A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SCENOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION IN SELECTED PRODUCTIONS BY FASUNHAN, IBUKUN-OLUWA OLAYINKA MATRI...

Author: Ibukun Fasunhan

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A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SCENOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION IN SELECTED PRODUCTIONS

BY

FASUNHAN, IBUKUN-OLUWA OLAYINKA MATRIC NO: 060108038

BEING A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF CREATIVE ARTS, SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (M.A.) IN THEATRE ARTS.

MARCH, 2014.

A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation | IBUKUN FASUNHAN

DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis; “A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions” carried out by me is an original work and has not been submitted elsewhere for the award of any degree or certificate

_____________________ Fasunhan Ibukun-Oluwa 060108038

i


CERTIFICATION This is to certify that this research project was carried out by Fasunhan Ibukun-Oluwa under my supervision at the Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos.

----------------------------------

------------------------------------

Prof. Duro Oni

Dr. (Mrs) Adepeju Layiwola

Supervisor

Ag. Head of Department

----------------------------------------Prof. Ahmed Yerima External Examiner

ii


DEDICATION This project is dedicated to God, my parents, siblings, and Lekan Balogun. May the Almighty be with you all.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My unconditional appreciation goes to my beloved Parents, Mr. & Mrs. J.A Fasunhan and my siblings Oluwakayode who assisted me financially, Oluwanifemi and Oluwatosin for their support. I also wish to acknowledge my supervisor Prof. Duro Oni, for his scholarly advise and invaluable contributions on my thesis. Special thanks to Lekan Balogun; who painstakingly helped me to read through this project and made me go to “Ibadan” (by force), for proper research, Adesumbo Bello for his contributions on the study, and Femi Oke during the early stage of this research. Also to my lecturers; Otunba Tunji Sotimirin, Mr. Cornel-Best Onyekaba, Mr. Otun Rasheed, Dr. (Mrs.) Bose Afolayan, and Dr. (Mrs.) Osita Ezenwanebe. My appreciation goes to Mr. Soji Cole who assisted me throughout my one week stay at the University of Ibadan in my research, Dr. Alphonsus Orisaremi, Dr. (Mrs.) Grace Adinku, Mr. Agbebi Williams, Association of Theatre Arts Students (ATAS) Ibadan, and the librarian. Also to Mrs. Bolanle Austen-Peters; Managing Director of Terra Kulture, for helping me with the DVD of Cats, Mr Makinde Adeniran, Juliana Dede, Alhaji Teju Kareem, Ben Tomoloju, Kenneth Uphopho and William Benson. My friends and colleagues will not fail to receive mention here; Tiamiyu Yusuf, Helen Paul, Obiazi Onyeamechi, Lawal Mariam, Grace Talabi, Jude Ujagbo, Chimezie Agumbah, Toyin Olokodana-James, Kharmar Adekunjo, Olukunbi Olurankinse, Seun Daniel, Joshua Owoyomi, Ruth Arikpo and finally to Omodia Rita, for her inestimable support.. That is all for now till Ph.D !.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ........................................................................................................................................... i CERTIFICATION ........................................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 1.0

Introduction to the Study ............................................................................................................. 1

1.1

Background to the Study ............................................................................................................. 3

1.2

Aims and Objectives of the Study ............................................................................................... 6

1.3

Significance of Study................................................................................................................... 7

1.4

Research Methodology ................................................................................................................ 7

1.5

Theoretical Framework of the Study ........................................................................................... 8

1.6

Scope of Study ........................................................................................................................... 11

1.7

Limitation of Study.................................................................................................................... 11

1.8

Chapter Breakdown of the Study............................................................................................... 12

1.9

Definition of Terms ................................................................................................................... 13

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................. 17 2.0

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 17

2.1

Scenography: Meaning and Definitions .................................................................................... 17

2.2

Origin and Development of Scenography in Theatre ................................................................ 19

Adolphe Appia (1862-1928) .............................................................................................................. 33 Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) ................................................................................................... 35 v


Josef Svoboda..................................................................................................................................... 36 2.3

Development of Scenography in Nigeria .................................................................................. 38

Indigenous and Popular Theatre Design Phase .................................................................................. 38 Literary Theatre Design Phase ........................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................................................. 55 3.0

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 55

3.1

Analysis of Primary Data .......................................................................................................... 55

3.2

Analysis of Secondary Data ...................................................................................................... 56

3.3

Methodology of Research .......................................................................................................... 56

3.4

Validation and Submission ........................................................................................................ 57

CHAPTER FOUR: EVALUATION OF CASE STUDIES ........................................................................ 58 4.0

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 58

4.1

Summary of Ireke Onibudo ....................................................................................................... 58

4.2

Summary of Saro ....................................................................................................................... 61

4.3

Summary of Cats ....................................................................................................................... 63

4.4

Analysis of Scenographic Representations in Ireke Onibudo ................................................... 65

i)

Set .............................................................................................................................................. 65

ii)

Light .......................................................................................................................................... 68

iii)

Costume ..................................................................................................................................... 71

iv)

Props .......................................................................................................................................... 75

v)

Makeup ...................................................................................................................................... 76

4.5

Analysis of Scenographic Representations in Saro ................................................................... 78

i)

Set .............................................................................................................................................. 78

ii)

Light .......................................................................................................................................... 83

iii)

Costume ..................................................................................................................................... 86 vi


iv)

Props .......................................................................................................................................... 94

v)

Makeup ...................................................................................................................................... 99

4.6

Analysis of Scenographic Representations in Cats. ................................................................ 100

i)

Set ............................................................................................................................................ 100

ii)

Light ........................................................................................................................................ 102

iii)

Costume ................................................................................................................................... 108

iv)

Props ........................................................................................................................................ 112

v)

Makeup .................................................................................................................................... 114

4.7

Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representations in Ireke Onibudo, Saro and Cats .... 116

i)

Set ............................................................................................................................................ 116

ii)

Light ........................................................................................................................................ 117

iii)

Costume ................................................................................................................................... 117

iv)

Props ........................................................................................................................................ 118

v)

Makeup .................................................................................................................................... 119

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 120 5.0

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 120

5.1

Summary.................................................................................................................................. 120

5.2

Findings ................................................................................................................................... 121

5.3

Recommendations ................................................................................................................... 123

5.4

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 125

Works Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 126 APPENDIX I ............................................................................................................................................ 135 APPENDIX II ........................................................................................................................................... 142 APPENDIX III .......................................................................................................................................... 147

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LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 – Use of Backdrop in Ireke Onibudo Fig. 2 - Dancers Arranging the Hut for the Next Scene Fig. 3 – The Spirit Workers Building a Simulation of Twelve Rooms on Stage Fig. 4 – The King’s Palace in Ero Eyin Fig. 5 – Arogidigba and her Retinue. Fig. 6 – Lighting for Ireke’s Transition to Another World Fig. 7 – Ireke and Ewure Iberu locked in a fight Fig. 8 – Ireke and Ifepade Fig. 9 – Ireke on one of his journey in the underworld Fig. 10 – Ireke’s Mother Fig. 11 – The Representation of Animals Fig. 12 – Arogidigba’s Costume Fig. 13 – Ifepade about to be married to Ireke Fig. 14 – Ireke after his Ultimate Triumph in the Play Fig. 15 – The spirit workers working on a farm Fig. 16 – Travellers on their way to Ilu Alupayida Fig. 17 – Old Ireke (left) and Beyioku (right) Fig. 18 – Itanforiti (middle) and Town’s People Fig. 19 – Depiction of Hardship on Ireke and Ifepade Fig. 20 - Laitan and Rume’s Scene (Village Setting) Fig. 21 - Motor Park Scene Fig. 22 - A Close View at the Multimedia in the Park viii


Fig. 23 - Umbrella Sequence at the Motor Park Scene with the Aid of the Projections Fig. 24 - Church Scene Fig. 25 - The Quartet and Touts in the Prison Fig. 26 - A dancer enacting Rume’s Thought on Stage Fig. 27 - Laitan and Rume’s thoughts Enacted through Dance and Light Manipulations Fig. 28 - Enactment of slavery in Saro I Fig. 29 - Enactment of slavery in Saro II Fig. 30 - Village Scene Fig. 31 - Obaro, Laitan, Efe, and Azeez (left to right) Fig. 32 - The touts on Their Arrival at the Motor Park. Fig. 33 - Don Ceeto with Ronke; his daughter, Jane and the Quartet sitting in Don Ceeto’s house Fig. 34 - The quartet in a Trendy costume Fig. 35 - Costumes worn to depict Ayinla Omowura’s music Fig. 36 - Costumes worn to depict Onyeka Onwenu’s music Fig. 37 - Enactment of Fela and his dancers on stage Fig. 38 - The quartet on Stage with the Glittering Suits Fig. 39 - Use of Calabash in the Village Scene Fig. 40 - Obaro and Efe looking at the Business Card Fig. 41 - Laitan with the Guitar Fig. 42 - The Symbolic Umbrella Fig. 43 - The chains on the Slaves and the Cain Fig. 44 – Fela’s Makeup Fig. 45 - Set Design for Cats ix


Fig. 46 - Grizabella ascending to the heavens through a stairs. Fig. 47 - The Opening Scene in Cats setting the mood for the production. Fig. 48 - Grizabella after she has been ignored by all jellicle cats Fig. 49 - Bustopher Jones addressing the jellicle cats Fig. 50 - Macavity (standing) terrorizing the jellicle cats Fig. 51 - Use of Gobo Effects in Cats Fig. 52 - A beam of light thrown on Grizabella to show emphasis Fig. 53 - A beam of light thrown on Old Deuteronomy to show emphasis Fig. 54 - Cross Section of the Jellicle Cats on Stage Fig. 55 - Etcetera, Skimbleshanks, and Rumpleteazer on stage (left to right) Fig. 56 - Skimbleshanks sleeping on stage before he was introduced by Munkustrap Fig. 57 - Grizabella, the Glamour Cat Fig. 58 - Old Deuteronomy Fig. 59 - Bustopher Jones (far right) and other Jellicle Cats Fig. 60 - The Jellicle Cats depicting a moving car on stage Fig. 61 – Use of Laddle by Bustopher Jones Fig. 62 - The Pekes in a fight battle in the play using Shoes and other set props to enhance their characters Fig. 63 – Makeup of Cats Fig. 64 – Grizabella’s Makeup Fig. 65– Macavity’s Makeup

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ABSTRACT Scenography in a production as it were, is subjective and susceptible to different definitions and interpretations based on individual idiosyncrasies. Mainly, it embraces perception, detailing the visual interpretations of symbolic representations and cultural metaphors of a production. This research entitled “A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions”, examines the scenographic representations in the productions of Osofisan’s Ireke Onibudo, Austen-Peter’s Saro and Llyod Webber’s Cats. This study pivots on the premise of Pamela Howard’s concept of scenography as the “joint statement of the director and the visual artist”. The researcher adopts the case studies because of the level of scenographic explorations contained in them, and how they are able to provide knowledge on scenography relevant to the understanding of the Nigeria experience in relation to the western world. This study adopts the literary, participant-observation and interview method for the analysis of the case studies. The performances of Cats and Ireke Onibudo on DVD were analyzed, while the researcher was actively involved in the production of Saro, which forms the basis for the participant-observation method. The researcher adopts the interview method to derive an in-depth knowledge on Saro and Ireke Onibudo. This research also applies C.S. Pierce’s Semiotic Approach, and Cultural studies theory for the analysis of the case studies. The study reveals that most Nigerian scenographers result to symbolist, expressionist and minimalist approach in the mise-en-scene due to the state of Nigerian theatres, while western scenographers explore the realist approach. The study concludes that though there are insufficient technical materials at the disposal of Nigerian scenographers, the artistic validity of the production is still intact.

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.0

Introduction to the Study

Scenography practice is a field of study that involves the study of the design and aesthetic elements in theatre. These elements include light, set, costume, props and makeup. Scenography evolved during the classical era but an informal emphasis was placed on it by designers and architects in the Renaissance period. The development in this aspect of theatre can be credited to the huge amphitheaters of the Greek and Roman period where thousands of spectators sit to see a performance. Machines like Peraktoi, Ekkuklema, Mechane, Crane, Keraunoskopeion, Bronteion, Stropheion, and Anapiesmata, marked the beginning of the advancement in theatre, which other theatrical period improved upon. The works of the Renaissance designers brought about a paradigm shift in the theatre. The modern theatre thus owes its technological largesse in the area of architecture to the works of Vitruvius in his five books of Architecture which mark the beginning of development in the area of technicals. Thus according to Eagan “lighting and sound design have been tossed into the mix because technology has made it possible to control and reproduce them, along with set and costume design” (1). These five separate design elements (light, set, costume, props and makeup) therefore constitute what is called “scenography”. The quest for elaborate sceneries amongst other factors can be identified with the Baroque period. This period witnessed a big change in technical theatre as sophisticated stage machinery allowing for ships to sail and sea-storms to sink them became available. This is also achievable due to the change in the theatre structure as Nicoll observes: […] the actors now appeared ridiculously confined, and the stage boards which before had extended only a few yards back from the proscenium arch were stretched even farther and farther from the auditorium (104). 1


Various innovations have occurred in the theatre over time after the works of Vitruvius till present day in the area of scenography. The theatre therefore pays more attention to scenography which Grotowski decries in his article “Towards a Poor Theatre”. Grotowski, argues that theatre performances can exist side by side with costume, light, set, makeup, sound, and should focus more on the actor-spectator relationship. He goes further to question what theatre entails, looking at it from the angle of technical and actual ethics. This is not to say that in public theatrical performances he completely disregards lights and sets, but according to him, they are secondary and actually useful to complement the already existing excellence of the actor. He therefore terms the theatre filled with scenographic explorations as “rich theatre” which he views as “rich in flaws” (19). Brooks shares the criticisms of Grotowski but he goes a bit further by emphasizing more on “Empty Space”, or his own version of ‘Rich theatre’ considered to be “Deadly Theatre”. However, this perception did not stop the likes of Adolphe Appia (1862-1928), Gordon Craig (1872-1966) and Josef Svoboda (1920-2002) in exploring the area of scenography which they find interesting. Thus, scenographers seem to be more concerned with finding visual metaphors to distill the image and evoke mood. Oni infers that “It was Adolphe Appia in his treatise that may have first enunciated the basic theories and principles of modern aesthetic of theatre production particularly in stage lighting and scenic design” (“Trends and Considerations” 73). Despite the scenographic explorations of Appia and Craig, Svoboda however leads the pack of these scenographers. He became known internationally as the godfather of modern scenography. The geometric improvement in technology is evident as huge machines in creating effects are now used on stage and engineers now work with set designers in theatrical production. Nwadigwe in Modern and Postmodern Trends in Theatre Technology note that:

2


With the continuous improvements in technological developments, theatre lighting and sound equipment have moved beyond the archaic methods of bonfires, pitch torch, candles, clapping, drumming and vocalizations to accommodate high-tech equipment as instruments (81).

Due to the velocity of technological advancement in the 21st century, what is obtainable some years ago is no longer in vogue, thus placing everybody on a race track to meet up with the challenges of the technological trend. Despite this technological advancement around the globe, the Nigerian theatre still faces challenges in the area of scenography. Nwadigwe also observes that “while the world embraces this trend of multimedia scenography to invigorate and sustain their performing arts industries, Nigeria lags behind” (41). This situation can be ascribed to the retrogressive state of theatre buildings in Nigeria as what obtains in the Western part of the world is not replicated in Nigeria. For example, the space which the stage and backstage occupies in western theatre is considerably spacious than the sitting area, but the reverse is the case with Nigerian theatres. This has made some of the sophisticated ‘theatrical magic’ impossible, because theatres which ought to serve such purpose are “badly” constructed. Hence the projections of Appia and Svoboda have become practically impossible in Nigerian theatre. From the foregoing, the researcher intends to critically examine and analyze scenographic representations in the production of Osofisan’s Ireke Onibudo, Austen-Peters’s Saro, and Llyod Webber’s Cats.

1.1

Background to the Study

In Nigeria, written records attest that live theatre has its base in the folkloric tradition before the colonial era. Nigerian theatre performances thus “originated out of ritual performances, that is, as a transmutation of ritual into entertainment” (Adelugba and Obafemi 140), that took place in 3


different locations in Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa rural villages amongst others. Some of these performances include the maiden dances rehearsed at night under the atmospheric beauty of moonlight in the village before bringing it to the open which was usually for the village audience and invited guests to watch at the village square by different age grade groups. These records exist in the works of James Amankulor and Meki Nzewi. As a result of the settings for these performances, there are obvious reasons to suppose that these forms of theatres took advantage of the sunlight for their source of illumination for day time presentations while the moon light served as source of illumination for night presentations. Subsequently, drama developed and was taken outside the court and became known, first as “Egun Alare” and eventually “Alarinjo”, the first professional travelling theatre among the Yoruba. But while the Alarinjo performers did not supplant the ritual ceremonies of the Egungun society from which they initially developed from, Adedeji is of the view that they have developed an almost independent entertainment oriented style, different in emphasis from the essentialist art of the original Egungun performance, even as they remain adjoined to it. The Alarinjo are considered to be plain entertainers by the people but are bound to the Egungun cult, the ancestor worshipers who participate at Egungun festivals. In their account of the Nigerian theatre Adedeji and Ekwuazi observe that the Alarinjo performances were […] staged in any of the following places, depending on who had commanded the performance: court performance (the palace quadrangle); Alagbaa’s performance (the ode in front of the gabled frontage of his compound); lineage-heads, chiefs and other important persons. No raised platform was necessary for any of these performances. An open space was all that was needed. A ‘circle’ was always formed by the spectators as they assembled round the open space (arena) to watch the show (150).

4


In the first instance, since staging did not conform to the European-styled theatre forms which have room for lighting and other technical theatre equipment and facilities, such consideration was not also given to production aesthetics, while in the theatre of Ogunde as Oni categorically notes, “as a showbiz impresario who was very much aware of the role that stage lighting and equipment could play in his theatre and he fully explored this” (“Stage Lighting Design” 96). Adelugba and Obafemi further expound, the theatre of Ogunde; “consists of a dynamic interplay of the visual, verbal and kinetic elements of music, dance, poetry and songs, with invited audience participation, as in the traditional festival theatre” (148). This he achieved through a ‘family-business’ approach, or what Adedeji and Ekwuazi refer to as “actors-managers’ who “composed, designed and directed their plays, organized their own publicity and run the shows through their own devices” (75). Kola Ogunmola, Duro Ladipo, and Moses Olaiya further contributed their growth to the development of theatre. The contributions of these theatre practitioners led to theatre being a means to an end to artistes. The production of the Yoruba Travelling theatre however, relies more on the choreography and costuming to “charm” the audience. The doyen of the Yoruba Travelling theatre; Hubert Ogunde, started the trend in the scenographic explorations in Nigerian theatre. Jeyifo observes of Ogunde theatre that the “informing aesthetic premise of a non-illusionistic approach to the theatrical performances is above all seen in the stylization of décor and scenic properties developed by the Travelling theatre troupes” (17). However, in explaining the scenic properties, Oni observes that: Aspects of the set design, more often than not, consist of several painted backdrops made of canvas, which is flipped over to depict different scenes. The range of backdrops, which average about 3 metres by 5 metres, usually include one for forest scenes, another for street and market scenes and a third for palace scenes (“Plays and Presentation Modes in Nigeria” 199).

