IATC Yearbook Drama Xiqu Music Criticspo Dramall IATC Facebook Page Subscribe E-Newsletter Search ENG

Home About Events Publications Research Criticism News Arts Link

Home > Criticism > Reviews Online > Views & Reviews

Critique in the Front LineThe Audience as Critic in African Theatre

TextEmmanuel Samu Dandaura | Uploaded Date2017 / 3 / 30 | Views & Reviews

March, 2017

Introduction

In an earlier work titled Negotiating Identity: Theatre,

Performance and Criticism in Africa, I discussed the
challenge of identity in post-colonial African theatre, which is
faced with issues of cultural hybridization and post-
colonialism. That publication also highlighted the dilemma
facing the modern theatre critic who is schooled in European
precepts yet needs to review a performance that, strictly CityAfrica

speaking, is neither an indigenous African performance nor a CategoryDrama

European play. This paper shall elucidate the challenge faced

by the modern African theatre critic using two performances
that were staged on 1st March 2017 as part of the Lagos Theatre Festival.

Theatre in traditional African society is essentially a communal activity, which involves the whole
community. It is not a subjective activity of an artist or group of artists. The messages that this kind of
theatre communicates must necessarily be in tune with the overriding interest of the community. In this kind
of theatre, the audience is active and engages in criticism of the performance as the show progresses. The
role of the critic therefore is not an exclusive preserve of a lone literary critic who writes his reviews in his
private space. In Africa, even when an individual functions as a critic, his work is democratized to the
extent that he performs his observations. Often, he is also a performer who could take over the
performance space at will in the course of a public performance to redirect the action on stage.

The above contrasts significantly with the modern conception of criticism, which to Obafemi is:

the art of interpreting works of art, taking the liberty to offer meanings and evaluating plays and
performance was first, to conventional knowledge from the West embarked upon by Aristotle. He
was not a playwright but offered models which has since been regarded as pristine theories of the
theatre; of tragedy, considered in Greek and Western drama as the most serious form of drama.

A scene from a minimalist play by NYSC Drama Group, Kebbi State. (Photo Credit: Courtesy NYSC DHQ,
 Abuja)

As has been argued in Negotiating Identity: Theatre, Performance and Criticism in Africa, since African
theatre aesthetics differ significantly from those espoused by Aristotle, it follows that the critical canons for
evaluating theatrical performances also differ. This difference makes the job of the modern theatre critic
intriguing in Africa as can be seen in two recent theatre experiences reviewed below.

Clash of Critical Cannons

In a syncretic theatre environment, navigating through the maze of which aesthetic canons to apply in
reviewing a performance that is, strictly speaking, neither African nor Western can be arduous. This reality
manifested itself recently in Lagos, Nigeria. As part of the 2017 Lagos Theatre Festival (LTF), on 1st
March, Wednesday, I accompanied three visiting colleagues and international theatre critics from Sweden,
Romania and Hong Kong alongside 20 young Nigerian theatre critics to watch two performances: Lagos
Na Wa at the Recital Hall, MUSON Centre, Lagos; and Vesta Violins Classical Wednesdays at the Banana
Island School, Ikoyi, Lagos. The International Association of Theatre Critics selected the two performances
as part of the field exposure for the 20 young critics under its 2017 LTF-Young Critics professional
mentoring programme.

Lagos Na Wa is a fast-moving, comic, improvisational performance created within the total theatre mould. It
subsumes songs, drama, buffoonery, dance, mime and music. The performance utilizes pidgin English,
Yoruba and Nigeria blend of the English Language. Lagos Na Wa is a satire that expresses the frustration
of most African youths who are exposed to untold harassments, exploitations and ultimately made to
indulge in dubious acts in order to survive in the urban centres. The episodic performance utilizes popular
songs, musical tunes, drama, day-to-day happenings, and characters recognizable in the daily hustle and
bustle of the mega cities like Lagos. Its strongest comment is that the failure of government at all levels has
greatly compromised the welfare and security of its citizens.

A cross section of the mixed audience during the 2017 Lagos Theatre Festival performance on 1st March
2017. (Photo Credit: Courtesy British Council, Nigeria)

During the tripartite post-performance interaction between: the visiting international critics; the young
Nigerian critics; and cast of Lagos Na Wa, I noticed an interesting development. While most of the young
Nigerian critics found it easy to relate with the performance as a meaningful artistic engagement, my
international colleagues found it difficult to classify what they just watched. Could it be a musical drama? A
rehearsal in progress? Or arrant balderdash? It was certainly not theatre as far as the western theatre
precepts are concerned. One of the European critics submitted emphatically that there was no spectacle
in this at all, and spectacle is a basic element of theatre. On reading the review of the same performance
by the young critics the next day, I realized that even the Nigerian critics who were connected with the
actions of the performance were not in agreement on how to classify or evaluate it. They ended up with
some of the following contradictory submissions.

