The Generation of Plays: Yoruba Popular Life in Theater Book

From the 1940s to the 1980s, Yoruba popular theatre was a lively and important genre. Today, travelling theatre companies have virtually disappeared due to the influence of radio, television, and other forms of mass communication in Nigeria. In "The Generation of Plays", Karin Barber recounts her experience while she was on tour with the Oyin Adejobi Company. Drawing on archival sources as well as extensive interviews and transcriptions of plays, Barber uncovers the pulse points of generation, production, and improvisation that merge when a Yoruba popular drama is successfully brought to the stage. Barber reveals the personalities of the principal actors, how they create plays - from the germ of an idea through the logistics of rehearsal and staging - how a play is made meaningful to its audience, how a play changes and develops after several productions or according to the sensibilities of its viewers. The expanding role of popular drama as a television form is also considered. This rich and detailed narrative illuminates notions of gender, language, politics, and self as they are expressed in popular cultural forms. It affords a unique view of the social and cultural perspectives of the actors and audiences involved in a flourishing and vital enterprise.Read More