5


The Travelling Theatre is acclaimed to be rich in scenography detail as Oni also observes “outstanding results in the use, for instance of the fire effect for his production of ‘Aropin Ntenia’ in which the evil doer was thrown into ‘hell fire’” (103). Kola Ogunmola continued with this tradition as his plays were “most original and his stories really amazing” (Yerima 44). His working relationship with Ulli Beier is notable as he notes in a personal memoir in Ogunbiyi (1981). Beier in describing the scenography in Kola Ogunmola’s performances notes that, “his costume design and sets were brilliant and spectacular, thus giving the play a very wide appeal” (328). Duro Ladipo is not left out in this scenography trend as he staged most of his plays at the Mbari-Mbayo Cultural Centre. For example, considering the use of painted backdrops by Ladipo, as Ogunbiyi avers that; The simple painted backdrop of scenes in adire clothes adequately serve to complement music, language and dance in conveying a sense of scenery and even mood required to carry the play. Even the costumes are generally quite expressive and add immensely to the atmospheric totality of the play (348). Tracing the origin of this scenography in the Alarinjo and the theatres of Hubert Ogunde, Kola Ogunmola and Duro Ladipo provides a background to this study, especially from the Nigerian developmental level. Technical aspect of this theatre has however gained a considerable amount of research with the scholarly works of Oni Duro, Ododo Sunday, Adegbite Adesina, Nasir Taofiq, Enendu Molinta, Domba Asomba, Alphons Orisaremi, Odiri Solomon, and Nwadigwe Charles, amongst others. It has become quite easy for researchers to peruse the area of technical theatre practice, even though much still needs to be done, as addition to this field of study.

1.2

Aims and Objectives of the Study

The aim and objectives of this study is to: i) Trace the origin and development of scenography in world theatre and Nigerian practice. 6


ii)

Examine the existence of the scenography elements in the selected plays.

iii) Examine the representations of the scenography elements in the selected plays

1.3

Significance of Study

The study is significant because it examines the scenographic trend in Nigerian production over the years and serves as a documentation of facts and sources in the area of scenography in theatre practice in Nigeria. The study is significant to students who want to further their research in the area of scenography as a reference point, to what is obtainable in modern productions. It also provides various alternatives through which scenography can be approached in Nigeria, as seen in the production of Ireke Onibudo without necessarily having to spend much money. It also suggests ways by which institutions with theatre departments can improve on scenographic output of their production, despite the low funding available to them, and as a way of imparting useful knowledge to the students.

1.4

Research Methodology

This research is eclectic in nature by embracing various methods. The researcher intends to adopt the literary method, interview method, and participant observation method in order to critically examine and analyze this study entitled “A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions”. The primary data selected for this study include Ireke Onibudo, Saro and Cats. The secondary data for the use of this study include books, journals, papers, seminars, library-based method and internet materials. The researcher intends to use this method in order to gather materials necessary to provide a basis for the analysis of the primary data i)

Literary method 7


The development in scenography makes the literary method a plausible source in acquiring scholarly works on the area of scenography in theatre. Textbooks, journals, unpublished articles, is of importance in this regard in order to engage the research topic; “A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions”. In gathering materials relating to this study, the researcher intends to go to libraries in order to get archival materials relating. ii)

Participant Observation Method

Due to the participation of the researcher in Saro as the assistant stage manager/production manager, the participation observation method will be used for the analysis of this study. Pictures and video for these productions are also analysed as deductions are made from them. iii)

Interview method.

The researcher decides to use this method in order to enhance the data from the performance and also gain detail knowledge of the concept of the production. Dr. Alphonsus Orisaremi Shireku, Dr. (Mrs.) Grace Adinku and Alhaji Teju Kareem will be interviewed to give the research the necessary credibility.

1.5

Theoretical Framework of the Study

The study “A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions” employs the use of Semiotics and Cultural Studies theory. The choice of these theoretical framework is informed by the pictorial analysis of the case studies to examine some cultural metaphors and significations inherent in the scenographic elements. Semiotics derives its name from the Greek word “semeion”. It traces it roots back to two pioneers in the field of linguistics and philosophy namely Ferdinand de Saussure and C.S Peirce. For Saussure, as Deely identifies “the ‘science’ of signs was to be a branch of social psychology and 8


linguistics a subspecies within the branch, albeit the most important one” (9). He furthers that it “is a process of revelation, and every process of revelation involves in its very nature the possibility of deceit or betrayal” (14). Every culture has its own language of gesture, signs and symbols peculiar to them. This is then taken into consideration in theatre production as it deals with the representation of cultures. This study helps in examining the developmental stages of scenography and peruses the changes from the analysis of signs and symbols which are peculiar to the period of the performance. Thus, the symbolic messages peculiar to a culture which the set, costumes and lights communicate to the audience can only be understood by people who are familiar with the culture. Hence, the importance of semiotics in the analysis of this study. Jacobson explains that sign perception has two aspects which are “an immediately perceptible signans and an inferable, apprehensible signatum” (qtd in Hawkes 102). This is otherwise called the ‘signifier’ and the ‘signified’. According to Hawkes: A sign or representamen is ‘something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity’ it is ‘anything which determines something else (its interpretant) to refer to an object to which itself refers (its object)’. A sign thus stands for something (its object); it stands for something to somebody (its interpretant); and finally it stands for something to somebody in some respect (this respect is called its ground) (103).

The terms, representamen, object, and interpretant are what as Peirce argues, forms the basis of semiotics. The study adopts these three terms through looking for cultural metaphors and significations in scenic designs of the productions under study. The study also focuses on the second “triad” of signs which includes Icon, Index and symbol as Hawkes identifies them: These are the icon, something which functions as a sign by means of features of itself which resemble its object; the index, something 9


which functions as a sign by virtue of some sort of factual or causal connection with its object; and the symbol, something which functions as a sign because of some ‘rule’ of conventional or habitual association between itself and its object (105). In the analysis of the icons used in the scenography elements, the relationship between the signifier (the signs on the scenography elements) and the signified (the scenography elements itself) will be examined. Also in the analysis of the index, certain signs which have specific connections to the usage of the scenography elements is explained. For example, in a production where the Ogun priest is supposed to come in, the white costumes worn by the acolytes is indexical in mode. In lighting for example, a smoke effect in traditional African drama is an index of a mystical scene or war scene as the case may be. The analysis of symbol is also examined through the use of the scenography elements. For example, the symbol of the Eben; a staff of royalty represents the presence of the Oba himself or the palace of the Oba of Benin. Sausurre therefore postulates that for there to be a semiotic analysis of anything, there must be the presence of the “signifier” and the “signified”. The signifier is thus empty without the signified as the fusion of both produces a third term referred to as the “sign” which the theory of semiotic emphasizes.

On the other hand, Cultural Studies examines the peculiarities of a culture as opposed to the other. This theory encompasses many different approaches, methods and academic perspectives and should not be confused with either cultural anthropology or ethnic studies. It focuses more on how “a particular medium or message relates to ideology, social class, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality and/or gender, rather than providing an encyclopedic identification, categorization or definition or a particular culture or area of the world” and as such is concerned with everyday life (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/cultural_studies accessed 10th January 2014 at 10.48am). For example, in the Nigerian context, cultural studies can be used to examine why people wear black clothes to 10


mourn the deceased as opposed to the Indian culture where white is worn. Hence, it studies attributed meanings to particular object and behavioural pattern. In Pink’s analysis, she sees cultural studies connected with more of visuals and that “any analysis of culture would benefit from attention to the visual experience, knowledge and practice that in part constitutes what culture is” (128). The researcher adopts the case studies (Ireke Onibudo, Saro, and Cats), because of the level of scenography contained in then, and how they are able to provide knowledge on scenography relevant to the understanding of the Nigerian experience in relation to the western world. Using cultural studies theory, the study examines how scenography varies depending on the culture of the society it represents. While scenography in Cats focuses on the western ideology where technology has developed, Ireke Onibudo is heavy laden with symbols identifiable with a pastoral setting and Saro is a mixture of the western and pastoral.

1.6

Scope of Study

The scope of this study is on the analysis of scenographic representation in Ireke Onibudo, Saro and Cats. The emphasis is on the visual aesthetics, which encompasses what scenography stands for, and how it contributes to the perception of the performance. The study critically examines the aspects of light, props, set, costume, and makeup with close attention to symbols, amongst others that are peculiar to the production.

1.7

Limitation of Study

As identified earlier, this study focusses mainly on the scenographic element in theatre practice in Nigeria. Though some scholars include “sound” as pert of scenography, it is not included in the 11


analysis of scenographic representations in the case studies, as the researcher is interested in the visual elements. The study is in no attempt to explain the functions of scenography personnel and production processes of the productions used.

1.8

Chapter Breakdown of the Study

This study is divided into three parts; the preliminary, the body and the bibliography. The body of this study is divided into five chapters; Chapter One This chapter focuses on the introduction of the study: “A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions”. This chapter summarizes what will be discussed in the following chapters. It also expounds on the study of the work. Chapter Two This chapter focuses mainly on literature review. Analysis of scenography is examined. The meaning of scenography, origin of scenography in the world and Nigeria is also be examined. Chapter Three The methodology used in this study is explained in this chapter; including the various methods adopted by the researcher. This chapter also focuses on sources of data analyzed in the work. Chapter Four The chapter is based on the analysis of scenography representations in Ireke Onibudo, Saro and Cats. Chapter Five Chapter five is a summation of the study. The researcher will therefore, explain his findings and suggest area of further research. 12


1.9

Definition of Terms

Some terms in this research has been used in a peculiar way to suit the research purpose. Some of them retain their original meaning.

Adire: This is a traditional attire made through the process of tie-dye in Nigeria.

Anapiesmata: This is a machine used for raising spirits from the deeps. They can otherwise be called “trap doors”.

Arobale: This is the long robe worn by the Eyo masquerade. It makes his walking exceedingly stylish, sweeping, waddling, hopping or gliding through the streets. The person wearing this robe must make sure that his bare foot does not show.

Aso-Oke: Aso-oke fabric is a hand loomed cloth woven and worn by the Yoruba people of South west in Nigeria.

Blockings: These are the movements given by the director for the actors and meant for the stage manager to write down in his prompt book. A director gives blockings for the artistic interpretation of the play. The stage geography includes Upstage Left (USL), Upstage Right (USR), Upstage Centre (USC), Centre Stage Right (CSR), Centre Stage Left (CSL), Centre Stage (CS), Downstage Left (DSL), Downstage Right (DSR), Downstage Centre (DSC).The stage geography is a form of language with which the stage manager communicates to his actors on stage.

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Bronteion: This machine is associated with the Keraunoskopeion and it is used for thunder effects. The effect is created when stones are poured noisily into a vessel of brass.

Crane: It is a machine used on stage for swifts effects. This is used to snatch a body away from the stage.

Ekkuklema: This is a machine used during the Greek period used in rolling out of dead bodies from the stage. This is one of the important machines used in the Hellenistic period. Another device which is close to this is exostra which is placed on wheels and rollers.

Eleya: This is a veil used by the Eyo masquerades which is let loose on the shoulders and not fastened to the head. Tha fanciful hat of Eyo is a relic from Brazillian heritage.

Eyo: This is a festival in Lagos, done in honour of a notable person in Lagos, or the king in the society. This festival does not have a particular time it is being done in Lagos, as one cannot predict the death of a king or when the state might wish to celebrate a hero in the society.

Flats: Flats in the contest of this research are vertical wooden structures made of plywood to create a scenic background. Flats are quite often rectangular or square, to imitate a wall’s shape. Flats also create the illusion of a wall’s solidity but use less structure, cost less, and take less time to build.

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Gas-table: This is referred to as the dimmer board during the period of gas lighting. They were used to increase and decrease the intensity of the light been produced by the gas during productions.

Isale Eko: It is generally regarded as the central business district in Lagos. It is a place where different people come to shop in large quantities. Human traffic is very common in this market because of the large influx of both buyers and sellers in the market daily.

Keraunoskopeion: This is in form of a lightning Machine. It is a prism with the three sides coloured black, across which was painted a lightning-flash.

Mechane: They are mainly used for raising and lowering divinities on stage. This is used to show the intervention of the gods in plays to resolve the play. The skene is also known as the scene building and used to represent different locations on stage. The skene served as a distinction between the stage and the backstage where the actors peeped from to see actions on stage in order to know their turn. It advanced as time went by during the Roman period and in the medieval. The use of mechane was an important machine as it used by many playwrights. The mechane aappeared in different names also known as the crane. Another form of the mechane during the Greek period is aiorai used to suspend divinities in the air. This is in form of a rope but had no platform.

Opambata: This is a stick/staff usually held by the Eyo masquerades. The Opambata is decorated according to the ideology governing each group. This is however not a mere stick but ritualistic in purpose as it is used for healing of sick people when the holder touches a person with it. Opambata 15


serves as a link between the spirit and humans. Before the Opambata is carried by an Eyo, it has to be seasoned and treated with traditional medicine as it is not just an ordinary stick.

Peraktoi: This is form of a triangular prisms used during the Greek period. Different scenes were painted on each side of the prism. The peraktoi is known to stand on each side of the door way (known as “Parodos”).

Stropheion: This is otherwise called a revolving machine. They are used to show Greek heroes who have been taken into the company of the gods. It is also used to show heroes who met their death during a war of in the sea.

Wannabe: This is a famous slang coined from the phrase “want to be”. It is used in referring to people who suffer from inferiority complex, and as such, want to dress and behave like the people in vogue in order to attract attention from the public.

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0

Introduction

This chapter is a review of literatures which examines different scholarly views on the term “scenography”. It also focuses on the development of scenography in the theatre, including theatre in Nigeria which is the focal point of the research.

2.1

Scenography: Meaning and Definitions

Scenography is the seamless synthesis of space, text, research, art, actors, directors and spectators that contribute to an original creation (Howard 130). This definition of scenography by Howard in her authoritative book on the subject focuses on the fact that scenography not only deals with scenic design, but also with the stage artist, which includes the actors. In the introduction to the book What is Scenography, Howard sees scenography as inseparable from the actors and audience. She avers that: Scenography is always incomplete until the performer steps into the playing space and engages with the audience. Moreover, scenography is the joint statement of the director and the visual artist of their view of the play, opera or dance that is being presented to the audience as a united piece of work (xxiv). Her assertion is also supported by Holdar who writes that “It is perhaps symptomatic that neither scholars nor critics make a clear distinction between set design and scenography, and so the interactive aspect of scenography in a theatre performance is subordinated to the inventory of its material parts” (6-7). Scenography as it were, is subjective and susceptible to different definitions based on individual idiosyncracies. This is as a point Oni notes in his article “Scenography and Dramatic Atmosphere in Olu Obafemi’s Plays” where props is included as part of scenography (166). Holdar concludes that scenography constitutes “all aspects that contribute in shaping the 17


spectator’s knowledge and perception of the space that is relevant to plot, play and performance.” (8). Arnold Aronson also affirms that scenography “carries a connotation of an all-encompassing visual-spatial construct as well as the process of change and transformation that is an inherent part of the physical vocabulary of the stage” (7). Jarka Burian provides a broad categorization of this opinion by stating that: The goal of scenography cannot merely be the creation of a tangible picture […] and in itself (scenography) is not a homogenous totality. It separates into a series of partial elements, among which certainly belong form, color, but also tempo, rhythm-in a word, the elements that are at the disposal of an actor. And it is precisely by means of these elements that the scene enters into close contact with the actor, becomes capable of dynamic transformation, and can advance in time just as a stream of scenic images created by the actor's performance. It can transform itself synchronously with the progress of the action, with the course of its moods, with the development of its conceptual and dramatic line (126). Tracing the origin of the term “scenography”, Holdar notes that it stems from the Greek skene “scene” and graphein, “to write”. Hence, scenography can be translated to mean “to draw for the stage”. Little wonder then the confusion that exists between scenography and stage design. The scenographer refers to the person in charge of scenography or its design in a production process. There are many actions that help to facilitate the unfolding actions in most theatrical productions, hence the importance of the scenographer to harness the scenographic elements into a unified whole to achieve dramatic ensemble. The scenographer with adequate knowledge of the elements of design could also help the actor in proper interpretation of his role as he is motivated to put his best into what he is doing. Howard explains the duty of the scenographer this way […] the scenographer has a responsibility to do all that is possible to achieve the best understanding of the delicate and complicated process of making a theatre work, involving the director, performers, other visual artists and the technical team” (xxiv). 18


Holdar also states that the scenographer is the “ ‘co-auteur’ of the performance, a co-creator whose work is difficult to totally separate from the work done by the director” (21). Hence, for the scenographer to be regarded as having performed his duties beyond reasonable doubt, he needs to read the play thoroughly and be familiar with the space (stage) available to him, for scenographic explorations. The empty space can then be technically manipulated into one that adequately interprets the director’s concept for the production. Adeyemi also shares this view that “it is the duty of the scenographer to study the script, visualize the technical details as they relate to the performance venue, characters’ movements, objects in space, overall mood, and historical period of the play, furniture and stage properties, costumes as well as lighting” (117). Staub extensively deals with how the work of a scenographer aids that of the director by helping to bridge the gap of the “quotient of intrinsic energy” (82) assigned the actor, which gradually decreases as the play advances. He notes that the scenographer helps to make the spectator find the play attractive and visually appealing, especially when there is a little bit of decrease in the actors performance and he “no longer believes any statement the actor makes” (82). From the foregoing, it is clear that the scenographer is an important personnel in a production process due to his influence on the play. This shall be the focus of the next section of the research.

2.2

Origin and Development of Scenography in Theatre

Since it has been argued by various scholars like Pamela Howard, Arnold Aronson, Staub August, Holdar Magdalena, Oni Duro amongst others, that scenography is the combination of visual elements and artistic elements, tracing “scenography” to the Greek word “skene”, its history is examined starting from the Greek period.

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Theatre practice is said to have evolved from the cave man who demonstrated what happened at the hunt to the people. However, proper theatre practice is said to have evolved over the years in Greece. According to records, the Greeks started what is formally known to be theatre today during the worship of Dionysus; the god of wine and fertility, at a festival known as City Dionysia. Rehm explains that “City Dionysia took place in March after the end of winter storms” (188). The other types of festivals in the period include the Lenaea in early January and the Rural Dionysia held in December. At City Dionysia, “the day after the sacrifice and communal feasting saw the dithyrambic competitions between ten men’s and ten boys’ choruses, each representing and sponsored by one of the ten phylai (tribes) of the city” (187). The plays staged in this period include Tragedy, Comedy and Satyr plays. The tragic plays were most notable as they were meant for the upper class of the society while the comic plays were meant for the lower class and just intended for belly laughs. The Greeks are known for their spirituality which is heavily expressed in ritual ceremonies. These ritual practices take place in their arena/theatres. They were referred to as ‘theatron’ which means ‘the seeing place’ and said to have evolved from the sloppy arena in Athens where people looked down from the edge of the sloppy arena to view the worship of Dionysus as it is worshipped at the base of the arena which is referred to as the “orchestra pit” where the altar dedicated to Dionysus, referred to as thymele was placed. Nicoll explains that “starting from this simple arrangement, where a round dancing-place was, all that converted natural ground into a playing place, the Greek theatre easily and logically developed” (10). This theatre is noted to have seated 14,000 to 17,000 people during performance although there are still many contradictions about the exact figures, as Csapo gives another figure of “audiences numbering somewhere between 4,000 and 7,000” (97).

