Dynamism of style in African Theatre: Femi Osofisan’s Plays Revisited
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Date
2025-04
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Department of Theatre and Media Arts, University of Oye, Oye Ekiti, Nigeria
Abstract
The style of an artist is considered to be his peculiar recurrent approach to creativity, a kind of “signature” that makes his work unique. Femi Osofisan’s theatre has enjoyed robust patronage from theatre practitioners and audiences alike. Consequently, this study investigated the secret behind the popularity of Osofisan’s plays, which we refer to as his artistic style. With the use of descriptive methodology and Francis Hodge’s recommendation for identifying an artist’s style as our framework, the study examined four plays written by Osofisan over three decades viz: The Chattering and the Song (1977); Morountodun (1987); The Engagement (1995); and Many Colours Make the Thunder King (2003). The study discovered that Osofisan has succeeded in evolving a theatre aesthetics that meshes the African traditional dramatic mode with the inherited western dramatic convention that has produced a new type of contemporary Nigerian drama. In his drama, the blend of the Brechtian epic performance style and the traditional folkloric performance mode, consisting of story-telling device, episodic dramaturgy, riddles, music, song and dance feature prominently. Others include humour, inducement of audience participation in performance, contrivance of demystification, subversion strategies, adoption of an optimistic stance, and alignment with victims in play-making. The fusion of all of these make Osofisan’s plays rich in content, giving it a total theatre aesthetic. Though the study suggested that Osofisan should be careful with the subversion of myths, nonetheless, we encouraged him to sustain his style and other dramatists could also emulate same.
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This paper examines the literary and theatrical styles of African dramatists, with particular reference to Femi Osofisan.
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Agboola, M. O. (2025). Dynamism of style in African theatre: Femi Osofisan’s plays revisited. Alarinjo: Journal of Theatre and Media Arts, Vol. 5(1): 72-80. Published by the Department of Theatre and Media Arts, Federal University of Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.