatre. He has been variously described as thriving on “vulgarity” and “triviality,” it was seen as being “Socially irrelevant”. It is said to have lacked the “profundity” of late Ladipo; lacks the political commitment of Ogunde (Obafemi 55). Yet he remains the most popular entertainer and the most commercially viable professional theatre practitioner in his time.

Olaiya presents his plays as forces that makes use of exaggerations incongruities to teach and entertain through laughter. He adopted the Yeye or Efe tradition of Yoruba (fun making) to treat social issues. The main function of the Yeye concept is to provide fun and laughter.

Originally, the traditional artist has a day off from dealing with rationally with serious issues and is free to ridicule groups, individuals, laws, institutions and even gods. In doing this, he suggest ways of ameliorating the anomalies or ills in the society. In satirizing his targets, he provides entertainment for the audience. This Yeye tradition is found, according to Adedeji in most traditional performances like Egungun (masquerades) Gelede (the Mother Earth entertainment) and festivals. Other performance groups also make use of Yeye to satirize social ills.

Olaiya adopts this satiric tradition and treats serious issues humorously as he ridicules social ills and deviant behaviours in the country publicly. Some of his plays include “Dayamondi” (Diamond) in which he ridicules the desperate and inordinate chase and acquisition of wealth. The play encourages honesty, sound moral judgment and hard work. The Director directs the satirical butt on company executives and top civil servants who employ people based on bribery and corruption instead of merit.

In some of his presentations, he switches from Yoruba to pidgin to provide hilarious entertainment. And like his predecessors his theatre is a mixture of dialogue, music and dance.

4.0 Conclusion

The popular traveling theatre was indeed popular while it lasted. This theatre started with the establishment of Ogunde’s Theatre Company. This theatre like contemporary literary drama, integrates themes and forms of the Western theatre with the form of traditional drama. The theatre was however rooted in the oral tradition of the people. Other common factors of this theatre are the use of vernacular with the interjection of pidgin sometimes; the use of music, songs and dances; and a heavy reliance on improvisation. This theatre was basically for entertainment but at the same time, topical issues were treated.

Ogunde’s commitment stood out as he satirized even the Government and oppressive policies. It was itinerant in nature so most of the plays were not scripted. The theatre, like the Western theatre was profit oriented so gate fees were charged. Most of the theatres were family ventures as the directors acted and married the actresses. In some cases, the children were drafted into the company.

Some of them started from the church, dramatizing religious themes and stories from the bible but eventually concentrated on historical, mythological and others contemporary issues of their times. Their influence on contemporary playwrights is enormous as the later still rely heavily on oral tradition for materials; draw themes from myth; history; and relevant socio-political issues of their times. Contemporary playwrights also juxtapose vernacular with English and sometimes with pidgin, which are all legacies of the operatic theatre.

5.0 Summary

In this unit, we have seen the contributions of the popular traveling theatre to the development of Nigerian drama. This star theatre started in the colonial period through post colonial Nigeria to the modern period. The advent and proliferation of the celluloid, Television plays and Home Videos have affected the continued existence of the traveling theatre, and stage plays.

6.0 Tutor Marked Assignment

List the contributions of the traveling theatre to the development of Nigerian drama.

4 References/Further Studies

Beier, Ulli (1981) “E. K. Ogunmola”. A Personal Memoir in Ogunbiyi (ed) Drama and

Theatre in Nigeria: A Critical Source Book. Lagos: Nigeria Magazine.

Clark, Ebun, (1981) Ogunde Theatre: The Rise of Contemporary Professionalism in Nigeria 1846 – 72 in Ogunbiyi (ed) Drama and Theatre in Nigeria: A Critical

Source Book. Lagos: Nigeria Magazine.

Gbilekaa, Saint (1997) Radical Theatre in Nigeria Ibadan: Caltop Publications

Obafemi, Olu (2001) Contemporary Nigerian Theatre: Cultural Heritage and Social

Vision. Lagos: CBAAC

Ogunbiyi, Yemi (1981) “The Popular Theatre: A Tribute to Duro Ladipo” in Yemi

Ogunbiyi ed. Drama and Theatre in Nigeria: A Critical Source Book. Lagos:

Nigeria Magazine.

Taiwo, Oladele (1985 ed) An Introduction to West African Literature Nairobi: Nelson