By Larry William
Nigerian Theatre has remained a myth, or at best, a mirage.  We saw it coming, then it was not there.  Truly Nigerian Theatre died with the Rat Race, poverty and lack of education will not allow Theatre to take root in Nigeria especially after independence.

As things are today in a Nigeria without Social Security, Artists Endowment Fund, no effective Censors Board, uncommitted ministerial portfolios allotted to the uninitiated who has never seen the inside of a Theatre, not to talk of the Back Stage.

The portfolio of Art and Culture has remained a platform for game of ‘musical chairs’.

There has been no Nigerian Policy for Art.  In 1988, a Nigerian Policy for culture was published.  It was a brilliant piece of work, I’d say, but howbeit, it has been implemented as brilliantly as it was created.  It merely mentioned the Arts as a support wing but bald.

Performing Art, especially in the Nigerian political circle, is translated literally as play.

“What else could a stage play be, if not a joke?”  Whereas with Dora’s propagation of rebranding Nigeria, performing art, meaning Theatre, should be at the fore front, showcasing the culture, the wrongs for corrections, and the good, for propaganda and meaningful creativity, to educate society to think ahead.

Today we watch movies about things that did not exist before Ian Fleming 007 invented them in his books and brought to live by scientists and actors.

Yes, we may argue that there was indigenous Theatre before independence, such as Theatre in the ‘round’, Theatre in the village abolished square, Theatre in the compound.  Then came the Ogunmola, Ogunde, Duro Ladipo era.

They played in Towns Halls, and pavilions, until a Briton called Axeworthy at the University of Ibadan established and introduced the proscenium Theatre and brought up the Wole Soyinka, Adelugba, Pepper-Clarke generation of Theatre practitioners.

They were intellectual Theatre practitioners non-commercial.  Before then, Ogunde had been on the ‘road’ armed with ‘a Beggar’s License’ to perform for pea-nut.

The Ibadan clan came out strongly around 1960 with Soyinka’s 1960 Masks.  And they took Soyinka’s Dance of the forest to Darkar festival.  He followed up with his Kongi’s Harvest which he made into a movie.

Another climax was FESTAC 77 which gave avenue to actors to showcase their woks.  Both actors and writers got to work but it was short lived.  For one, it did not make a living for the acting profession and practitioners literally died from want.  The likes of Segun Naccett died, and some mysteriously disappeared, like Soji Simpson.

Since then, Association of Nigeria Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) was established.  The Arts Council was also put in place but till now the whole exercise has been amateur games far from commercial standard.  No committed ministers or commissioners cared a hoot about Theatre.

Associations like NANTAP exist but how many members want to remain on the breadline, ostracized by their families and friends?

Theatre will die a natural death if the government does not see it as a national service to revive and re-establish, and restructure the running of the profession.

Any government, federal or state, that sees Theatre as a group of layabouts who need to be dashed pittance and dumped instantly will not be doing the Theatre any good.

Theatre is an establishment for the matured minds and a tool for a cultured nation to act as a constant mirror for the society and provide the necessary therapeutic laughter for all.

There could be good stage actors but are there producers who would pay good worries to sustain them?

Theatre Arts Departments in Universities are not training actors anymore than giving them Theatre orientations, well, where are the jobs?  With ho stage, no producers and no money.

When these things are not in place, how does one make returns?  It takes a large enough auditorium to accommodate enough audience to raise enough money to sustain a production.