The Crisis of Intermission in the African Theatre: A Re-interpretation of recent performances in the Nigerian Literary Theatre.

Abstract

The beauty of African theatre lies in its holistic total theatre nature. Interestingly, African theatre has a unique production style rooted in the African culture yet it is artistically tied to the Western theatrical aesthetics. However, intermissions are antithetical to the African theatre because they are clear Western theatre and the proscenium stage imposed stop-gap or a break during performance time. Intermission should, therefore, be seen as one of the major hindrances affecting free-flow performance of the African theatre. This has created a disconnection between the performance and the audience on one hand, and between the performers and the directors on the other. Through the participant-observation and the interview methods of research, this study reviews and interrogates the production style of intermissions and their attendant crisis of artistry in the African literary theatre. Recent performances in the Nigerian literary theatre are used to foreground our analysis. We conclude this study by condemning intermissions and offer plausible artistic alternatives that can be used to solving the problem of intermissions in the African literary theatre. ‎