The production style is largely eclectic, employing popular hit songs to deepen the message of the
playGenerally, the directing and artistic vision of the production is good and to a large extent
delivers the message of the play. Shadrach Teryila Ukuma (https://guardian.ng/art/lagos-na-wa-
just-like-awkward-rhythm-of-the-city/)

This is a comedy of errors with a charm that makes it look like a performance thrown together
casually. Ifeoluwa Nihinlola (https://guardian.ng/art/lagos-na-wa-the-casual-rhythm-of-lagos/)

Lagos Na Wa is a musical drama, that highlights a lot of vices. The script is impressive, direct and
detailed. The musicals ranging from contemporary Nigerian hits, speak where dialogue is mute.
Olamide Santos, IATC-LTF Report
 It is a mosaic of dance, music and drama Its a portrait perhaps a painting achieved in broad
strokes would be more appropriate of rural-urban migration, corruption, sexual health and safety,
and a repertoire of other societal issues Falade Adeoye Dennis, IATC-LTF Report

What is interesting in the above reviews of Lagos Na Wa is that the discordant submissions of the critics
was basically as a result of the application of different aesthetic lens. Indeed the critical cannon utilized to
review a performance determines greatly the ultimate interpretation of the performance. Surely if one is
evaluating Lagos Na Wa performance from the Eurocentric lense, the likely conclusion will be that the
performance was anything but a play. However, from the African perception of theatre as a story-telling
performance whose relevance is measured by the extent to which it reflects and impacts life, Lagos Na
Wa stands out as good theatre.

Vesta Violins Classical Wednesdays, on the other hand, was a concert that featured an international
ensemble, which comprised Oana Craciunescu (Romania), Koumait Saleh (Syria) and a host of Nigerians
led by Rosalyn Aninyei and the two amazing vocalists: Guchi Egbunine and Ranti Ihimoyan. The concert
was just what a performance of early music should be: exciting, warm, soul searching, and nostalgic. The
tones were no doubt beautifully executed with graceful ornaments, unimpeachable precision and Victorian
panache. Rantis voice was eloquent, alluring, elastic and had this ringing purity, which kept the audience
mesmerized. Her graceful spontaneity as a singer came to the fore as she added little ornaments to the
repeated laughter phrase hahahaha in The Laughing Song which was eventually voted the best piece of
the night by the audience.

Ranti Ihimoyan performing The Laughing Song in Vesta Violins Classical Wednesdays. (Photo Credit:
Courtesy British Council, Nigeria)

The above review is based on my impressions as a critic who has tuned his mind to the conventional
aesthetic criteria of what elements define good classical musical performances. It was gratifying to note
that my three visiting international theatre critics who did not find much theatre in Lagos Na Wa, that we
all watched few hours earlier, found good theatre in this concert. However, this was not the case with
some of the young Nigerian critics who came to the concert armed with their African aesthetic canons. To
such critics, the concert was extremely boring as there was not a single moment of the kind of activity in
the boisterous Lagos Na Wa fashion. Indeed one of the critics whispered to me, I am wondering what
message is in all this? There was no dance, spectacular movement, familiar musical tone or anything that
the average Nigerian audience member will recognize or connect to. Of course, his concern is
understandable when we appreciate the fact that utilitarian value of an art form, meaning or the
message is an important element in African performance aesthetics.

Guchi Egbunine leading the orchestra during Vesta Violins Classical Wednesdays performance at the
Banana Island School Recital Hall, Ikoyi, Lagos, on 1st March 2017. (Photo Credit: Courtesy British
Council, Nigeria)
The African theatre aesthetics differ in many respects from those of the conventional European aesthetics.
One of these is the African story-telling traditions and preferences for symbolism and epics as against the
European emphasis on written dialogue and syllogism of linear plot. As far back as 1934, Antonin Artaud
who was impressed by the kind of theatre he found in Asia decried the prostituting of theatre by the West in
his Le theatre et son double thus:

Why is it that in the theatre, at least in the theatre as we know it in Europe, for that matter in the
West, everything thatdoesn't obey expression by speech, by words, or if you wish, everything that
is not contained in dialogueis left in the background? (Dukore, 76)

Indeed, the difference between the African conception of theatre and the European notion of formal
theatre goes beyond the idea of orality versus the text. Every theatre seeks to entertain and engender
communication between the performer and the audience. However, the approach towards entertainment
and communication differs from one society to the other. As a cultural product, theatre is affected and
shaped by the predominant aesthetic sense, goals and cultural realities of its creators. This presupposes
that no two societies would have the same theatrical expressions in so far as the cultural realities and
artistic goals of the creators differ.