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The orchestra pit and the skene, which the word “scenography” by Holdar (2005) is said to have stemmed from, were major features of the Greek theatre. The orchestra pit during the Greek period were mostly circular and “as theatres began to be built widely throughout Greece from the late fifth century and on into the fourth, they were almost always provided with circular orchestras, with the theatre at Athens itself serving as the most likely model” (Beacham 205). Although it is generally accepted that the orchestra pit is circular during this period, Brocket and Hildy argues that “the original orchestra was rectangular and remained so until the fourth century” (25). The skene developed in the first half of the fifth century after the orchestra pit. According to Beacham, “the skene is likely to have had only a single large central door allowing access by the actors from within (or behind) it directly into the orchestra” (205). Nicoll explains that the original function of the skene is unquestionably: […] a purely practical one, the provision of a concealed location in which the actors, out of sight of the audience, could make themselves ready, and to which they might retire when their particular actions were done; but soon it was found to offer many opportunities when considered as a scenic background (12). The skene, serving the purpose of providing primarily a scenic background has also been argued by Brockett and Hildy, to have the capacity to be altered to serve several functions which the miseen-scene of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound used as a paradigm. In the design analysis of this play, “a set piece representing a mountain cliff was erected at the edge of the orchestra terrace and that during the earthquake it was tipped over the embankment wall” (26). However, Arnott debunks this claim when he notes that “the fifth century theatre seems to have had nothing like scenery in our sense of the word: no backdrops, no realistic stage picture, no scenic illusion” (3). The front of skene is said to have three doors with a large one in the middle and two small doors flanked on the sides, which actors entered through and also used for stage effects. In the analysis of Brockett

21


and Ball, “the large central doorway was probably opened and a wheeled platform (the eccyclema) pushed out” (61). The Anapiesmata, Bronteion, Crane, Ekkuklema, Mechane, Keraunoskopeion, Peraktoi, and Stropheion amongst others, were Greek machines used for scenographic effect. But to Greenwald et al, despite much emphasis on the use of the skene, “the Greeks used little scenery and thus relied on the evocative power of language to create time and space” (113). Due to the theatre structure during this period, the theatre practitioners adopted the use of costumes which makes them very conspicuous on stage. These costumes include Onkos and the Kothurnus. The Onkos are the actor’s head dress, while the kothurnus which comes in different sizes were boots made of wood in order to raise the level of the actors so that they can be visible to the audience. Pendergast and Pendergast explain that: Different styles of boot were used to help the audience to distinguish the characters. For example, since all ancient Greek actors were men, the actors who portrayed female characters often wore loose-fitting boots, while the actors who played the male characters wore tightly laced boots to help the audience distinguish the men from the women in the play (157). Brockett and Hildy also argues in their book that the type of costume which is ascribed to several tragic plays is seen merely as speculations, as recent archeological findings which were as a result of the vase paintings proves otherwise. Although they agree with the speculations on costumes for comic plays, the certainty of the footwear (kothurnus) used in the Greek period, is in doubt. They observe that “neither the name nor the elevation seems to have been used in the fifth century. In vase paintings, figures are shown in a wide variety of footwear or even as barefoot” (23). In describing the costume for satyr plays, they note that “the satyrs are known to have worn goatskin loin cloths, to which were attached the phallus in front and a horse-like tail in the rear, other parts of the body appeared to be nude” (23). Mask is one of the major element in Greek theatre as used in character differentiation. During this period, the Greeks used mask to indicate “the emotional 22


state of the characters…” (Wilson 196). In tracing the origin of these mask, Brocket and Hildy state that “Thespis experimented with several types of disguise for the face – such as smearing it with wine dregs and dangling leaves in front of it – before adopting the mask” (24). The Roman period borrowed largely from the Greek theatre, and also witnessed different form of entertainment due to large influence of the male dominated society whom were mostly warriors. The beginning of scene changes, which were not visible to the audience and probably would have marked the beginning of the idea of having an indoor theatre in which blackouts were possible, started in the Roman theatre with the auleum (front curtains) and the siparium (back curtains). The front curtain according to Brockett and Hildy: […] was important to spectacle, for it permitted the sudden revelation of a scene or the rapid concealment of a striking tableau [...] after its introduction producers seem to have capitalized on the surprises and striking effects it made possible (53). The siparium on the other hand was a small curtain used during mime and “hung at the rear of an improvised platform to serve both as background for the action and as masking for the offstage space” (53). This can be likened to the function of the skene in the Greek period. Rome is a highly theatricalized society with evidence of statues in front of their theatres and its structural improvement of the skene in the theatre of Pompey. This is the largest theatre ever built in Rome as Pompey named it after himself during the sixth century. The skene in the Roman period also has three doors known as “Scaenae frons”, and are also used for the same function as in the Greek period. Another marvel of this period was the pair of revolving theatres built by Scribonius Curio in 53 BC, which contributed towards the visual aesthetics of plays staged. According to Sear, the theatre “faced in opposite directions so that the two casts should not drown each other’s words. Then all

23


of a sudden the theatres revolved, their corners met, and thus Curio provided an amphitheatre in which he produced fights between gladiators” (56). He furthers that: Pliny’s disapproval of this creation was even greater than that of the theatre of Scaurus: ‘Here the entire Roman people, as if on board two frail boats, was supported by a couple of pivots, and was entertained with the spectacle of its very self risking its life in the fighting arena, doomed, as it were, to perish at some moment or other if the framework were wrenched out of place (56). Though it is very hard determining what the setting looked like, plays during the Greek and Roman period sometimes showed multiple setting, Maitland in his article analyzed some of the major productions he has been involved in, such as Aristophanes’ Ekklesiazousae, The Clouds, Menaechmi, and The Rope. In the article, he gives a detailed description of how he is able to solve scenography issues in Greek and Roman plays as a director. Roman costume shares certain similarities in style and functionality as the Greek costumes. In Nicoll’s analysis, he states that “tragedy actors wore long sweeping robes (Syrmata), and in comedy the garments frequently recall those familiar in earlier days. Wigs (galeri or galearia) were usually worn, and the tragic performer sported buskins, or cothurni, as in Greek days” (47). He furthers that “colour symbolism seems to have been employed: Old men were usually dressed in white, young men in purple, parasites in grey, courtesans in yellow” (47). The Roman mask retained the function of delineating between sexes on stage as females were still not allowed to act until later years. Greenwald et al. in stating the difference between the Greek and Roman mask explains that roman actors “wore masks and wigs that were apparently more lifelike than the highly exaggerated masks the Greek wore in the amphi theatres” (218). The roman period thus collapsed due to the several socio-political issues which one of them is the fact that they could no longer control the excesses in drama, as the church took over theatrical activities.

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The Middle Ages otherwise known as the “medieval period” came after this. This period witnessed the intervention of the church in the affairs of dramatic activities which were suppressed after the Roman period. The type of drama during this period are Nativity plays, Liturgical plays and Morality Plays. The liturgical drama were text taken from the bible and were usually staged during “Hours” because “the Hours could accommodate drama more easily than the Mass” (Brockett and Hildy 73). Gradual development started finding its way into the theatre during the middle ages as trade guilds and strolling minstrels were formed. Plays were staged on wagons, due to the mobility of performance companies. Thus, they had fixed scenery which indirectly affected the plays written. The basic stage setting was divided into the “mansions” and the “platea”. The “mansions” were used to depict scenes of heaven, hell, and other setting in the drama, while the “platea” is used in depicting streets. Nicoll explains the relation between the “mansion” and the “platea” that […] if a performer stepped down from his mansion, or house, and continued his action on the ground-level, then the spot where he stood, was taken as part of his mansion; on the other hand, if an actor had to make a fictional journey from one mansion to another, then the ground on which he trod was conceived of as representing, in attenuated form, the tract between two far-distant fictional locations (55). Most pageant wagons according to Brockett and Hildy “carried only one mansion, although occasionally there might be as many as three” (88). In the setting of heaven and hell, more attention is paid to the construction of Heaven as it “would open and close, and often machinery permitted angels to ‘fly’ between Heaven and Earth” (89). Much detail was ascribed to hell and “was at times represented by the head of a monster […] that seemed to swallow those who entered there” (89). This is intended to discourage the people from sinful acts that will lead them to hell, by depicting visually on stage the horrors found in hell, thereby making them see the luxury in heaven. The location of both heaven and hell is also symbolic. Heaven was placed at stage right, which is

25


symbolic of the “right hand of God”, while hell was placed at stage left. Attention is also paid to the medieval costumes as Nicoll describes: The costumes of Adam and Eve are more fully described for the Cornish dramas. There “Adam and Eva” are “Aparlet (Apparelled) in Whytt lether”, no doubt representing skin, and a stage direction bids “fig leaves ready to cover their members” (63). The devils “were among the most carefully costumed characters in the medieval plays, animal skins and grotesque masks were intended to frighten medieval audiences and often provided mask of the comic relief with their trick and jests” (Greenwald, et al. 413). The detailing ascribed to hell and the costume of devil is symbolic to the medieval setting, as it visually helps in understanding the play. The effects of the peraktoi, ekkuklema, mechane, crane, keraunoskopeion, bronteion, stropheion, and anapiesmata, of the classical period advanced in this period. Flying systems were also used in order to show Christ and the flying angels. Appearance and disappearance of someone on stage were made possible through trap doors. One of the major highlights of this period is the use of water in theatrical productions “stored in wine barrels on the roofs of adjoining houses to produce a continuous rain of five minutes” (Brockett and Hildy 90). The quest for lighting started creeping in into the theatre as “a change from light to darkness was indicated by substituting a painted cloth depicting sun for another showing the moon and stars” (91). The experimentation in lighting and other machineries brought about great disaster in the theatre as “the actor playing Judas almost died while being hanged; at Seurre (France) in 1496, satan’s costume caught fire. Actors in Hell scenes were often injured by the cannons and other devices used to create noise, fire, and smoke” (84).

According to “The Edison Electric

Illumination Company” The need for artificial stage lighting came during the period of 1200 to 1400 A. D., when for the first time in history performances were given after the sun had set. Cressets, or crudely woven baskets of iron, 26


mounted on poles, were filled with blazing pine knots and pitch, and by their fitful, flickering glare the audience viewed the tableaux and religious spectacles being staged (11). Shakespeare theatre of the renaissance England is an archetype of the Medieval theatre conventions. The platea was still in use in the Globe theatre during the Renaissance period. The idea of proscenium stage crept in gradually during this period as theatre moved indoors. This also brought about the use of proper lighting instruments on stage, as a result of the roof of the theatre which was partially closed and made natural light difficult for stage performances. However, there were still no depictions of actual scenery on stage, as the actor either depicts the locale of a scene through his lines or by a representational set. Brockett and Ball describe the setting in the Globe theatre thus: On the stage level, at least two doors permitted exits and entrances and served as openings through which stage properties could be moved onto and off the stage. These doors were the most essential part of the background. Changes of locale were often indicated by the exit of characters through one door, followed by the entrance of different characters through another door (103). Teatro Olympico at Vicenza planned by Andrea Palladio (1518-1580) and finished by Vincenzo Scamossi (1552-1616) due to Pallazio’s death in August 1580, marks the beginning of closed theatre in world history. Serlio’s Archittetura design of how a stage should be constructed in an auditorium, brought about various innovations in the Renaissance period. The perspective design of Serlio created a sort of discomfort to audience seeing a performance, as “everything painted on the wings, drops and borders was drawn as seen from a fixed eye point located somewhere in the auditorium” (Brocket and Ball 114). The various units of flats were placed in order to depict various scenes, which Serlio employs in his scene design for comic and tragic plays. In Brockett and Ball’s account of Serlio’s design, they note that For the comic scenes, one sees the squares on the raked stage, diminishing in size from front to back, that help create apparent depth, 27


as does the downward slope of the upper portions of buildings […] for the tragic scenes, […] the buildings represent those associated with the ruling class. This is unlike the comic scenes where the buildings are shops and dwellings of the middle class” (113-14). Changing of the scenery during this period was done in the full view of the audience as the “change from one set to the next, the visible wings were pulled offstage, revealing others that represented the next scene” (115). Prior to the time of Serlio’s Architettura (1545), which showed the first use of the perspective scenery in theatre, Richter clarifies that: […] it must be remembered that' décor en perspective' appeared elsewhere at a considerably earlier date and that the first occurrence of these Vitruvian antecedents is generally considered to be the staging of Ariosto's Cassaria in I508, although at that time the illusion in depth was created through a backdrop painting of a receding landscape and not by means of a constructed scenery which allowed the performance to take place 'in it' and not merely in front of it (346). Peruzzi, who was greatly influenced by the architectural works of Vitrivius’s De Architectura was the first person to make use of the Italian perspective for theatrical effects in the mid fifteenth century. Another scenic innovation which occurred during this period is that of Aristotile di Sangallo who in 1539 “devised a sun […] that was slowly wandering across the blue-domed ceiling customarily used to represent the sky” (348). The innovation of the modern revolving stage started with Leonardo da Vinci with “blueprint (that) indicates a mountain that can be opened and closed by means of a system of pulleys” (349). The Italian intermezzi said to have been the birth of opera, started technological innovations in the theatre. During this period, “Monteverdi insisted that in the theatre, the musicians should be given a distinct and permanent place, called “orchestra” (350), though there are confusions as Richter notes with this “orchestra” and the classical “orchestra pit”. The intermezzi thus permitted experiments in scene changes.

28


Lighting with oil lamp and candle was introduced in this period, as they were no means to achieve a total blackout on stage. This is because the candle produced less smoke than the Gas lighting which developed in later period. Serlio in 1551, “perfected a plan for placing candles behind bottles filled with red or blue liquid, the result being intensified by putting bright basins for reflectors behind the candles” (The Edison Electric 15). In achieving effects on stage, Oni in Stage Lighting notes that Nicola Sabbatini “advanced the use of lanterns and developed a mechanical method of lowering cylindrical metal hoods around burning candles to cause them to dim” (21). Explaining how effects were achieved on stage, Brockett and Hildy account that San Gallo filled a crystal sphere with water and lighted it from behind with candles to form a sun that rose at the beginning of the plat, moved across the sky, and set as the action closed. The moon was often represented in similar fashion. Bolts of lighting were made from jagged pieces of wood covered with tinsel and shot across the stage on wires (172). Further development of scenery was brought about by Buontalenti “in the form of a painted backcloth, first with telari, or three-sided prisms, in imitation of the classical peraktoi, and later with flat side-wings sliding in grooves” (Hartnoll 481). Torelli can thus be referred to as the first professional scene painter. The eighteenth century England, can be referred to as a major period in history of scenography in the theatre, with Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, as one of the known scenographers. He introduced the Eidophusikon to the theatre. This was as a result of the elimination of the “audience seats that had been on the stage at Drury Lane since its original construction” (Kornhaber 46). This is because it constituted a distraction to both the audience and the actors as Tate Wilkinson describes them as “the greatest nuisance that ever prevailed over an entertainment’’ (qtd. in Kornhaber 46). The Eidophusikon was a pivot used to create specific effects on stage and “a means 29


of presenting miniature theatrical spectacles” (54). It also “created wonder through shrunken imagery as opposed to an enlarged visuality” (55). This started a sort of revolution regarding scenography in performances. Kornhaber’s description of the setting of De Loutherbourg’s production of Reminiscences in 1828 is necessary. He explains that it “was achieved through the installation of colored silk screens in the flies that could be turned on pivots such that when the wing lights were cast on them they projected various hues” (48). This achievement brought about a new beginning to scenographers, as he states that it was the “first time new dramas were being given to ‘the artist who is to plan the scenes’ at the same time that they were being given to the actor-managers who would oversee their production” (49). In describing the type of scenery De Loutherbourg employs, Kornhaber states: Using overlapping flats of varying dimensions placed on various levels of the stage to create an effect of depth and distance, De Loutherbourg brought the expansive vistas of two-dimensional landscape painting to the theatre by emphasizing that which is unique to the stage—its three-dimensionality. He sought to create not simply the impression of a world behind the actors but a world that enveloped the actors, and placed them in the very middle of a landscape (47). This scenographic explorations took away from the message of the play, and was criticized as something to be “sent to the devil” (49), by people who were not really attracted by the scenography details. De Loutherbourg further advanced towards depicting realism on stage when he called the marine artist Domenic Serres “to supply models of the actual vessels” (49), used for the production of The Wonders of Derbyshire. He is thus known for his “spectacular moving and “disappearing” set pieces, its varied lighting effects, and its aspiration towards pictorial realism…” (50), as well as the credit for being “the first to build miniature stage sets before constructing an actual stage design, and he even occasionally employed miniatures in the finished designs themselves” (51). 30


In the 18th century, “chandeliers, of about a dozen candles apiece, were until that time the only source of illumination for the stage, and they cast on it the same quality of light that was cast on the rest of the auditorium” (Kornhaber 46). David Garrick in 1765 according to Kornhaber “replaced the chandeliers with concealed wing lights—either candles or oil lights that stood one above the other in an iron frame. Mounted with tin reflectors, they could cast powerful illumination in different directions depending on their positioning” (46). For the first time, lighting instrument was used to delineate acting space although he notes that “It would still be another hundred years before the auditorium was completely darkened, but Garrick’s innovation represents another important step in the move towards marking the stage as a space of complete illusion, separate from the realm occupied by the audience” (46). Blackouts were however not made possible until the nineteenth century in the theatre. Pierre-LucCharles Ciceri, was one of the major lighting designers of this period because of “his ability to depict the favourite visual themes of the time: quaint local color, nostalgic ruins, and picturesque historical milieus” (Brockett and Hildy 292). The introduction of limelight and the electric light brought about a shift in the scenography of the period. With the advent of electricity, Oni notes that “effects became more stupendous, as it was now possible to use colour filters in front of lighting instruments instead of the old method of running painted reels of silk in front of lamps” (Stage Lighting 22). This obviously influenced the designs of the major scenographers of the period namely; Adolphe Appia, Edward Gordon Craig and Josef Svoboda. As there is no invention without its shortcomings, so also are faults, so to speak with the limelights and the electric lights. In describing the various criticisms the invention received, Aronson notes that “the critics objected not only to 31


the instruments per se, but to the disruption caused by the harsh white light in the midst of the yellow effulgence of the gas-lit stage” (36). Despite the applause that the gas light received from critics, gas light has its various short comings as it wasn’t conducive for the audience especially when the auditorium became too hot at the middle of the performance. It is also not safety free as actors regularly burnt their clothes. Oni concurs that it “made stage lighting of the period more complex, particularly in the ability for centralized control and dimming” (Stage Lighting 21). Gas lighting however marked the beginning of the ability to increase and reduce light on stage as “control valves included the ‘mains’ and ‘sub-mains’ leading to well organized circuits terminating at the ‘gas table’ on which they were displayed” (Asomba 10).

Another invention of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century is the “panorama” by the Irish painter; Robert Barker. The panorama is “an enormous painting, usually of a landscape, cityscape, or famous battle, housed in a purpose-built room and mounted on a circular structure such that it extended 360 degrees around the viewer” (Kornhaber 52). In further describing the panorama, he states that it was “truly a mass medium, where anyone at the railing of the observation platform had an equal view in correct perspective of anything near or far that they might wish to observe” (52). Another scenic designer in the 19th century influenced by the works of De Loutherbourg is Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851). He invented the diorama which is in form of “a display which relied on the manipulation of light over an enormous painted canvas to produce the illusion of a changing, three-dimensional natural scene and which opened in Paris in 1822” (Kornhabber 51). The diorama functioned more than the panorama in the theatre. With the use of the diorama, Daguerre was able to “depict the gradual change from weather to storm, from day to night, and 32


other conditions” (Brockett and Hildy 293). It was during the nineteenth century that “three dimensional scenery changed audience expectations of the possibilities for scenic design. The box set, an enclosed set with walls and sometimes ceiling, became a standard for interiors after 1830” (Wainscott and Fletcher 352). Many designers started using set that was accurate to historical images which were referred to as “antiquarianism” (352). Adolphe Appia, Josef Svoboda, and Edward Gordon Craig explained under the following subheadings, amongst others, made much impact in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century with their designs.

