By Adebayo Olodan
A lecturer and Professor in the Department of Performing Art,
University of Ilorin, Abdulrasheed Abiodun Adeoye, has harped on the
importance of theatre art for social and economic advancement of the
nation.
He however urged that theatre art should be given more attention than
culture stressing that, “theatre is the critical conveyor and the life
of our culture and its universality cannot be overemphasised, thus, no
nation should joke with the theatre or its time-honoured.”
Adeoye, made this known, last Thursday, while delivering the 186th
Inaugural lecture of the University titled: “Poetics of Legislation
and De-legislation on play directing”.
He said, performing artists are philosophers of revolution and
reality, the makers of ingenious artistic and creative works.
“Actionable Theatre is a time-bound theatre which uses important
anti-human or post-human manifestations as thematic concerns in our
Postcolonial age.
“It is a purpose-driven director’s theatre of social dialogue,
cultural intervention and political orientation in which the
performing artists are expected to seize the momentum of current
local, national and international issues for the artistic creation,
direction and production of performances (scripted or
improvisational), which can be based on various theatre Platforms and
styles.
“Post-human issues of sales and harvesting of human organs by organ
harvesters, the return of the second slave trade through the selling
and auction of Nigerian men and women in ltaly, Mali and Libya for
prostitution and hard labour, evils and dangers of illegal migration,
child labour, the activities of ritualists and their penchant for the
use of human parts, gangsterism through peer influence, drug addiction
through what can be called “tramadolisation”, “codinelisation and
others within the interface of Health Humanities cannot be
overemphasised.
At the well attended inaugural lecture, Prof. Adeoye further stressed
that, “The Production of counter-culture and Federal plays from the
international theatre market should be promoted in a multicultural
society such as Nigeria, it is important for us to learn a little from
the culture’s, religions, politics, institutions and so on, of other
co-citizens other than our own.
“Certainly, it is not a crime for a Department of Performing or
Theatre Arts to produce plays from the ethic region that housed it.
However a dangerous trend is emerging whereby performing or Theatre
Arts Departments are producing plays mainly from their ethnic
backgrounds, nothing else.”