The African theatre has what Ola Rotimi calls a polaroid character (referring to the instantaneous nature
of their approval or lack of approval for any artistic product presented before them like the polaroid
camera which has inbuilt processing image processing capability that produces a finished print rapidly
after each exposure).

Unlike the disciplined audience in Europe who will patiently wait till the end of a scene or act to clap, or
wait for the critic to dissect the performance in his the next day review, the African theatre audience gives it
judgment as the performance goes on either by jeering at what it considers a bad performance or by
clapping or hailing the performer there and then. Obafemi sums it thus:

The critic of African drama had been the audience, which we refer to as participatory audience
because they were also at once creators, dramatists and performers. In the oral performance mode,
the critical aesthetics revolves around narration, inter-narration and re-narration on the basis of
participatory theatrical engagement.

Conclusion

Technology has reduced the world into a global village and introduced the concept of citizen journalism.
This has ushered in an interesting convergence between the traditional African concept of audience as
critic and the Eurocentric concept of criticism as the domain of the learned analyst who seats in his closet
to write reviews of a production he watched the previous night for the consumption of the public via the
mass media. Nowadays even in modern theatre, the audience has started reclaiming its traditional right of
theatre criticism. What with the abundant possibilities of live streaming of theatre productions and growing
practice where members of the audience engaged simultaneously in conversation with colleagues in the
audience and indeed others outside the theatres via social media platforms as the performance
progresses. The growing report of many successful digital theatre experiments where the audience
members conversed among themselves or tweeted series of comments and images of scenes in theatre
productions as actions proceeded on stage further confirms that perhaps the world is gradually returning to
the traditional African concept of audience as critic. How much this digital revolution will affect theatre
criticism as a professional still remains contentious but it is almost certain that the profession of criticism,
like most others, will hardly remain the same in the succeeding decades.

Also with the increasing collapse of geographical boundaries, there is a conscious or unconscious
negotiation of a global theatre idiom. This means that no theatre tradition should be content with an
observer status. Thus, the African theatre should take advantage of the increasing opportunities to
contribute towards shaping the character of global theatre practice.

The modern critic, like his traditional African counterpart, has a role to play in mediating this process. He
should be knowledgeable on the similarities and peculiarities of various cultures and aesthetic canons
indigenous to a people. He should be abreast with the reality of the dynamism of cultures so as to
effectively track the daily conversation between cultures and the changes that emanate therefrom. Also,
the critic needs to adhere to his professional ethics and develop adequate skills in knowing the appropriate
lens to apply to performances he criticizes. This is necessary if the critic must be proficient and effective in
making meaningful contributions towards enhancing the development of theatre as a catalyst for social
 change.

Works Cited

Dukore, Bernard F., Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to Grotowski, Florence, KY: Heinle & Heinle,
1974.

Hauptfleisch, Temple, The Shaping of South African Theatre: An Overview of Major Trends in: Arndt and
Berndt, Words and Worlds. African Writing, Literature, and Society A Commemorative Publication in
Honor of Eckhard Breitinger. Africa World Press, 2007.

Mollel, Tololwa M., African Theatre and the Colonial Legacy: Review of the East African Scene in Utafiti:
Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 1, 1985, pp. 20-9. pdfproc.lib.msu.edu/?
file=/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Utafiti/vol7no1/aejp007001004.pdf.

Obafemi, Olu, Politics of Theatre and the Theatre of Politics in Nigeria, an unpublished paper presented
at the maiden IATC International Theatre Critics Conference at the National Theatre, Lagos, 3rd March
2017.

Rotimi, Ola, in a lecture at Hall A1, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria on March 12th 1986.

Emmanuel Samu Dandaura

Emmanuel Samu Dandaura, PhD, is a widely published scholar,
theatre/film critic, director, and playwright. He is President, Nigerian
section, of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC), theatre
professor and foundation chair, Department of Theatre and Cultural
Studies, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria. He is editor, Nigerian
Film Review and editor-in-chief, Nigeria Performing Arts Review,
published by the Nigerian Centre of IATC and the International Theatre
Institute respectively. He has in the past served as director/creative
consultant to many festivals in Africa.

In the last three decades, Dandaura remains the only director and
managing consultant, whose contingent has won the coveted
Presidential Gong for five consecutive years at the annual National
Festival of Arts & Culture (NAFEST) in Nigeria. He is the current festival
director, Nzeh Mada Festival in central Nigeria and chairman board of
trustees of the Nigerian Universities Theatre Arts Student Festival
(NUTAF). Dandaura is the first ever African member of the international
executive committee of the IATC.

Address: Room 1201-2, 12/F, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2974 0542 Fax: (852) 2974 0592 Email: iatc@iatc.com.hk

International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong). All Rights Reserved.

Powered by AlphaSoft Design
.