Adolphe Appia (1862-1928) Modern design according to Aronson “started with the theoretical writings of Adoplhe Appia and Edward Gordon Craig, starting with Appia’s work in the 1890’s” (15). Before the intervention of the duo, two dimensional scenery were more prominent in the theatre. They “called for a theatricality characterized by simplicity, suggestion, abstraction, and grandeur within the context of a three-dimensional sculptural setting that would unify the performer and the stage space” (15). He was known for the rendering of his light and shadow. According to Wainscott and Fletcher “Appia created designs that featured strong contrasts, and he experimented with ways to create shadow dynamically in the theatrical space” (369). Bentley furthers that the light that cast shadows “has a sculpturesque quality that by the vehemence of its definition, by the balance of light and shade, can carve an object before our very eyes” (33). He also writes that Appia was the “first to banish the scenic painter and his painted architecture from the modern stage” (32) and insisted on the dominance of the director as a major scenographer. He thus adopted electric lighting as a tool

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for his various scenographic explorations. He emphasized on the three dimensionality of scenery patterned “in terms of sculpture” (Aronson 32). Appia also brought new dimensions to the perception of scenography in world theatre, with his emphasis on music which, to him, is a sine qua non to a successful production. Music to him, is responsible for coordinating “all the elements of scenic presentation into a completely harmonious whole in a way which is utterly beyond the capacity of our unaided imagination (Bentley 29). He further describes the usage of music in Appia’s production that: As music released the mood of a scene, projecting the deepest emotional meaning of an event as well as its apparent action, so the fluctuating intensities of light could transfigure an object and clothe it with all its emotional implications (35). He brought to stage what was considered a herculean task. According to Bentley “the modern stage is filled with the light that was always to be seen on land and sea but never in the theatre until Appia brought it here” (39).

Bentley highlights one of the major innovations by Appia when he observes that “he divided lights on the stage into two systems – diffused or general lights, which merely flooded the stage with an even radiance, called the flood-lighting today, and focused, mobile light, now known as spot – lighting” (41). Furthermore, he eliminates foot lighting in his theatre, regarding it as obsolete and introduced the strip lights. Aronson describes that: For exterior settings, the light will always come from above save (sic) for some few exceptions; the height of the characters is taken as the maximum angle and all comes from the same direction. For the interior setting the light will enter very obviously through the openings (never horizontally) reinforced extremely subtly by footlights or by special instruments to provide diffused light (Aronson 41).

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This created the feel of natural light which made most of the scenic representations real, due to the different angles in which the lighting instruments were placed. Also, the inventions of Appia paved way for the development of stage lighting in the present day. Lights started achieving its full purpose among which is to evoke emotions through various manipulations by the lighting designer. The light on stage as created by Appia, “created the illusion of light from a knowable source that obeyed the rules not only of physics but of ordinary human observation” (34). In this aspect, Gordon Craig and Appia “began to focus attention on the director as the master-artist of the theatre, the stage was set for regarding the script as a pretext for production – as one element of equal weight with design and performance” (Wainscott and Fletcher 338).

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) Craig is more of a director who emphasized the role of the dramatist in the theatre and “provided the preeminence of the director as the only way to implement synaesthetic ideals of the theatrical performance in which all the different art forms are integrated to create a single emotional harmony” (Akard and Isakson 4). He was greatly greatly influenced by Henry Irving who was also an actor manager during the period. Craig however substituted dance for Appia’s music as he sees the father of the dramatist as the dancer and that “the dramatist made his first piece by using action, words, line, colour, and rhythm, and making his appeal to our eyes and ears by a dexterous use of these five factors” (Bentley 115). Craig’s designs were far different from Appia’s and Svoboda’s, as he “returned to simplicity and suggestion rather than detailed evocation of the real” (Wainscott and Fletcher 352). His designs were however unrealistic in the sense of the word. Hartnoll notes that he “endeavoured to build up

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an imaginative stage-picture, with no concessions to reality at all, by the use of large screens lit by coloured lights” (482).

Josef Svoboda The most dynamic of them all is Josef Svoboda; a Czech/Slovak scene designer, who was known for the use of projections on stage, and “sometimes shot through multiple scrims, creating intriguing distortions of window effects” (Wainscott and Fletcher 373). His mise-en-scene obviously changed from what obtained in the period before him. According to the authors, Svoboda […] combined platforms, three-dimensional scenery; and open space with projection screens; mixed film with still projections; and mastered the art of projected scenery […] with the aid of modern computer-generated imaging for both lighting and sets in creating designs as well as executing the designs on stage, the possibility for theatrical design seem nearly limitless (354). His designs for the production of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Shakespeare’s As You Like It, shows a great effort at scenography. In the latter production, he used platforms on stage in which the actors acted while the stage setting can be changed through the use of projections, but the platform still remained. In the former production, he used a huge staircase which extended towards “heavens” with which the actors were placed on several parts of the staircase. Svoboda is noted for his “use of mirrors, projecting the live actions of both performers and presumably of the audience” (Příhodová 6) in the production of Intolleranza 1960, in which he functioned as the scenographer. He is constantly in the “search for the intangible essence of a work and his attempt to express it in the most appropriate manner, on the stage, in theatrical terms, which, for him, implies a synthesis of expressive elements” (Burian 125). Oni in Trends and 36


Considerations equally observes that Svoboda “based his work more on a metaphoric rather than realistic approach to design” (54). He constantly aims at finding ways objects will be in motion on stage with the use of his projections and more concerned with the setting as it “must not foreshadow the action or provide a summary illustration of it” (Burian 125). Svoboda thus believes that “theatre means dynamics, movement; it is a living thing; therefore, scenography should not be fixed and tell at once, as expressionistic design tends to do.” (125).

Other scenographers include Richard Foreman, and Christine White amongst others who had a very close relationship with the directors on scenography concepts. Foreman’s scenography is described by Aronson as “ugly” because to him, the “homemade quality of his sets and the generally somber colors were a conscious attempt to thwart the usual slickness of commercial production, which he felt lulled the audience into a complacency” (25). He furthers that his scenography includes the “juxtaposition of incongruous elements and the mixture of objects of wildly differing scales”. Despite this sharp criticism, Foreman was one of the most influential theatre artist of the late 1960’s and 1970’s. His work particularly reflected the aims of those who wanted the “hidden work to be shown, who felt the production process should be present in the product, and who felt the resulting production should attract attention to itself as the deconstruction of its process” (Scarpetta and Dolan 24). He is known for exhibiting hidden scenography in his designs. For Foreman, scenography space: […] is never a given beforehand, it doesn’t constitute a set frame on the interior of which the action would be able to unfold; it modifies itself unceasingly – particularly in its dimensions – in proportion to the evolution of the action […] the set is likely to become hollow or shrink, to well or contract, to divide or multiply (26). 37


The trend of scenography influence did not only stop with these designers, but had a ripple effect on the perception of theatre around the world both in the area of the technical aspects which includes set, light, costume, makeup, and props amongst others and also in the area of acting. Nigeria is definitely not left out of the picture as we shall try to discuss in the next section.

2.3

Development of Scenography in Nigeria

Nigerian theatre practice, with emphasis on the artistic aspect, has gained much attention from scholars like Martin Banham (1976), Ebun Clark (1980), Meki Nzewi (1981), Biodun Jeyifo (1984), Adedeji Joel (1998), and Olu Obafemi (2001), amongst others whom have written extensively on the artistic oeuvre of the Yoruba travelling theatre artiste, and the development of the literary theatre beginning from the University of Ibadan Arts Theatre, to Soyinka’s “The 1960 Mask” in Ibadan and Ola Rotimi’s “Ori Olokun” in Ile-Ife. Scenography in Nigerian theatre contributes to the visual perception of the production as it helps in the interpretation of her eclectic nature, which incorporates dance, drama and music.

The analysis below examines the

scenographical elements under two design phases namely the Indigenous and Popular Theatre Design Phase and the Literary Theatre Design Phase

Indigenous and Popular Theatre Design Phase The growth and development of the indigenous and popular theatre design phase is perculiar to that of the medieval era which developed out of the church due to the ban placed on it in the Roman period. The types of productions prominent during this period include the musical concerts and native airs. The indigenous theatre tradition according to Ododo (2006) thrived from ritual, 38


festival, storytelling, masquerade and puppetry theatre forms. This puppetry theatre forms is evident in Hagher’s (1990) substantial work on the Kwagh-Hir theatre. In Nigeria, written records show that live theatre can be traced back to the root of traditional gathering when moonlight games were highly appreciated before the era of colonialism. These records exist in the works of James Amankulor and Meki Nzewi who assert that “it is needless to add of course that setting for these performances is generally an undefined area, usually the village square” (12). As a result of the settings for these performances, apparently day time, there are obvious reasons to suppose that these forms of theatres took advantage of the sunlight for its source of illumination for day time presentations while the moon light served as illumination for night presentations. During the early stage of Nigerian theatre, Adelugba and Obafemi aver that “there was nothing but makeshift staging” (145), due to the state of technological advancement that does not give room for massive scenery, and electricity which was not yet in Lagos at the close of the nineteenth century. The history of Nigerian drama/theatre can be traced back to the “early religious and magical ceremonies and festivals of the Yoruba, the egwugwu and mmo masques of the Ibo, and the owu and oru water masquerades of the Ijaw” (Clark 58). Subsequently, drama was taken outside the court and became known, first as “Egun Alare” and eventually “Alarinjo”, the first professional travelling theatre among the Yoruba. While the Alarinjo performers have not supplanted the ritual ceremonies of the Egungun society from which they emerged, Clark is of the view that they have developed an almost independent entertainment oriented style, different in emphasis from the essentialist art of the original Egungun performance, even as they remain adjoined to it. The Alarinjo are considered to be plain entertainers by the people but are bound to the Egungun cult

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by ancestor worship and participate in Egungun festivals. Adedeji and Ekwuazi are of the view that the Alarinjo performances were […] staged in any of the following places, depending on who had commanded the performance: court performance (the palace quadrangle); Alagbaa’s performance (the ode in front of the gabled frontage of his compound); lineage-heads, chiefs and other important persons. No raised platform was necessary for any of these performances. An open space was all that was needed. A ‘circle’ was always formed by the spectators as they assembled round the open space (arena) to watch the show (150). This traditional African theatre developed nonetheless without definite structural and artistic models. In the first instance, since the staging did not conform to any European styled theatre form which has rooms for lighting and other technical theatre equipment and facilities, likewise is the consideration for production aesthetics. Indigenous performance was prevalent in this period, until theatre started moving indoor gradually necessitating the use of lamps, which has a close similarity with the history of world theatre. According to Adelugba and Obafemi: Performances were held with hanging lanterns and Chinese lamps. Apart from productions such as the annual Coker concerts produced by Robert A. Coker, which were reported as being well lit with variegated lamps, most productions during this period were staged with limited accessories and effects (145). Most of the productions during this period were mainly sponsored by the elites in the Victorian Lagos which can be likened Greek’s Choregus or the Roman’s magistrate. Obviously, modern dramatic practice in Nigeria is political, radical and revolutionary depicting or reflecting the social realities prevalent. This phase, according to Ododo in Design Practice, can be dated back to the “colonial days when foreign theatrical activities in the form of drama, opera, cantata and concerts were very vibrant” (23). Echeruo’s work on “Victorian Lagos” captures amongst other things, the politics, religion, culture and the entertainment of 19th century Lagos.

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As these performances gained acceptance, both in the church and secularly, Echeruo states that on May 23rd, 1882, a performance given by the Brazilian Dramatic Company under the German Consul, Heinrich Bey was described as reported “was tastefully decorated”. He continues with the assertion that “this particular concert was so popular that there were requests for repeat performances” (73). The model of the concert according to Adelugba and Obafemi was “European and the audience was drawn significantly from the emigrant ´elite community of Sierra-Leoneans, Brazilians, Europeans and a minority, unlettered indigenous Lagosian” (144). The Yoruba popular theatre drew from this as Barber notes that: Yorùbá popular theatre’s starting point was in the church, where choirmasters and choirs collaborated to produce “native air operas”: sung dramas on biblical themes that were performed in the church itself and designed to attract converts and raise funds to build more churches (177). It was through the elite class efforts and Europeans in Lagos, that the Glover Memorial Hall was built in 1899. Before that, various performances were staged in different locations like “Phoenix at Tinubu Square, the Lagos Club House, the European Club House and the Academy on Awolola Street, Lagos” (145). The use of electricity resurfaced in productions in Nigerian schools in early 20th century as Oshionebo describes started with an open air production of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare in 1935 at Government College Ibadan. In the lighting of this production, he notes that “electric footlights were arranged by two of the students, and illuminated painted scene appeared behind the arch, the pillars and walls were made of mats” (143). The plays during this period were usually staged at the school dining hall or assembly hall and the stage “was easily converted to a ‘theatre’ mainly because of their advantage of providing a large space for the audience’ (143). He further describes the state of lighting:

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The school generating plant supplied electric lights required during performances. All electric extensions (especially for the open air theatre) and manipulation of lights to create some desired effects were done by the students who controlled the lights during productions. The lighting plot was usually worked out, showing exactly which switches, by number, had to be switched on and off and exactly when school lighting failed, arrangements were made for Tilley lamps or its equivalent (142-43). The setting for the plays during this period “was indeed difficult to create a real-looking house or office interior with the resources at the command of the Nigerian secondary school. As an option, however, a simple but impressionistic set was often mounted” (143). Three dimensionality in set design, started with the staging of “Joseph and his Brethren in 1939 by the boys of Government College, Umuahia which consisted of stairways leading to the palace of King Pharaoh […] the scenery in most schools were only indicative of the different scenes or locales, usually arranges against background cloths or curtain” (Oshionebo 143). He also describes the scenery for the production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in 1946 in Queens College: Olivia’s house, for instance was shown by chairs and a rough table on which stood four pewter tankards and a calabash of Kola, and her garden was shown by a hedge consisting of two forms covered by a green cloth. To prevent any misunderstanding in the arrangement of scenery, two students held up a notice of each scene just before the curtain was raised (144). The setting of the plays selected during this period is simple so as to avoid any complexity in the design as the level of technology and technological know-how have not yet increased. The costume designs were mainly done by the students and teachers who assisted them. In describing the costume of the production of Joseph and his Brethren, Hogarth states that “Joseph as a ruler in Egypt was given a square-cut Egyptian hair which emerged out of blackened card board; his ‘finelinen’ coat achieved its transparency in mosquito netting” (qtd. in Oshionebo 144). Oshionebo mentions that witches in Shakespeare’s Hamlet wore “black veils covering their heads down to the 42


waist with a wrapper of black background” (145). Electricity became a necessity as the natural source of light is impeded through the theatre structure. The likes of Hubert Ogunde, Duro Ladipo, amongst others are said to have graced this stage with their socio-political performances. Theatre practitioners in this period started moving into more contemporary themes and leaving the biblical themes in which they were accustomed to. Many groups started springing up in the 1940’s who were into the presentational mode of the popular Yoruba travelling theatre. These group includes “Hubert Ogunde Theatre”, “Duro Ladipo National Theatre”, “Kola Ogunmola Travelling Theatre”, “Alawada Group International” led by Moses Olaiya, “Oyin Adejobi Theatre Company”, “Lere Paimo’s Theatre” (Alias “Eda”), “Jimoh Aliu Cultural Troupe”, “Alapara Ijesa Group International” led by Jinadu Ewele, “Faloyin Mobile theatre”, “Olumo Theatre” headed by Charles Olumo (popularly known as Agbako), “Ishola Ogunshola Theatre” headed by Ishola Ogunshola (Alias “I Show Pepper”), “Irawo Obokun International Theatre” led by Lady Funmilayo Ranco Ajayi Dickson, and “Lola Funky Theatre” led by Lola Akintunde, amongst others. Barber generally notes the scenography popular to these theatre groups: The popular theatre always played on platform stages before an audience seated on chairs in rows. They always used stage scenery (usually a backcloth, two or three sets of flats, and a curtain), electric lighting (usually a combination of spotlights and bundles of fluorescent strip lights, laid horizontally along the front of the stage) (177) General aesthetics was not the driving factors for the Yoruba travelling theatre during the early years, as they were interested in just having “a background in front of which performances were held” (Ododo Design Practice 19). This is synonymous to what obtained in the Greek, Roman and Medieval period where the stage setting were not intended for aesthetic purpose, but a background for the actors. In a much more elaborate fashion, Jeyifo explains that:

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The informing aesthetic premise of a non-illusionistic, non-mimetic approach to the theatrical performance is above all to be seen in the stylization of décor and scenic properties deployed […] the backcloth painting is hardly ever of a realistic setting although this is not unknown; rather, they in general derive from folkloristic themes and motifs which reflect the traditional Yoruba animistic religious worldview. Sometimes the back-cloth or flats may in fact be of an even, uniform tone of colour which merely marks the playing area of the stage proper from the makeshift empty space […] (18).

Hubert Ogunde (1916-1990) is the most prominent of the Yoruba travelling theatre exponents. His theatre is greatly influenced by the Alarinjo style of performance. He explores the opening and the closing glee in all his performances. He also brought about a change in the performance mode of the plays when him and his wife went to England in 1947 to purchase lighting instrument worth two thousand pounds sterling. At this time, “Ogunde as a showbiz impresario, was very much aware of the role that stage lighting and equipment could play in his theatre and he fully explored this” (Oni, Stage Lighting 97). He is known for his exploit in the use of light as Adedeji and Ekwuazi notes that: Ogunde uses stage-lights (colour gels) in a combination that depicts transition from reality to surreality. His popular colours are hues of yellow, pink and green. With these he draws sharp lines between scenes; the human and the meta-human, the profance and the sacred, the natural and the super-natural (59). Oni furthers that “it was during these sequences that Ogunde, the impresario, would emerge on the stage under very colourful lights. Red appeared to be a favourite colour of his, and it was employed for the music and dance sequences to dazzle the audience” (Stage Lighting 98). The lighting equipment according to Oni “consist of a switch panel with sockets for up to ten instruments, two or three flood lights, a couple of spot lights and ready made green gelatins for forest scenes, red for fire and war, and blue for romantic scenes” (qtd. in Ododo 21). The imaginative use of fire and

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cloud projectors in Ogunde’s Ayanmo (1987) shows a level of advancement in his knowledge of scenography. During the time of Ogunde, Ladipo, Ogunmola, Olaiya and host of other travelling troupes. Attention was largely paid to elaborate costuming. The costume designs according to Ododo “are conceived with functional values, almost like what exist in the literary theatre” (Design Practice 20). Also a great attention was depicted in their set as the backdrops depict what “consist of several painted backdrops made of canvas, which is flipped over to depict different scenes” (Oni, Stage Lighting 199).

Kola Ogunmola (1923-1972) also created much impact in the theatrical scene. Out of all the productions that he staged during his time namely Adam and Eve, Palm Wine Drinkard, Joseph and his Brethren, Love of Money, and My Brother’s Children amongst others, Amos Tutuola’s adaptation of Palm Wine Drinkard (1972) seem to be his best having played the role “Lanke Omu” which he himself directed. He was assisted by the staff of the School of Drama in Ibadan under the supervision of Geoffrey Axworthy; the director of the school from 1956-1967. Yerima notes that Demas Nwoko “was commissioned to supervise the production and to design settings and costumes” (142). Though this role is a minor one, he made a great impact on the audience as one “who is justifiably and universally acclaimed to have been the greatest actor the Travelling Theatre has provided to date” (Jeyifo 22). He can also be credited to have been the perfect actor Grotowski craves for due to his “use of facial, bodily and vocal resources of the actor for maximum communication and expressiveness” (24), due to his several comic plays. Backdrops was also used by Duro Ladipo (1931-1978) in most of his plays, David Richards notes the scenography elements in Oba K’oso saying that “the scenery is provided by vibrantly painted 45


panels of cloth abstract in design and the cast is traditionally costumed in bold fabrics that looks as if they were created in an exploding paint box, and then further adorned with dolls and beads” (qtd. in Raji-Oyelade et al. 91). Garret Bob succinctly states that “the backdrop is vibrant African that looks like Picasso” (85). The paintings on the backdrops were based on the thematic preoccupations of his plays. With this “he brought expressionist explosions to bear on scenography” (Adedeji and Ekwuazi 59). They describe the three scenes depicted in this backcloth namely “the town with the king’s place fronting an open space; a forest scene showing animal life and the hunt; and a riverine scene” (59). Most of Ladipo’s backcloths were designed by Asiru Olatunde. The costumes in Oba K’oso were no doubt vibrant as it “makes the production a living painting in shapes, textures and colours” (87). Although many people praised Duro Ladipo’s use of spectacles in his play, Layiwola notes that it “still attracted criticism for its shortcomings in the technical area as it lacked stage craft and stage realism” (qtd. in Nnenyelike 116). Duro Ladipo according to Adedeji and Ekwuazi employs “Stage lights (colour gels) to depict modes and atmosphere; sensation rather than scenery. His technique of blending varying hues for intensity and contrast within a basic motif can be easily relegated to absurdity by the rapidity of changes” (59). Ogunbiyi further notes that “the simple painted back-drops of scenes in adire clothes adequately serve to compliment music, language and dance in conveying a sense of scenery and even mood required to carry the play. Even the costumes are generally expressive and add immensely to the atmospheric totality of the play” (348). The set of Duro Ladipo’s outdoor performances as seen in the appendix picutres of Raji-Oyelade et al, were often not beautified as his indoor performances.

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Moses Olaiya, is known to have broken away from the norms of the popular traditional theatre by ignoring the opening and closing glees, and “after the play his cast line up to take their bow, by which time the auditorium is half empty, and the ovation sparse” (Jeyifo 12). This seems to have been transferred to modern performances as directors are no longer concerned with glitz of opening and closing glees. Despite Olaiya abandoning this style, he is “perhaps the biggest crowd-puller of all times in the Travelling Theatre movement” (12), though critics refer to his works as “garish, […] clownish and socially irrelevant” (Obafemi 151). This however does not mean he doesn’t employ the use of dance in his plays. Moses Olaiya, according to Oni in Stage Lighting, is credited with developing his locally made dimmers which help him in “fading off the light from the stage for the preview of the films” (102). The costumes of Moses Olaiya can however not go unnoticed as he is known to ‘often wear baggy trousers and tuck in a babariga on top with a long veil tied round his neck as necktie. He completes this with “funny accessories – oversized spectacle, table clocktied to the wrist as wristwatch etc” (Ododo, Design Practice 21). Obafemi sums this style up as the “Yeye Tradition” (152-53) which is borrowed from the “traditional form of slapstick entertainment which cuts across ritual festivals and folktales” (152). The literary theatre design face which is based on educational theatres is discussed below.

Literary Theatre Design Phase The establishment of the University College in 1935 and the establishment of the School of Drama in 1962 under the leadership of Geoffrey Axworthy brought this phase to the limelight. Several dramatic societies were formed after the introduction of the School of Drama which include “School of Drama Acting Company (1968-1970), Unibadan Theatre Arts Company (1970-1971), Unibadan Masques (1974-1980), Unibadan Performing Company (1980-1985), University of 47


Ibadan Theatre Arts Troupe (1987-1996)” (Adedokun 65-95), including the “Hoi Phrontistai, a group of classics students, The Musical Circle and The Musical Society” (Gbilekaa 20). Production of Soyinka’s Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel, propelled a lot of new writers in the literary theatre like Frank Aig-Imoukhuede, Dapo Adelugba to start writing plays. Aig-Imoukhuede’s The Munchi Charm, and Adelugba’s That Scoundrel Suberu, led the pack of plays that were performed on this stage. The School of Drama’s productions were still somewhat crude and lacked technological explorations. Dining tables were put together for performance according to Yerima (27) especially when they travelled with their performances. Axworthy narrates the technical limitations of the theatre thus: Technically we were poor, we used batten bulbs painted in different colours. I remember when we went for a chow of Suberu in a Training College in the Cross River part of Nigeria, and they had no electric light, we cut some of the paraffin and kerosene cans and lit them around the stage and it was another successful night. Another night I remember was at a production in Ilesa, where there was no electricity, it was an open-air production and the members of the audience who had cars lit up the stage wit their headlamps. It reached a point where our technical inabilities did not matter so long as the audience had a good show (Yerima 34).

This school produced Demas Nwoko, who designed the earliest stage plays in the School of Drama as he can also be credited to be the “first indigenous Nigerian, lecturer and scenic designer at the Ibadan School of Drama” (99), starting from his design of Tutuola’s Palm Wine Drinkard. In the description of the scenery of this period, Ododo in Design Practice notes that: Basic set units (flats; basic window and door, flats; platforms, steps, staircases, door and window frames; tree trunks and columns, boarders, cycloramas, etc) are often used in scenic design to provide the traditional functions of aiding understanding and expressing the distinctive qualities of a play (23).

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Wole Soyinka’s “1960 Masks”, “Orisun Theatre”, and Ola Rotimi’s “Ori Olokun” also contributed to the development of the literary theatre phase. The return of Wole Soyinka to Nigeria as Gbileka notes “stepped up a lot of dramatic activity in post-Independence Nigeria” (22). His plays according to Ododo in Scenic and Performance Styles, fall under the presentational concept of performance. He observes that “even though representational performance style was in vogue, Soyinka’s theatre craftsmanship enabled him to fashion out a theatrical approach that can utilize a variety of production styles” (91b). This presentational concept however favours “stylization and symbolism via expressionist, impressionist, formalist and theatricalist styles of performance” (88b). This affords him the opportunity to stage some of his plays which tend towards the stylistic and symbolist approach, notable among which was A Dance of the Forest. The design elements therefore are constructed to be in conformity with the realities of this period. J.P Clark later came into the scene with the performance of his plays at JK Randle Hall, Onikan, under the auspices of PEC Repertory Theatre. Starting from cooperate sponsorship, theatre designers now had enough funds to work with to execute their designs. Nigeria International Bank (NIB) was one of the banks which once supported the arts and of course had an influence on the scenography output of theatrical performances as it gave a “rare opportunity for all stage opportunity for all stage designers to expand the frontiers of stage possibilities” (Ododo 102b). Ola Rotimi, Dapo Adelugba and a host of many others enjoyed this benefit. The theatre of the latter is however different from that of his contemporary as he “prefers to use the arena setting for most of his plays” (96). Ododo further explains that Rotimi enjoys “creating very meaningful stage pictures, functional scenic spaces and working with crowd scenes” (97). He is also known for the “pressure cook” style in which he adopts in almost all his plays. 49


The notable scenic designer of Ola Rotimi’s Ori Olokun Players is Segun Akinbola who was responsible for “the technical animation of Rotimi’s plays at the time” (97). Technical facilities posed serious problems to the Ori Olokun Players as Akomolafe notes that “the company relied on borrowed stage lanterns from Ife Anglican Grammar School […]. The lanterns were infact improvised from Kerosene tins and mounted on stands” (Ododo 24a). Other notable theatre designers present in the technical scene includes Sumbo Marinho, Segun Akinbola, Duro Oni, Dominic Asomba, Esogher Omoregie, Agbo Folarin, and a host of others. These major theatre designers in Nigeria graduated from the School of Drama, and also contributed majorly to the development of scenography in educational institutions. The scenographic exploration of these graduates made possible by Dexter Lyndersay, made the purchase of lighting in the school of drama, Ibadan (Oni 105e). In designing stage productions in Ibadan, Lyndersay “not only fore-grounded the way he utilized stage lighting but was also very fond of lighting effects , which included strobe lights, water waves and colour wheels” (106). However, the 2nd world black Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1977 brought about a shift in stage lighting in Nigeria. This period witnessed a significant influx of stage lighting equipment into Nigeria (Oni 104e). Many of the plays during this period majorly were based on history, myths and culture, especially Wale Ogunyemi’s Langbodo. Ododo explains the state of scenography in their works, noting that they “place high premium on spectacle and illusionistic setting” (95b). After Soyinka, Rotimi, Sofola and Ogunyemi, came the likes of Femi Osofisan, Olu Obafemi Bode Osanyin, Bode Sowande whom according to Ododo (2002) belongs to the “Protest Phase”. These playwrights however brought a dramatic twist to the staging of dramatic performances with introduction of absurd plays different from the epic, historical and cultural plays of the earlier generation of playwrights. Most plays during this period had Marxist leanings especially plays of 50


Osofisan, Sowande, and Osanyin as argued by most commentators. This also affected the scenography of the period as scenographers were no longer stuck, and new creativity emerged. Some plays by Femi Osofisan such as Midnight Hotel, Tegonni, Fiddle of a Midnight Lark, Many Colours Make the Thunder-King amongst others, involve elaborate scenery which Oni has written extensively on, demystifying the complexities of his plays and making it easier for scenographers to handle. Sumbo Marinho, an erstwhile technical director at the University of Ibadan, is said to have handled most of Osofisan’s plays using “realistic production style, a negation of Osofisan’s preference for a simple setting” (99b).

The contemporary designer who is known to have led this pack of theatre designers is Duro Oni known to have designed for several productions as he introduced Computer Aided Designs (CAD) to the Nigerian theatre where he used Corel Draw in designing the plan for his light, under his production outfit “Durolight Sound and Vision” (DSV). He started designing for productions since 1973, and has designed for productions like Dora Ifudu’s One Night Stand, Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Osanyin’s Ogedengbe and Woman, Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame, Ogunyemi’s The Divorce, Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, amongst others. According to Nwadigwe, in Duro Oni and Multimedia, he is said to be “one of the few professionals that were able to effectively flow with the tide of technological changes that characterize the technology, mechanical, analogue, preset and digital multimedia instrumentation and design concepts” (31). The Computer Aided Design (CAD) avails him the opportunity to document all his designs for production as lighting designers can reproduce this lighting design through this medium which has been proven very effective. His lighting trend according to Iwuh follows that of Adolphe Appia as he notes that “One area of Appia’s theory that caught Oni’s attention for enquiry was virtual 51


architecture or the realization of architectural structures for theatre performance through lighting” (47). In most of his designs for productions, Oni states that he looks out for the following things “The lines that are intrinsic with messages that go beyond the lines that are spoken … stage directions, the inflections, those certain nuances in the play production process that are no usually or ordinarily seen by actors” (qtd. in Nasir 671). Other designers are Enessi Ododo, Alphonsus Orisaremi, Molinta Enendu, Charles Nwadigwe, Dike Nwachukwu, Nwagbo Nnenyelike, Adesina Adegbite, and Taofiq Olaide amongst others.

Biodun Abe who is in charge of the scenic designs for the National Troupe of Nigeria and has designed for several productions, is also another notable scenographer. According to Ododo, he is credited to have handled the set design and construction of NIB productions from 1994 to1996” (102b). He observes that Abe, in his scenography, is “transformational, multi-functional and highly mobile with rich aesthetic ambience […] the life-like mountain of Langbodo with scenic spaces within, in form of trap doors and the anthill image-centered design of Kurunmi can speak louder for this scenic trend” (102). Oni as quoted in Ododo, in his analysis of the lighting design explains that it was used “to create multiple dimensions and depth to the essentially white, grey and black mountain set, to make it realistic and also to create an illusion of distance” (24-5b). Recent theatre directors and playwrights in Nigeria include, Ben Tomoloju, Felix Okolo, Lekan Balogun, Wole Oguntokun, Kenneth Uphopho, and a host of many others. Okolo in most of his production like Feast of Return, Nigeria the Beautiful, etc, applies music largely as it dictates the timing of all his plays which he refers to as “Album” style. He thus tasks all his actors in his productions playing the role of actors, musicians and dancers at the same time. In describing Okolo’s scenography, Ododo observes that “Okolo’s scenic conception is highly expressive and 52


utilitarian in nature, giving room for transformation and multi-functional uses” (105b). He further notes that: Aruku Shanka’s set deisgn for instance has a set of planks at the background terminating at unequal level aerially giving a picture of uncompleted buildings […] some of these planks at different times were used to create a room by hanging a clothe on two as a curtain. Until this transformation was done, one may not have seen such dimension to the design. (105).

Bola Kujore and Biodun Abe are also largely responsible for handling the technical aspects of Felix Okolo’s Tempo Productions, though he is known to be involved in set designs for his productions and also involves all members of the cast in the technical aspect. Another director who is also known to follow this trends Wole Oguntokun of “Renegade Theatre”. Due to low funding of the industry, theatre directors and designers like Kenneth Uphopho, are now exploring the use of fabrics, which can be traced back to Hubert Ogunde. The design for Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman directed by Kenneth Uphopho tends towards symbolism and minimalism. Symbolism in the sense that the black flats is used in order not to suggest any locale in the play which allows for enactment of different scenes, as set props are brought in intermittently to suggest Pilkings’ apartment. The “fourth wall” is thus broken with the cell placed on the audience area, due to unavailability of adequate performance space at Terra Kulture, and the performers playing into the audience area. The fabric on the flat thus places the play in the traditional context. Uphopho in all the plays he has directed is constantly exploring the use of fabric, to substitute for paints. The output of scenic design has reduced over time due to financial constraint in Nigerian theatre today, as most producers are not that buoyant enough to adequately foot the bills of productions. This is due to the fact that most sponsors are not ready to fund a play as the assurance of making 53


profit is bleak due to the low patronage rate of dramatic performances in Nigeria. This also has a ripple effect on the performances of the university theatre as most of the technologies available to University theatre have gone obsolete due to advancement in technology while some are no longer functioning due to poor maintenance. As a result of this, most technicians now basically flood the stage. The Grotowski’s style of “poor theatre” which emphasizes on reduction of technical elements in the theatre has now become an escapist route for productions where there are little funds. Despite all this, some production outfits have been able to garner support from banks and other financial organizations due to “close relationship” with some members of staff of these organizations which many are not opportune to have. Upcoming scenographers in the theatrical scene include Matthew Yusuf, Samson Akapo, Juliana Dede, Ikenna Okpala and Ekarika Uwem who are responsible for latest design in the Nigerian theatre scene.

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CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0

Introduction

This chapter is an analysis of the methodologies that the researcher adopts in the study. It also focuses on the analysis of the primary and secondary data and how it is used in perusing the topic of the study titled “A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions”

3.1

Analysis of Primary Data

The primary data that the researcher employs in this study includes Osofisan’s adaptation of Ireke Onibudo, Austen-Peter’s Saro and Llyod Webber’s Cats. The choice of the case studies is informed by the scenic structure of the plays. Ireke Onibudo employs the use of the backdrop in scenic interpretation and manipulation of visual images on stage, while Saro adopts the use of multimedia. Cats thus made use of the realist and symbolist approach in the mise-en-scene. These case studies are of importance to this research as it shows the development of scenography in Nigeria compared to that on Broadway. Ireke Onibudo was staged at Various performance venues in Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, and Akure from 6th November to 30th November 2009, while Saro was staged on Friday 25th October to Sunday 27th October 2013 at New Oriental Hotel Grand Ballroom, Victoria Island. Cats was also staged in 1998 at Adelphi Theatre, London. The researcher employs these case studies to examine the trend in scenography present in both countries, the symbolic elements which makes it unique to the country and scenography advancement over the years. Focus is paid to the comparative analysis of the set design, costume, makeup, props, and the lighting of the productions. 55


3.2

Analysis of Secondary Data

The secondary data that the researcher employs in this study includes textbooks, journals, interviews and internet materials relating to the study. The researcher employs textbooks relating to technical theatre, directing and theatre history in critically examining the development of scenography from the Greek period to the modern times. Internet materials were used in gathering enough electronic books in pdf formats relating to scenography and technical theatre from the site www.bookfi.org and www.jstor.org respectively. The researcher employs these secondary data as the development of scenography cannot be discussed in isolation without making reference to various scholars in the field of scenography and the likes. 3.3

Methodology of Research

The methodologies that the researcher adopts in the study include the Literary Method, Interview Method and the Observation Method. These methods were carefully chosen because of the nature of the research. i)

Literary method

The development in scenography makes the literary method a plausible source in acquiring scholarly works on the area of scenography in theatre. Textbooks, journals, unpublished articles, are of importance to this method as it is used to examine the research topic; “A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions” ii)

Participant Observation Method

The researcher adopts this method in the analysis of the scenography of Saro, because he was involved in the production process as the assistant stage manager. This method is thus seen as viable for the analysis of this study.

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iii)

Interview method.

Due to the nature of this research, the researcher interviewed Makinde Adeniran, Alhaji Teju Kareem, Alphonsus Orisaremi, Hassan Grace Uche and Juliana Dede, on the scenography element in the play analyzed. Makinde Adeniran; the director, Alhaji Teju Kareem; the technical director and Juliana Dede; the costumier for Saro were interviewed by the researcher on Saro, while the researcher interviewed Agbegbi Williams, Dr. Alphonsus Orisaremi, and Dr. Grace Adinku on Ireke Onibudo. The researcher could not conduct any interview for the production of the Cats due to distance in location of the production. This is to get the directorial techniques that were adopted in these productions, and also to get an insight into the scenography style of the productions. This is used to get reliable information on the productions and will give the research the necessary credibility.

3.4

Validation and Submission

All materials that the researcher employs in this study were given due credits and references were made to at the appendix of this study for future researchers in the area of scenography.

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CHAPTER FOUR: EVALUATION OF CASE STUDIES

4.0

Introduction

This chapter is an analysis of Osofisan’s Ireke Onibudo, Austen-Peter’s Saro and Llyod Webber’s Cats. It gives a summary of the productions used in the analysis of the study and also critically examines the scenographic representation of the productions.

4.1

Summary of Ireke Onibudo

The play Ireke Onibudo was adapted by Femi Osofisan to The Fabulous Adventures of a Sugarcane Man. Ireke Onibudo; born into a wealthy family, suffers a bad fate when he losses his mother and his father out of his lust for women. Thus, he is faced with the problem of women’s likeness for him wherever he goes. After making progress in life, he decides to go to Beyioku to narrate his story, played out by his retinue. The play starts at the Veranda in the latter compound of Beyioku’s house after the warm welcome Beyioku gave Ireke and his retinue. Ireke is glad by this gesture and prays for his faith not to be that of Ologbo Ijakadi. Beyioku not knowing what this meant asks for more explanations from Ireke. In explaining what he meant, he calls his retinue; whom he has virtually told all his stories, to narrate it to him (Beyioku). The story goes thus of the relationship between Ologbo Ijakadi (who is not to be trusted by other animals) and the Tiger. The sudden closeness with Ologbo Ijakadi makes Tiger’s wife very concerned because of Ologbo Ijakadi’s deceitful ways. The Tiger ignores this warning and they both heed to Ologbo Ijakadi, who promised to make their children an object of envy in the town by changing their colour within seven days. On the expiration of the seventh day, the tiger and his

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wife realizes that it was all a deceit and that Ologbo Ijakadi has eaten all their children. The Tiger and his wife decides to evil deeds the evil deeds done them by Ologbo Ijakadi, but were unable to outsmart Ologbo, when he pretended to be the royal father who has come to bless the land in a feast organized by the Lion. Ireke continues this story to Beyioku of his experience of how he suffered greatly in life before he became what he is, and the great influence his mother had on him. Ireke starts by telling Beyioku, the first encounter with bad luck when on his way, he met a man; Logun, grinding pepper by himself and decides to help. After the help rendered, he begs Logun to take him in, to be his servant. He gladly accepts and his problem soon begins when he meets Adisa (his new found friend in Logun’s house) and explains the several sexual attempts from Logun’s wife. Logun sends Ireke packing when the wife lied against him of his advances towards her even before marriage. Ireke’s trouble increases, when he encounters a giant Cyclops in the forest that kills his only friend; Adisa. This makes Ireke devastated and went on his journey to an unknown land. On his adventure he stumbles on a village called Ero Ehin (Retrogressive Race), where things were invariably cheap, not knowing the gods were merely fooling him. On his journey away from the torment-filled village, he ferries on a boat which is capsized by the turbulent wind of Arogidigba; the Queen of the sea, on their annual festival where human heads were needed. Ireke was left out, because of the special likeness Arogidigba had for him. Due to Ireke’s refusal to marry Arogidigba, she gives him a difficult task to achieve. Locked at crossroads, he summons his dead mother who helps him out of this task by sending messengers from heaven. He is advised to leave as soon as possible by his mother when Arogidigba told him to fight Ewure Iberu adorned with 61 flaming horns, which his mother admitted to the fact that her powers added to that of Ireke cannot match that of the deadly monster. 59


He takes his destiny into his own hands by not following his mother’s advice and decides to go the wrong way. On his way, he hears wailing from the town known as Alupayida, where their princess had been captured by a strange snake of enormous dimensions emitting fire from its mouth. Ireke kills the snake and is conferred the title of Basorun for the great feat and the hand of the princess; Ifepade by the Oba. Ifepade falls in love with Ireke, but this is soon cut short when Ifepinya, becomes very jealous of the fact that the Kabiyesi only concentrated on Ifepade and all good things in the palace went to her. Ifepinya’s mother with Ifepinya decide to ruin Ireke using one of the chief Apena, as a go-between, by taking him to the women’s wing where it is forbidden for anyone to enter except the eunuchs or in exceptional cases of the king’s permission. The Oba becomes very annoyed when he finds out Ireke’s hideout and banishes him from the town for ‘betraying’ him. Ireke curses the land of Alupayida for repaying his good deeds by sending him away and leaving angry letters behind for Ifepade. Ifepade starts on the journey to look out for Ireke having discovered the truth of the matter. Osofisan sums up the story of the Tiger and the Tiger’s wife when she decides to kill herself to avenge the death of her daughter, knowing full well that Ologbo Ijakadi will confess when a price is announced for whoever killed the tiger’s wife who be rewarded handsomely. Ologbo Ijakadi falls for this trick by coming outside to announce that he is responsible for the death. Ifepade later finds Ireke, when the owner of a palm wine shop, told her that Ireke just left his shop looking very weak, tired and desperately looking for a job. On finding him, she takes him back to her father’s palace where Ifepinya and her mother confessed that they plotted against Ireke. The play ends on a lively note with the wedding ceremony of Ifepade and Ireke Onibudo where he has finally found his long awaited love.

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4.2

Summary of Saro

Saro is a story of freedom, destiny, determination and success. It centres on the feeling of confinement and frustration which leads a group of young performers to embark on a journey in search of their destiny. The quartet; Laitan, Azeez, Obaro and Efe makes to go in search of the proverbial golden fleece in Lagos after a business card was given to them by a rich man at the village arena. Laitan; who is in love with Rume (the village belle) is laid back, as he sees no significant difference between the village and the city. He is also faced with the troubles posed by Rume’s father by not allowing him to marry his heartthrob; Rume. On the other hand, Rume convinces Laitan to go to Lagos to make a name for himself and come back a success story, after which she believes her father can agree to their union. Reluctantly, Laitan follows the other boys to Lagos. The Quartet encounters gangsters at the Yaba motor park in Lagos, where their wallet which contains their money and the business card which is their lead to Lagos, was stolen. Their bags were also stolen by the touts thus leaving them stranded. Also, while at the Yaba Motor Park, they get arrested alongside some touts by the police and thrown inside the cell. Don Ceeto; a music producer comes in search of one of his boys; Rasaki, who was also arrested with the quartet. He hears a song being sung by the Quartet in the cell, which attracts his attention. He decides to feature them in the concert he has been planning. He quickly arranges for their release and takes them to his home where his studio and office are located. On getting to the house, Don Ceeto introduce the Quartet to his daughter; Ronke, and the studio attendant; Jane. He tells Jane to get ready for the producers whom he has called while on his way to the house about the Quartet he just discovered and how they can be useful to the concert being organized. The producers later come into the house to test their singing ability. During this test, the producers take them through the journey of music 61


in Nigeria beginning from African pop, music and instruments from many ethnic groups and musical tradition. Impressed by the performance of the Quartet, the producers decide to visit Don Ceeto again after he might have properly groomed them on the techniques of music that they require. Ronke is unhappy with this sudden interest in the Quartet by the producer and his father, and thwarts their (quartet) effort by making them uncomfortable. Jane picks interest in Laitan’s skill on the guitar as well as his singing ability, and decides to invite him to her church where she is one of the choristers. Don Ceeto who is still yet to discover Jane’s talent, marvels at her performance in the church and sees her as a good replacement for Ronke. The producers visit Don Ceeto’s again to check on the Quartet and were amazed at their improvement. Meanwhile, all the while, Ronke is infuriated about so much attention is been paid to the Quartet. Don Ceeto notices the discontent in Ronke, calls her aside to explain the reasons for his actions and takes her through his dream and finally reveals to her that he has decided to call the quartet “SARO”, to represent slaves who migrated from Sierra Leone to Nigeria in the beginning of the 1830’s. This angers Ronke the more, as she can no longer picture herself in the dream, as her father has totally shifted concentration to Jane and the quartet. She then decides not to sing alongside the quartet at the concert, a decision that Obaro was happy about. Laitan who is still unsure about making it in Lagos, and leaving his girlfriend, Rume in the village, gives her Don Ceeto’s number so that she can call him when she gets to Lagos after running away from her father. This decision by Laitan, causes banter between him and Azeez, and he (Laitan) decides to leave the house in search of Rume in the village, but bumps into her as she enters the house.

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The play ends with a massive concert organized by the Don Ceeto, where the music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti was performed and the quartet performed their originally composed song with a mix of Nigerian popular music. Laitan reunites with his girlfriend Rume, as Azeez clings to Jane. Ronke later comes to the realization of what his father meant, about the determination of the migrant which is inherent in the quartet.

4.3

Summary of Cats

Cats is a stage play based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Elliot, focuses on the life of “Jellicle Cats” and the way they live. Though the stage play is a work of fiction, it centres on a certain night in the year when all cats (referred to as “jellicle cats”) meet at the “jellicle ball” (a term for refuse dump), and make a “jellicle choice”, where the cat that is to be reborn and come back to a different “jellicle life” is announced. The play also centres on a tribe of cats who worships an old man called “Old Deuteronomy” and make a show for him to express how worthy they are on the jellicle nights where they all assemble. The play starts with the introduction of all the jellicle cats and their features. In this introduction, they explain that the jellicle cats are different from all other cats and have names that never belong to more than one cat, and one which no human can decipher. The Jellicle cats according to the play are black and white, merry and bright with bright black eyes, and know how to dance. Grizabella; the Glamour Cat; who was once loved by many, but now very old and wretched comes out during this celebration, and is ignored by everyone. Bustopher Jones; a cat whom is loved by everyone and who takes attention away from Grizabella, comes to tell other cats of his visit to the senior educational officer. As he delivers his message to the other cats, chaos soon ensues to herald the

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arrival of Macavity; who is hated by other cats. As they scamper to safety, Old Deuteronomy comes in, and the mood changes as he is to announce the cat that will witness another jellicle life. Old Deuteronmy, known to have lived many lives in succession and famous with his proverbs and mime a long time before Queen Victoria’s accession, according to the play, comes to meet the jellicle cats. To celebrate his entry, the cats enact the awful battle between the Pekes and the Pollicles; who are proud and impeccable passionate foes, as nobody must be on the streets when they are fighting. As the dance continues Grizabella, out of the need for attention, comes in again to join the jellicle cats in the dance, but is ignored again by the cats. Gus; the Theatre Cat comes in, as Grizabella leaves in total neglect. He is old and frail and was known to be a famous actor when he was young. As the cats celebrate and make him feel at home, Macavity; the mystery cats come in, and Old Deuteronomy is captured by Macavity’s acolytes. Macavity is referred to as a cat who defiles the law and moves with celerity to the extent that when the Police reach the crime scene he created, he is not always there and his footprints are erased. Munkustrap; the defender of all other cats, engages himself in a battle with Macavity, as he escapes when he hears the siren of the Police. Normalcy is soon restored as Mistoffeles; the conjuring cat comes in. He is known for his magical inventions, surprising illusions and creative eccentric confusions. He restores the night back to the jellicle cats, when he uses his magical abilities to bring back Old Deuteronomy, which made the cats happy. Old Deuteronomy then announces Grizabella; the Glamour Cat as the jellicle cat who can be reborn and come back to a new jellical life. Happiness is brought back to her as all the cats were happy with the decision of Old Deuteronomy. She then ascends to the Jellicle moon as the story ends.

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4.4

Analysis of Scenographic Representations in Ireke Onibudo

The scenographic Representation in Ireke Onibudo is analyzed below;

i)

Set

Ireke Onibudo as a play permeates through the human world and the spirit world, and as such leaves the scenographers in the realm of high creativity and thought process on the believability of the spirit world through the use of scenographic elements on stage. Being a play adapted from D.O. Fagunwa by Femi Osofisan to The Fabulous Adventures of a Sugarcane Man, the writing style of the latter comes to bear in the production, which must also be taken into consideration while staging the play. The images in the setting of the play were meant to work regardless of whether the audience knew all the icons or not. This situation can thus be excused due to the depiction of the spirit world, which is difficult to visually create except one has experienced such world. The stage has its limitation when it comes to presentation of illusions comparable to the cinematic effect in motion pictures, hence the need of a backdrop to serve as a background to all the actions in the play. The backdrop summarizes the entire playing area into a village setting where the actors played against, and functional due to the scene changes which makes the scenographic approach of Ireke Onibudo not static. This holistic stage picture thus accentuates the general aesthetic appeal of the human element in the play. The use of minimalism, impression and symbolism in the mise-enscene is evident.

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Fig. 1 – Use of Backdrop in Ireke Onibudo The paintings on the backdrop above, automatically sets the locale of the play as a traditional one, with the mud houses and thatched roofs. Movable and immovable scenery are used in the play for visual interpretation. The movable scenery includes the hut, the set pieces in the underworld, the palace setting, narrator’s place, and the town of Ero Eyin. The movable set pieces in the play were brought in amidst dance and music as there were no provisions for blackout to enable for smooth flow of scenes. One of such set is seen below.

Fig. 2 - Dancers Arranging the Hut for the Next Scene This set was moved in by the dancers to create the acting environment of the hut where the tiger is deceived by Ologbo Ijakadi, to conceal his children for beautification process. Though the

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building was meant for Ologbo Ijakadi to beautify tiger’s daughter, it led to an ultimate doom for him (tiger), when he discovers all his children have been eaten by the cunny Ologbo Ijakadi. The set also creates the traditional ambience that permeates throughout the play as aided with other scenographic elements. The concept of the play allows for many errors to be corrected on spot, as Orisaremi in an interview with the researcher explains an instance where they had “to go and correct a scenario during performance on stage”. This is made possible with the use of black costumes, which makes it easy to seamlessly join the performers on stage, without necessarily disturbing the flow of the performance. Other scenographic representation in the play includes a scenario in the play where Ireke Onibudo is given a task by Arogidigba to build a house of twelve rooms which must be ready in twenty four hours. To achieve this imaginative scenery, thus calls for a high level of creativity. This was achieved with the use of set-props and a movable frame of a house brought in by the spirit workers amidst music and dance.

Fig. 3 – The Spirit Workers building a Simulation of Twelve Rooms on Stage The selective use of pink and light green colours for the bricks symbolizes a house tastefully furnished as required of Ireke Onibudo by Arogidigba. Symbolism is also used in the depiction of

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Ero Eyin’s Palace. The seat adorned with tattered fabrics symbolizes the nature of the people living in the village, and gives a summary of their ideology which focuses on trying to beat each other to pulp, thereby leaving their all their clothes tattered as seen below:

Fig.4 – The King’s Palace in Ero Eyin Other scenographic elements in the play include the palace of the Oba of Alupayida. The use of traditional icons in the representation of the scenery and lighting to convey mood and ambience aided the audience to situate the stage performance in a cinematic genre.

ii)

Light

Light is one of the most important aspects in a play production, used to convey mood and the psychological state of the characters on stage. The fantastic approach in scripting thus necessitates for the same approach in the lighting of the production. The scene below is that of Arogidigba (the queen of the underworld); and her retinues. In the lighting of this scene, the blue hue is used to signify that the locale is set in the underworld which is further enhanced with the use of colourful costumes. The lighting thus serves as the setting for the scene, as the images on the backdrop is rendered useless

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Fig. 5 – Arogidigba and her Retinue. Use of light to create transition is used in the scene below. The light summarizes the several journeys of Ireke through several paths in the spirit world. The human representation of transcendental steps which Ireke climbs accentuates the effect of the lighting of the scene with the use of the yellow ochre hue. The use of this colour brings about a suppression in mood and evocation of pity for Ireke, who has been through several tumultuous journey. It also creates a sort of uncertain future for the character and a bleak one at that, as he is still uncertain where he might find himself.

Fig. 6 – Lighting for Ireke’s Transition to Another World Though in the spirit world, there is a level created in the spiritual representation with the use of light. Throughout the adventures of Ireke, he is constantly faced with difficulties, which one of 69


them is his encounter with Ewure Iberu (the fiercest animal in the spirit world). To further enunciate the characterization of this animal the green hue was used which automatically engages the audience in a terrific mood of the scene. Green as used in the context of the play dampens the mood of the audience, as they are finally relieved of it when the creature dies.

Fig. 7 – Ireke and Ewure Iberu locked in a fight Variations in colour is used in Ireke Onibudo to suggest several meanings as the case may be. Despite the travails of Ireke, he becomes triumphant when he defeats the monster that has long enslaved the people of Alupayida. The blue hue used below seeks peace and tranquility above everything else and signifies the physical and mental relaxation of Ireke in the play. It is also used to set the mood of the love affair between Ireke and Ifepade; Ireke’s betrothed wife.

Fig. 8 – Ireke and Ifepade As such, the colour exhibits the inner security and confidence as found in both actors. Ifepade in the play is also relieved of her captivity by Ireke who defeated the dreaded monster. 70


iii)

Costume

Costume is one of the fastest growing scenographic element in theatre, and as such has improved the aesthetic appeal of the play. The costume as used in the play is representative of both the spirit world and the human world. Suspension of disbelief and enhancement of stage symbols is thus created with the use of the costumes of stage especially those of the spirit world. Ireke a major character in the play as seen below traverses both the world of the living and the spirit. The dominance of red colour in Ireke’s costume is suggestive of his travails. It also suggests a determinant spirit to make it through several obstacles encountered with the spirits. Being the colour of physical movement, it activates his physical life force and stimulates positivity.

Fig. 9 – Ireke on one of his journey in the underworld The costume of Ireke’s mother as seen below suggests that she is a spirit. This costume design can be said to be an influence of the traditional mode of film making where a beam of light is thrown on the ghostly character, for differentiation from other characters on stage. Use of a white net also creates an illusion of the surreal, which is symbolic in the Nigerian traditional context. The colour thus shows her immunity from the several forces in the underworld, as she uses her magical powers to help her son surmount obstacles. 71


Fig. 10 – Ireke’s Mother The spirit-aides are seen in the multi-coloured costume above adorned with apron. Though it might be extremely difficult to ascribe a certain colour of costume to these types of characters, the costumier achieves this by interplay of several colours to differentiate them from other characters and also suggest the suspension of disbelief. The representation of the animal costume is worth commending in Ireke Onibudo. Several hues were experimented with which also blends with the colour of the mask and the animal that is being depicted on stage as seen below. The representation of the tiger is much commendable due to the level of realism attained in the costumes. Due to the complexity of these costumes, there was a costume change in view of the audience in order to still maintain the pace of the production.

Fig. 11 – The Representation of Animals 72


Surrealism is also achieved through the representation of the fishes in the picture below. Arogidigba is seen in a distinctive costume which differentiates her as the queen of the underworld. The use of blue hue in the costumes also signifies the association of the fishes to the underworld. Several fishes where also created on stage with the use of the green colour on other fishes represented on stage to create a sense of aesthetic appeal. The attributes of a fish is seen in in Arogidigba’s costume.

Fig. 12 – Arogidigba’s Costume Traditional icons are also used in the play in the town of Alupayida as seen below. These icons include the crown, beads, and the staff of the king. In the costume below, differentiation of social status is seen in the costume of the king and that of the slaves. While aso-oke is used in the costume of the former to suggest high status, adire is also used to suggest low social status. The quality of both costumes naturally passes this message across to the audience. Use of beads in the scene serves as a differentiation between characters of the King and the chiefs. The King’s staff and horsetail is also a symbol of authority. These icons constrict the play to the Yoruba setting in Nigeria.

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Fig. 13 – Ifepade about to be married to Ireke According to the Yoruba context, a veil on a woman’s head especially in ceremonies is suggestive of a marital union. The scene above thus represents this as Ifepade is about to be betrothed to Ireke. The choice of the purple and sky blue in the costume of Ifepade and Ireke respectively also has a lot to say about their characterization. In the meaning of colours, purple represents the future, the imagination and dreams, while spiritually calming the emotions. The purple colour relates to the fantasy world, and a need to escape from the practicalities of life. It is the daydreamer escaping from reality. They inspire and enhance psychic ability and spiritual enlightenment, while, at the same time, keeping us grounded. From a color psychology perspective, purple promote harmony of the mind and the emotions, contributing to mental balance and stability, peace of mind, a link between the spiritual and the physical worlds, between thought and activity.

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Fig. 14 – Ireke after his Ultimate Triumph in the Play This colour also inspires the unconditional and selfless love for Ireke. This colour also depicts her as someone vulnerable to the antics of her Ifepinya. The costume of Ireke represents his new found wealth. The use of sky blue in Ireke’s costume is one which inspires selfless love and fidelity and promotes a helpful nature that can overcome all obstacles which is clearly depicted in Ireke’s characterization.

iv)

Props

The usage of props in the play adds to the scenographic representation of the play, embedded in meanings. Props in this play can be categorized into hand props and the set props. Due to the nature of the play, there were more set props than hand props. Most of the hand props later turned to set props, to simulate an environment in the play. An instance of such situation is seen in the scene below. The dancers move the tree props were meant to simulate a big farm on stage, which automatically becomes a set prop as it is placed on the stage, while the yams at upstage left is used to depict a bountiful harvest

Fig 15 – The spirit workers working on a farm 75


Fig 16 – Travellers on their way to Ilu Alupayida Other use of props to aid in the visual interpretation of the play is the canoe and the paddle. The use of baskets symbolizes the traditional setting of the play and the occupation of the people in the boat. Other prop in the play is the cutlass which was given by Ireke’s mum to Ireke. This cutlass not only helps him overcome obstacles, but leads him to a place of succor at Ilu Alupayida. Props in general as used in the play add to the overall aesthetic appreciation of the play and the visual interpretation of some symbols.

v)

Makeup

Makeup as used in the play is used to differentiate between ages of characters on stage. Stage makeup is a key component in performance as it helps in characterization, identifying age of a character, establishing style of a production, creating symbolic and non-human characters, and identifying status and personality. The makeup in Ireke Onibudo is more of identifying the age of the character, and status. In the picture below, there is dominance of the white hue in the makeup of Old Ireke (left) than that of Beyioku (right). This suggest difference in age of both characters on stage. Other instances of traditional symbols is the hair of the females adorned with bead as seen below; 76


Fig. 17 – Old Ireke (left) and Beyioku (right)

Fig. 18 – Itanforiti (middle) and Town’s People This beads accustomed with the costume, situates the play in the Yoruba setting. The makeup of Itanforiti (middle) also distinguishes him from other characters on stage as an old man. Though the makeup in the play were minimal, there were some major mistakes made in that of Ireke as seen in the picture below.

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Fig. 19 – Depiction of Hardship on Ireke and Ifepade Ireke according to what is depicted above is said to have been in the bush for long without having a bath which is clearly depicted in his thick hair and beard. However, despite the depiction of suffering, Ireke’s body is still looking fresh, which leads to a contrasting meaning of scenographic elements. The endless search of Ireke by Ifepade is also depicted through her makeup. This mistake can however be excused due to the directorial style of the production, which had Ireke on stage in almost all the scenes, as there were no room for makeup changes.

4.5

Analysis of Scenographic Representations in Saro

Scenography is a branch of the theatre which focuses on visual elements of a production and contributes to the visual perception of the entire play. This segment discusses the set, light and costume elements in Saro.

i)

Set

Saro; a multifaceted play set in various places, dwells on the life of a Quartet namely; Azeez, Obaro, Efe, and Latian in their quest to make a name for themselves in the big city; Lagos. The 78


play adopts different settings in the realization of this story ranging from the village square, hut, motor park, cell, living room, to a concert hall. Owing to the play’s complex setting, the set designer adopts a bare centre stage which is used to enact most of the scenes in the play including village square, hut, motor park, cell, and Don Ceeto’s living room. This empty space is then flanked by settings leading to different rooms in Don Ceeto’s house at the left and the right with an upstairs. At stage left from audience perspective is seated the orchestra, visible to the audience. At stage right from audience perspective is Don Ceeto’s upper room where some scenes in his house are played out. The use of multimedia in the play is in form of a single-screen rear projection, and employed as the background for all the setting in the play to suggest locale and set the mood of the scene. The use of the projection avails the director the chance of showing various scenes supported by actions on stage. One of such scenes is Laitan and Rume’s below;

Fig. 20 - Laitan and Rume’s Scene (Village Setting) The scene above depicts the love affair between Laitan and Rume. It shows the unwillingness of Laitan to go to Lagos as Rume convinces him of the various opportunities that abound, as they sing a departure song “Magba gbe mi” (Do not forget me). Despite being enacted on a bare stage 79


the locale is depicted by the use of stumps, being enhanced at the background with multimedia depicting a village scene to set the locale. This pictorial view of the hinterland encapsulates in totality every other villages present in Nigeria, which is a focus of the play. It creates a sort of ambience and dynamic spatial relations to the scene despite the fact that there are no set/props to enhance the scene. The multimedia in the scene combines the features of fixed and kinetic images. Another use of the multimedia to enhance the actions on stage is seen below at the motor park’s scene which heralds the arrival of the quartet; Laitan, Azeez, Efe and Obaro.

Yaba Presbyterian Church

Fig. 21 - Motor Park Scene

“Yaba Bus Stop” printed on the structure

Fig. 22 - A Close View at the Multimedia in the Park Iconic symbol which makes the audience recognize with the locale of the scene is the “Yaba Presbyterian Church” as seen in Fig. 21, known for the long conical structure on the top of the 80


building as seen above. It is thus easy for people who are familiar with the Yaba market, to identify the church, located at the heart of Yaba. This park signifies the typical Nigerian setting, which represents the larger picture of what some motor parks look like in Lagos, and as such forms a symbolic outlook of the city. This multimedia creates an illusion that the pedestrians seen on stage are present in the locale depicted in the background, while they are only a physical extension of the projected images. Augmenting the interplay of projections and live performers were several treadmills of stereophonic sound at the motor park, used when the commuters dance with the umbrella’s in which the end result of the dance is seen in Fig. 21 above. In this scene, the Quartet faces the hustles and bustles of Lagos; where they are accosted by the touts, who steal their bags and wallets, and are arrested by the policemen for wandering. The projection in this scene shows kinetic images of buses moving and different people going about their business at the Yaba motor park as seen in Fig. 23. There is also an infusion of music and movement with the use of the umbrella to suggest rainfall and the projection is used to simulate the rainfall at the background.

The “S” symbol on the railings

Fig. 23 - Umbrella Sequence at the motor park scene with the aid of the projections 81


The yellow bus in the picture above, popularly referred to as “danfo” is a symbol of the LagosNigeria transport system. Other symbol in the play is found on the railings behind the four characters under the umbrella. The inverted letter “S” is a symbol popular to Bola Ahmed Tinubu; a former governor of Lagos state, which he uses for his cap designs. It serves as his unique symbol and also symbolizes that the locale depicted is in Lagos. The projection gives the audience a realistic feel of the scene. In a way, it enhances some actor’s line in the scene. This projection thus avails the director the opportunity of reducing the human elements on stage. Use of projection in enhancing scene interpretation is seen in the church scene, where a church was recorded and projected.

Fig. 24 - Church Scene Due to the use of the scenery as a mode of interpretation and creating a background with which all the scenes are enacted, comes the necessity to make the “set props” on stage minimal. This gives room for the projection to pass its message across to the audience, than when set props are much. Example of such scene where the set prop is used in depicting locale is the prison scene as seen below. This however reduces the complexity of depicting a realistic cell by just representing it with one set of bars, enhanced by the projection of prison walls. The aesthetic appeal of this scene 82


is further enhanced by use of blue hue of lights setting the mood for the scene. It is noted in this scene that much concentration was paid more on the actors, as the lights and sets were not aimed at creating spectacle that hinders line delivery.

Fig. 25 - The Quartet and Touts in the Prison Projections generally afford the set designer to be very flexible with interpretation of scenes unlike the adoption of heavy scenery which encumbers the smooth change of set from one scene to another.

ii)

Light

Lighting is a major element in theatre used to enhance or aid actions on stage. It is very crucial to a play as it is majorly used for illumination, and then revelation of forms, selective focus, mood creation, fluidity, and reinforcement of theme. It is thus expected of the lighting designer to have a total grasp of the script and the spatial-visual interpretation guided by the director’s concept Lighting varies from one production to another depending on the script, stage, lighting equipment, and the lighting designer. The output of the lighting equipment is determined largely due to his level of expertise and creativity. Saro; being a large scale production adopts the use of projections,

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hence a need for heavy manipulations of light and a good lighting designer and programmer, handled by Alhaji Teju Kareem of Z-Mirage and Simon Harborow. Saro is more of a play that focuses purely on the entertainment angle of drama. Thus, the lighting tends to be more “relaxed” in terms of suggesting mood. It fulfills all the functions of lighting which was previously outlined. The interplay of colours to mean several things in the play is seen in the picture below;

Fig. 26 - A dancer enacting Rume’s Thought on Stage

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Fig. 27 - Laitan and Rume’s thoughts Enacted through Dance and Light Manipulations Fig 26 above is an extension of Laitan thought when he was alone at Don Ceeto’s thinking of Rume whom he left in the village. The picture only shows Rume in a silhouette form as she sings to “Owede wede”; a reflection of what Laitan is singing at Don Ceeto’s house. The emotional state of the two characters is thus enacted by the dancer in white overall but lit in a light shade of blue which creates a sense of imagination, and melancholy from the angles of Laitan and Rume on both sides of the stage. The world depicted in Fig. 27 is Lacan’s world of the “real” otherwise known as the “superego”, that does not exist. This world is depicted through dance, enacting their fantasies of getting married. This unconscious world, or as Lacan would have it, the “superego” manifest in the conscious when he later gets engaged to Laitan at the end of the play. The mirror stage is represented by the presence of Rume in the silhouette in Fig. 26, where she grapples with the reason why her father does not want her to marry Laitan, as she slowly soliloquize through songs, which is also reflected by Laitan. All their human desires are thus satisfied in the world of the “real” which is enacted through dance. According to Lacan, “there is no language because there is no loss, no lack, no absence; there is only complete fullness, only needs and the satisfaction of needs” (Klages 78). The enactment of the slaves below, shows usage of light in depicting mood. This scene is symbolic of the agony of our forefathers under the colonial rule. The colour used in the scene is synonymous to that of suffering and mystery. It represents in totality Nigeria and other African countries that underwent slavery. To adequately represent this, the lighting designer used the red hue which signifies courage, vigor, rage, anger, and wrath, amongst others. This encapsulates the emotional state of the actors as the scene is being acted. 85


Fig. 28 - Enactment of slavery in Saro I

Fig. 29 - Enactment of slavery in Saro II The use of red in the play however signifies anger, and determination amongst others which the slaves went through in the 18th century under the colonial masters whom they work for. The lighting for this scene is further enhanced by the depiction of chains on the multimedia at the background, in order to plunge the audience reflecting on what was faced by these people.

iii)

Costume

One of the branches in the theatre which is gradually improving and gaining much attention is costume. The situation has changed from that which is obtainable some years back in Nigerian theatre, where costume is one of the least thought off, and little money allocated to. The costume 86


designer’s role is therefore all encompassing both artistically and intellectually and help creates the inner spirit of the character or performer within the production. In the case of Saro however, costume is one of the major factor in the overall aesthetic appeal of the play. In the playwrights conception of the play, it depicts the village where Laitan, Efe, Obaro and Azeez comes from, as one that is not limited to one specific culture in the country as seen below;

Fig. 30 - Village Scene This concept pass across the idea of the need for unity across to the audience, thereby breaking the tribal and ethnic differences that presently exist in the country. This message is passed nonverbally through the depiction of the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Benin, and the Niger Delta culture on stage. It foresees a situation in which everybody will all sit together as one and make Nigeria a better place for all to live. The choice of colour in the production is worth commendable, as there are displays of brighter colours for each culture. Red and white is used in the Aso-oke used for the Yoruba culture which depicts the culture in a brighter light. The design on the buba is also symbolic of the culture which has been in existence in the designs of the aso-oke during ancient times. The scene depicts the Hausa culture in a bright shade of green trousers and white shirt with a red waist coat and a red cap. The Hausa girls are on green top with a touch of white red and green on their skirts, and adorned with beads. The Benin culture is also depicted in the velvet costume which is 87


the identity of the Benin people, while the people from Niger Delta are costumed in hues of green, orange and black. Blue and white is also used to depict the Igbo culture. These colours are peculiar to the cultures depicted on stage and exhume the vibrant nature of different cultures on stage by passing the message that Nigerians are vibrant and happy people on stage. It is however noted in the play, the costume of the Hausa men deviated from the normal “cream” costume made of calico material common to the depiction of the culture in most Nigerian traditional plays. As the play progresses, the Quartet, despite setbacks from Laitan’s love life with Rume, decides to go the city in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece, as seen below;

Fig. 31 - Obaro, Laitan, Efe, and Azeez (left to right) Though talented in the village, the play depicts the Quartet as local champions who have what it takes, but have no exposure on how they can make a living for themselves. This is depicted in the costumes of the characters with the use of the African fabrics and shoes. A close look at Obaro’s trousers above, depicts one who is actually not bothered about fashion and thus would afford to wear a trouser which is not his length, typical of the village boys. But things soon later changed for the worse for them when they got to Lagos and were outsmarted by the touts who steals their

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bags and wallet where the business card which is their lead to the person they are to meet in Lagos. The arrival of the touts to the Yaba motor park is seen below;

Fig. 32 - The touts on Their Arrival at the Motor Park. Careful selection of costume to depict the ruggedness of the touts is seen above. This scene clearly depicts the types of touts present in Lagos as they vary from one country to another. One major feature of the costume which distinguishes them from ordinary commuters is the mode of dressing with the placement of caps and bandanna’s. The head of the touts is seen on the brown top with a light brown knickers and a shoe adorned with heavy makeup and rings to stand her out. The costume and the makeup is symbolic of the typical Lagos Isale-eko woman whom is heavily made up and adorned with several rings. After the Quartet’s encounter with the touts and the policemen, Don Ceeto; a music producer, came to bail one of his boys who was arrested during a raid by the police at the park and latter begs the police to grant the Quartet bail on account of their singing. He then brings them to stay in the boy’s quarters in his house. The picture below shows the quartet at their arrival to Don Ceeto’s house.

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Fig. 33 - Don Ceeto with Ronke; his daughter, Jane and the Quartet sitting in Don Ceeto’s house The costumier in the scene above uses the costumes to depict characterization and social status in the play. In depicting social status through costume, Don Ceeto and Ronke are regarded as people in the upper class of the society, while Jane is in the middle class and the Quartet in the lower class. In the depiction of this, Don Ceeto is on a suit, yellow shirt and red pants, with a hat and walking stick to depict his affluence, and also someone who is lively despite his old age. His daughter; Ronke, is also costumed in the same light with her wearing a red “tank top” and black leggings on a purple shoe. The use of the purple shoe and the way it is being worn actually gives a contrast to other costumes on stage to depict wealth, though this cans till be worn by a regular lady on the street. This costume is typical of the Lagos “wanabe’s”, who are famous for their heavy dress mode. The African fabric on Jane, though vibrant, depicts her as someone who is not up to the status of Ronke. This is also used to represent the trend amongst youth of a wealthy person as one who has a sense of fashion and can afford to wear anything trendy as seen in Ronke’s and not that of Jane’s. To depict a change of locale, the Quartet change into something trendier as seen in the picture below, which was bought for them by Don Ceeto, after their properties were stolen by the touts. 90


Fig. 34 - The quartet in a Trendy Costume The inscription on Azeez’s shirt which reads “Young, Rich, Sexy and Free”, is symbolic of his longings in the city and what they hope to become. It also depicts their spirit of determinations. The guys therefore are faced with several opportunities by Don Ceeto, who helps them in discovering their talents, assisted by Jane. In Don Ceeto’s house, the play takes the audience through the history of music from the likes of the Ayinla Omowura of Apala music, to King Sunny Ade of highlife music, Onyeka Onwenu, Sir Shina Peters of Afrojuju fame and to the Tuface and the Psquare of present times. In depicting these periods, the costume designers, takes the audience through a costume historical flashback.

Fig. 35 - Costumes worn to depict Ayinla Omowura’s music 91


This costume is unique in the sense of the colour and the material used on stage. The way the costume is also sown also creates a sense of flashback and the flowing garments of the men in the scene. Other costumes of other musicians were worn to either depict historical or cultural relevance of the song. The costume that deals with culture relevance is also seen below;

Fig. 36 - Costumes worn to depict Onyeka Onwenu’s music The Igbo wrapper, singlet and red cap of the men with the costume of the ladies depicts the culture of the music being danced to. Also the way the white top of the ladies were sown depicts the manner in which ladies sow their costumes during the period which Onyeka Onwenu; a popular musician in Nigeria reigned. Though this type of sowing is still obtainable now, it has been relegated to ceremonial purposes. Fela’s costume and the use of female dancers below represents the Fela phenomenon and his connectedness with opposite sex largely evident in his songs. In this scene, one could Fela’s arcehtype, dressed in tight fitting trousers and his female dancers whom are known for multicolored bra adorned with beads and skirts sewn in a shred-like manner. The rope on his neck also represents his preference for saxophone, which is one of his favourite instruments.

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Fig. 37 - Enactment of Fela and his dancers on stage It makes it easy for audience who are not familiar with Fela, to identify with the character, through symbolic elements in the costume. Another attempt at good costuming is that of the quartet in the concert scene. The glittering suit gives another sort of aesthetic appeal to the scene, as they come on stage. An attempt which might not be intentional as the case may be, is made by the costumier to represent Michael Jackson’s classic dress sense on stage, which stands him out from his contemporaries. This costume also depicts the end result of their struggle and how they have gone so far with their determination to make it in Lagos

Fig. 38 - The quartet on Stage with the Glittering Suits

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Bases on the analysis of the costume in Saro, it is however worth commending, as not many productions in the country have been able to achieve this feat due to financial constraints. The costume generally can be said to be aesthetically appealing and symbolically relevant to the Nigerian culture which makes it a likely exportable product of the country for Broadway.

iv)

Props

A prop is otherwise known as “properties” used by an actor on stage to aid his performance. It is thus simply defined as anything handled by an actor during performance. A props is multifaceted in that it can become a costume on stage and can also turn to be part of the set, depending on the usage by the actor. Sofer defines a prop as an “object that goes on journey; hence props trace spatial trajectories and create temporal narratives as they track through a given performance.” (2). Props helps in the visual perception of a scene and thus helps in making the play lively, as “it demands actual embodiment and motion on the stage in order to spring to imaginative life.” (3). Props as used in the play Saro is discussed below.

Fig. 39 - Use of Calabash in the Village Scene Calabash is a very important object in the Yoruba tradition which has a cultural and historical relevance. Delving into the historical relevance of the calabash in the Yoruba tradition, it is used 94


according to the Yoruba tradition to dethrone a king who has erred. It is thus said that anytime an open calabash is presented to the King, it means the king should leave the town with immediate effect, as he is no longer popular among his people. Adeboye further sheds more light into the other usage of the calabash that “if a bride was found chaste on her wedding night, the news was relayed to her parents the next morning. The white sheet smeared with blood was sent in a covered calabash bowl […] (with) a sum of money and a hen for sacrifice to the ‘head of the bride.’” (83). Calabash is also an item steeped in proverbs among the Yoruba’s. A calabash facing downwards can also mean bad omen in the Yoruba tradition. A Yoruba proverb goes thus that: Igbá dojúdé o jọ ti osónú, tinú igbá nigbá ńse. That a calabash faces downward is no antisocial sign; the calabash is only acting according to its nature. This proverb means that one should not read evil intent into others innocent actions (refer to Owomoyela on more proverbs on calabash). Calabash is also known to serve cultural functions. If one is offered calabash in the Yoruba tradition to drink, it means that the owner is delighted to meet the visitor.

The calabash in the scene above leaves the function of being just a calabash, to having a cultural relevance to the play. Calabash as an object is peculiar to the cultures (Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo) represented above. It is also used to symbolize unity, as all the major cultures are seen drinking palmwine that is served from one gourd by the lady in Yoruba costume. The calabash calls on the need for unity amongst various cultures, and projects a day where all cultures will come together as one to foster peace and development in the country, which is one of the issues Nigeria is currently facing. The calabash is thus a political symbol in this scene. It advocates for the amity of

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political and social differences that currently exists in the country. Another significant props used in the play is the business card.

Fig. 40 - Obaro and Efe looking at the Business Card The business card in the picture above is the indexical part of Pierce’s analysis of semiotics that guides their economic and social life. It is thus an object that largely determines their future in Lagos. It gives the quartet hope of making it which they believe so much, that they decided to give Obaro to guide it for them, until it was stolen. At the point of the card being stolen, their purpose at Lagos becomes null and void, which destabilizes them. Their psychological state is disturbed and brings the unconscious state of Laitan to the conscious of not wanting to come to Lagos at all.

Fig. 41 - Laitan with the Guitar

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The guitar used by Laitan serves as a bonding factor. It is used in the connection of the village world and the city. The tune from this guitar resonates the two world of Laitan and Rume (village and the city), when he soliloquizes. Thus it has turned from being just a musical instrument to one of spiritualism which connects to the unconscious state of the duo (Laitan and Rume), as a break in the communication can lead to a psychopathy. The guitar in this scene is also one which attracts Jane to Laitan. In this instance the guitar changes from being a musical tool to a love tool. The props used in this scene according to Sofer, seduces “attention in the playhouse as they become drawn into the stage action and absorb complex and sometimes conflicting meanings.” (2).

Fig. 42 - The Symbolic Umbrella Other symbolic props used in the play is the Diamond Bank umbrella above for protection from rain. An in-depth analysis of this as a tool for publicity purpose shows the bank being able to protect her customers during difficult financial times. The touts, chief, and pedestrian all coming under one umbrella means unity in diversity. The expression under this umbrella shows the effect of the umbrella on the actors. While the tout, is happy enjoying being shielded from the rain, which 97


signifies warmth from the harsh weather conditions, the woman holding this umbrella seems to be uncomfortable. This umbrella signifies the need for everybody to come together, in order to forge a better future. The chain on the slaves and the cain on the colonial master’s hand is another symbolic prop in the play. It serves both a utilitarian purpose and a historical purpose.

Fig. 43 - The chains on the Slaves and the Cain The cain used by the colonial master in this scene is used to symbolize one which has caused depression in the minds of the people. This led to the submission to oppression of the blacks by the whites. It however leaves the purpose of just beating the actors on stage who are acting as slaves, but the unborn generations, which has a psychological impact on the audience as it takes them back to the maltreatment their forefathers went through and what they themselves are going through as a result of this. It thus awakens the fighting spirit of the audience to be able to free themselves from the “indexical” cain and the “iconic” chain which has been used to inflict suffering on the citizens.

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v)

Makeup

Makeup in Saro was not really concentrated on due to the nature of the play. Fela and his dancers are the only character specially made up. The “spiritual powder” on the eye of the character acting as Fela, symbolizes Fela’s ideology about spiritualism and one who “lavishly drew from his Yoruba cultural tradition, with its very expressive sculpture, theatre, music, clothing, and so on, and its language” (Olaniyan 124). In Moore’s analysis of this spiritual powder, he claims that Fela happens to have encountered a Ghanaian friend who told him of the potency of the powder to communicate with spirits (269-273).

Fig 44 – Fela’s Makeup The white marks all over the body of the dancers are also a sign of Fela’s spiritual leanings represented in the symbols and Ogun; the god of thunder. His affiliation with these gods “inevitably calls up the predominance of up-tempo tunes” (152) in his music.

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4.6

Analysis of Scenographic Representations in Cats.

The analysis of the scenography element of Cats by Llyod Webber is discussed under the following sub-headings;

i)

Set

Set in the theatre is one of the scenography elements in western theatre which is developing rapidly due to advancement in technology and creativity. The theatre has thus come to a level where carpenters are no longer the only people that work on scenery for a production anymore, but has now included engineers and electricians amongst others. Hence, the aesthetic taste of the audience is further watered by various set manipulations made possible through automated machines. While Ireke Onibudo made use of the backdrop and Saro made use of multimedia in enacting the story, Cats adopted the use of the scenic where different setting were placed on stage and manipulated to visually interpret the play. According to the story, Cats is a fiction which centers on a certain night in the year when all jellicle cats meet at the jellicle ball, to make a “jellicle choice”, where the cat that is to be reborn and come back to a different “jellicle life” is announced. Consequently, a refuse dump was used in achieving the concept of the jellicle ball. In appropriately representing the refuse dump on stage, obsolete items such as petrol cans, garbage can, papers, spoilt oven, tyre, shoe bags, etc were used. The actors employs all the items in this refuse dump as set props to aid characterization, while some of the items in the refuse dumps were mechanically controlled to serve other purposes in the play which will be later discussed.

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Fig. 45 - Set Design for Cats In the set design, the designers took into consideration the actual size of the objects represented on stage, in order to create a sense of realism. These objects were however exaggerated for proportion purposes. The use of stage settings to create a feel of ascension is seen in the scene when Old Deuteronomy picks Grizabella as the person to ascend to the “jellicle moon” and return back to a “jellicle life”. This scene is depicted by an automated stairs which descends from the “heavens” (the roof of the theatre) to “earth” (stage), and slowly goes back to the “heavens”. The mechane of the Greek period is known to have performed functions such as raising and lowering gods on stage manually. The advancement of this machine shows the extent at which set designers on Broadway have improved in their sceneries.

Fig. 46 - Grizabella ascending to the heavens through a stairs. 101


In the scene above, the tyres are made to come up slowly, creating levels on stage with Old Deuteronomy and Grizabella; the oldest cats in the region, ascending the position of gods while other cats are on stage. Achieving this was however not easy as the technicians had to create a sort of opening on the theatre ceiling which takes Grizabella completely out of the view of the audience and of course out of the theatre completely. The scenic design in Cats tend to more of an aesthetic appeal and relied more on the use of automated set pieces to create symboliceffects on stage as the play progressed. It also helped in interpreting the play visually and convincing enough to audience. There is a great influence of scenography development in the production of Cats, as the advancement of technology is visible in manipulations of set pieces. Though there is just one major scenery throughout the play which is the refuse dump, there are lots of set manipulations; which includes the tyres moving upwards with the aid of machines, the boot of the dumped car opening gradually to reveal the Old Gumbie Cat, and also the introduction of a stairs to move Grizabella to the heavens as seen in Fig 4.36 above.

ii)

Light

The lighting approach based on the concept of the play, captures an evening of a certain day when the jellicle cats are all gathered at the jellicle ball awaiting who is to experience another jellicle life. To achieve this effect, the lighting designer played more with different shades of blue on stage. The lighting approach tends towards “nonmotivational lighting” as it ignores concerns about realistic light, as the lights were more expressive and exciting due to the musical nature of the play, which relies more on heavy manipulation of lights on stage.

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Fig. 47 - The Opening Scene in Cats setting the mood for the production. The play starts with the revelation of the stage suggesting an evening scene with use of back-light reavealing the compositions on stage and not all the forms of the objects on stage. This lighting sets the general mood of the play as the jellicle cats come in one after the other to start the play. As the play progresses, the lighting later changed to a lively one as the jellicle cats starts singing which is a narrational approach to to introduce the play and the characteristics of jellicle cats. Functions of stage lighting were prominent in the play which includes selective visibility, composition, and revelation of forms, establishing the mood and reinforcing the theme. In Fig. 48 and 49 harsh texture and soft texture lighting is used to explain different situations. Fig 48 shows Grizabella; the glamour cat dejected after she has been rejected by all the cats at the jellicle ball. The lighting in this scene however makes her a point of emphasis and helps in evoking pity from the audience, as she is further accentuated by the spot light. The evocation of pity is further enhanced by the blue hue on stage.

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Fig. 48 - Grizabella after she has been ignored by all jellicle cats

Fig. 49 - Bustopher Jones addressing the jellicle cats Colour mixing of the primary and secondary hues is seen above which makes the stage more vibrant in order to depict the mood of this scene. A beam of light which might have been provided by an ellipsoidal reflector spotlight is then thrown on stage to focus more attention on Bustopher Jones seating on a hat given to him by the cats, and not necessarily loosing other actions on stage. While one is more emphatic, the other creates less emphasis by still making other characters visible on stage. As the emphatic one is used to evoke pity, the less emphatic depicts a brighter mood. These lighting shows how spotlights can be used for different purposes and how colours can change mood. Another attempt at suggesting mood in the play is seen below;

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Fig. 50 - Macavity (standing) terrorizing the jellicle cats Macavity, as depicted in this scene is one whom is known for terrorism and defiling the law of the land. In visually interpreting the characterization of Macavity, the lighting designer employs various hues of orange to suggest the terrific mood of the scene. The mood of terror is however felt as the scene is played to the full view of the audience, which is further enhanced by Macavity’s costume and the facial makeup. The use of gobo effects through automated fixture effects projection were severally used in the play to create a lively atmosphere especially when the cats dance to herald the coming of another cat into the scene which is usually done by Munkustrap. The use of this effect on stage not only signals the entry of cats, but also when a character introduced on stage ends his scene which then leads the cats into a sort of revelry. Due to the fictitious nature of the play, the depiction of locale or time by the lighting is not to be taken into absolute concentration.

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Fig. 51 - Use of Gobo Effects in Cats Other effects which shows the advancement of scenography in theatre is the use of Haze or Smoke Machine effect in Fig. 52 and 53 below. The smoke effect in this scene creates “mystical” effect, which transport the perception of the audience from the realm of seeing the jellicle cats, to another realm which they are more emotionally involved in, as Grizabella climbs the steps ascending into “heavens” to witness another “jellicle life’. The tyre which was used mainly used by Old Deuteronomy to sit whenever other actions are going on stage to deemphasize him, as the stairs comes down slowly, and Grizabella is being lifted gradually in this scene with the aid of machineries to a level of transcendence. The use of lights though in a subtle manner to create emphasis is seen in the pictures below. In Fig. 52, the beam of light thrown on Grizabella as she is ascending the stairs shifts the audience attention for emphasis as the stage is lit from behind which leaves the cats in silhouettes. Therefore, both the audience and the cats are now concentrated on Old Deuteronomy and Grizabella, as they gradually purge their emotions as she ascends the stairs slowly. This beam of light however changes focus in Fig. 53 where it is thrown on Old Deuteronomy standing on the big tyre, as Grizabella finally ascends to the skies. , and light is gradually thrown on the cats slowly as the mood changes to a lively one. Though the stage seems to be “choked” with the actors, the lighting 106


of Grizabella and Old Deuteronomy is used to show them in a much distant level than other cats who look up to them.

Fig. 52 - A beam of light thrown on Grizabella to show emphasis

Fig. 53 - A beam of light thrown on Old Deuteronomy to show emphasis This sort of effects is commendable as it is found mostly in films where there are light manipulations graphic artist and editors which would have made Grizabella and Old Deuteronomy totally distant from the cats. Though all this cannot be achieved, the set designers and lighting designers, used machineries to create this effect. The smoke effect in Fig. 52 and 53 actually does not create the mystical effect alone, by making the cats seem as if as they are engulfed in the act of transcendence which makes the whole stage misty, but also makes the tyres lifting Old

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Deuteronomy invisible, so as to create the believability of the tyres moving without any support. This effect also takes the audience from the level of the real to the surreal.

iii)

Costume

Owing to the great importance of costume and its manipulations to mean several things and assume different purposes, it has become one which the director uses to express his artistic intent on stage, other than the actors. Costume is said to have different meaning on stage depending on the usage. However, for a costumier to be successful in his/her art, he must take into consideration different elements which is the complexion of the wearer, colour of the wearer’s eye, hair, figure, individual personality, and utmost is the comfortableness of the person wearing it.

Fig. 54 - Cross Section of the Jellicle Cats on Stage In costuming for Cats, the concept of cats was looked into and various colours were played with for aesthetic and symbolic purposes. Reference to colours can be seen in the songs of the jellicles in the musical: Jellicle Cats are black and white Jellicle Cats are rather small Jellicle Cats are merry and bright; And pleasant to hear when they caterwaul 108


Owing to these descriptions, the costume depicts them as having hues of black and white in all their costumes, though there are still interplay of colours. Taking into consideration that the wearer of the costumes are humans, the costumier however made a lot of variation to the costume to make it more appealing to the audience, also give it its own uniqueness as seen in the costume of Skimbleshanks below.

Fig. 55 - Etcetera, Skimbleshanks, and Rumpleteazer on stage (left to right) Despite the fact that cats do not wear waist coats, Skimbleshanks is seen wearing one to symbolize him as an “educated cat”. Being the railway cat, the costume depicts this with the use of colours and lines. The brown colour and black stripes on Skimbleshanks pants depicts dirt on rail lines as seen in Fig 60. The costume also suggest that he plays a lot on the railway which must have made the cats give him the appellation of “the railway cat”.

Fig. 56 - Skimbleshanks sleeping on stage before he was introduced by Munkustrap

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Difference between ages of the young cats from the old ones is not only seen in the makeup, but also in the costumes. The costumier in order to represent the younger cats, made their costumes slick, to depict the smooth skin of the cats, while the wrinkle skins of the older cats were depicted with the use of dull colours, the tattered nature and the texture of the costumes, as seen in Gus the theatre cat, Grizabella, and Old Deuteronomy.

Fig. 57 - Grizabella, the Glamour Cat

Fig. 58 - Old Deuteronomy Much attention to detail and explaining the back story of Grizabella is seen in her costume. A closer look at the inner costume of Grizabella represents her when she was still young which gave her the appellation of a “glamour cat”. A representation of the costume of the younger cats is seen at the leg region of the inner wear, as she wears a black shiny dress to depict the glamour she once had as a cat. The ragged overall then depicts who she has turned to be over time. Grizabella’s 110


costume shows the level of creativity in the theatre industry, where costumes can as well give a back story of the character other than the lines. Old Deuteronomy’s costume depicts him as the jellicle leader of the tribe of cats and the oldest member and a father to them all. Another use of costume to depict profession is seen in Bustopher Jones above, who is regarded as one of the most educated jellicle cats.

Fig. 59 - Bustopher Jones (far right) and other Jellicle Cats Though still a cat, symbolism is depicted in the design of the costume. In achieving this, the long black suit, but much larger in size is used to depict how educated he is, with a rose hung on the upper part of the coat, and use of swagger stick (ladle) tucked under his right armpit as seen above. Deviating from the characterization and inferring the “history” of how Bustopher Jones happens to have worn this type of costume, might have been as a result of one of the old coats dropped by an human at the refuse dump and the shoe which is quite different from others. This deduction might however be true, because the “swagger stick” is an exaggerated version of a laddle.

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The scenography elements in Cats are commendable due to his advancements in aesthetic, psychological and symbolic appeal. This forms the subject of the next section on “Comparative Analysis”.

iv)

Props

The production of cats adopted both the use of the hand props and the set props to interpret the play visually. Creativity comes to play in this play when the cats come on stage to depict a moving car with bicycle tyres, waste bag and pans on stage. This car is symbolic of the early Japanese steam train. The hand props turns to set props in this scene when it was used to depict the train, thereby adding to the scenographic appeal of the production.

Fig. 60 - The Jellicle Cats depicting a moving car on stage Props were also used to depict the profession of the cats on stage. Due to the fictitious nature of the play, the props were exaggerated in order to serve the purpose of the play. The exaggerated ladle tucked in the armpit of Bustopher Jones in a Black coat is used to depict him as an educated person amongst the cats. The ladle as used in this scene is a scenic representation of the swagger stick in the real world. The substitution of the swagger stick with the ladle can be deduced from

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the reason being that the world depicted on the stage is that of cats, and most of the hand props that are used are most things that can be found in a refuse dump.

Fig. 61 – Use of Laddle by Bustopher Jones Usage of the waste cans, and shoe packs amongst other are used to symbolize the battle between the Pekes and Pollicles. The exaggerated form of these props is to make the cats relatively the same size with the objects on stage.

Fig. 62 - The Pekes in a fight battle in the play using Shoes and other set props to enhance their characters

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v)

Makeup

Realism is attained in the depiction of the cats with the use of makeup. Advancement in this area also helped, as the hair were used in depicting the fur of the cats represented on stage and the use of lines and colour to create a suspension of disbelief in the minds of the audience. Several colours were used on the face on the cats playing, depending on the characterization of the cats. The lines were also further used to accentuate the fierceness of each cat. The dominanace of black is evident in the character of Munkustrap (centre) below being, the defender of other little cats to suggest his dominance and control. The black hue is reduced in the depiction of other cats as seen in the characters beside Munkustrap.

Fig. 63 – Makeup of Cats There are hues of pink in the makeup of Demeter (left) and Jemima (right), to suggest their subtle nature. The makeup on Grizabella’s face depicts the state of dejection she has found herself in. The usage of the pink hue is not as vibrant on her face as there are signs of wear and tear. Her hairstyle is also symbolic of one who has enjoyed glamour in the past as depicted in the play, but is left with regrets. The use of the dark red lipstick also emphasizes on this message which is further enhanced by her acting

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Fig. 64 – Grizabella’s Makeup The scary nature of Macavity is seen in his makeup. The dominance of black and red enunciates this fierceness as he is totally different from other cats. This colour is also used to symbolize the violent and brutal nature of Macavity. The black hue also presents him as intimidating, unfriendly and unapproachable. According to colour psychology, black relates to the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, and as a result it creates an air of mystery, which Macavity is known for.

Fig. 65 – Macavity’s Makeup The dominance of this colour is also seen in the costume of the character. The tiny strokes of white suggest his deceptive nature to appear as someone who means good, but the red and black overpowers the effect of the white hue. The makeup in Cats is worth commending due to the usage of colours to transmit messages across to the audience.

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4.7 Cats

i)

Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representations in Ireke Onibudo, Saro and

Set

The three theatrical productions (Ireke Onibudo, Saro and Cats) were carefully selected by the researcher due to several level of technological advancement attained and the different mode of scenic representation. While Ireke Onibudo adopts the use of the backdrop to serve as the predominant playing environment for the scene with use of movable set pieces, Saro adopts the use of the multimedia and the flats to create the mise-en-scene for the production. Cats thus moved to a more sophisticated level with the use of the mechanized scenery to visually interpret the scenographic elements on stage. Comparing these productions, Ireke Onibudo though still at the developmental stage of scenography is embedded with several traditional icons which were meant to serve the purpose of the play whether the audience understood it or not. It also adopts the movable set pieces to suggest locale in the play due to fluidity in performance which does not give room for blackouts. Saro, substituted the multimedia for the backdrop in Ireke Onibudo. The multimedia sets the locale of the scene, and also aids in the visual interpretation of the actions on stage. With the use of the multimedia, stringent scene changes were avoided, as a scene could move into one another swiftly with changes in the visual image resulting in a merger of reality, actuality and audio-visual, which Ireke Onibudo was not able to achieve. Cats was a total diversion from the scenographic representations of Ireke Onibudo and Saro. It adopts the use of mechanical set pieces which makes it easy to represent various scenes at the same time, and the advancement in technology also gives room for exploration in scenography to interpret actions on stage. Though the three productions were unique in its own way, the level at 116


which each production was able to visually interpret her message across to the audience due to the availability of good theatre halls which creates room for creativity.

ii)

Light

Light is one of the most complicated in the analysis of the productions used as case studies. The production of Ireke Onibudo adopts the use of symbolic lighting to depict several locale on stage, while Saro tends to a more realistic approach, with psychological leanings. Cats adopts the general hue of blue to set the mood and time of the performance, while the lighting changed to a different mood. Ireke Onibudo though minimalist in the approach towards lighting, was able to still depict the spirit world with several hues, which also suggest the mood in these scenes. Saro enjoyed the largesse of funds as they were able to explore with several interpretations of scenes through lighting aided with the projections. Cats heightened this scenographic exploration due to the numbers of equipment to their disposal, which allowed for lighting from different angles of the stage. Despite the scenographic explorations in Cats, Ireke Onibudo was still able to match up with standards, as it was able to visually narrate the play, which is evident in the scene where Ireke is climbing series of steps to another world accompanied by his mother and the depiction of Arogidigba’s scene.

iii)

Costume

Ireke Onibudo and Cats had some basic similarities in costume representations of the animal world, though they were approached from different perspectives. Costume in Cats is worth commending due to clear character depiction of cast and how it is used to tell the back story of characters like Grizabella; the glamour cat, and Bustopher Jones amongst others. Though the level 117


of finance available to both productions vary, the costumier of Ireke Onibudo was still able to achieve a level of believability in the representaition of the animal costumes. Attention was also made in striking a clear balance between the depiction of realism and symbolism through the costumes in order to match the directorial concept. Not many productions in Nigeria according to the researcher’s findings has been able to attain this feet of representing animistic characters on stage which makes Ireke Onibduo stand out. This unattainability can be accrued to the low patronage and funding to employ good costumiers facing Nigerian theatre and the creative strength of the costumiers, due to lack of exposure on the present trend in costuming. The costume of Saro, though not steeped in the fantasy world of Ireke Onibudo was able to visually interpret the play.

iv)

Props

Props used in the three productions aided in the interpretation of the play, according to the context in which it was staged. The props in Ireke Onibudo, Cats and Saro were symbolic, and all adapted both the set props and the hand props for the purpose of the production. The level of creativity thus differs in these productions. Creativity in the usage of props is seen in the depiction of the steam train in Cats and the construction of twelve room apartment by Ireke in Ireke Onibudo. In Saro and Ireke Onibudo, the set props had symbolic meanings, while props in Cats were used mainly to aid characterization and add to overall aesthetic appeal.

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v)

Makeup

Makeup in Nigerian theatre is still at developmental stage in contrast to costume. This is due to the low fund allocated to the area, the level of research of the makeup artiste, and availability of funds to employ a professional makeup artiste. Comparing Ireke Onibudo and Cats which has a similarity in story line, there is a clear cut difference in depiction of animal characters on stage. While Cats explored makeup element in the play to create a suspension of disbelief, by painting the faces of the human elements (actors) to look like a cat, the reverse is the case in Ireke Onibudo which made use of mask. The makeup in Cats allows for easy expression and avoids physical hinderance that the actor might encounter using the mask. The usage of the mask in Ireke Onibudo however, can be excused because of the actors dual roles on stage. Saro did not explore makeup except for depiction of Fela, which of course is expected.

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CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 5.0

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the summation of the study titled “A Comparative Analysis of Scenographic Representation in Selected Productions”. The chapter also highlights the findings by the researcher, recommends plausible answer to these findings, and suggests area for further research.

5.1

Summary

Scenography is a branch of the theatre which has evolved over time fro the Classical Greek to the present day. This evolution has brought about a drastic change in the areas of light, set, costume, makeup, sound and props. While light has advanced from the use of sunlight during the early Greek period to the intelligent light of the present, so also is set which has evolved from the skene to the heavy scenic structures and projections. Much of these development in scenographic explorations is seen in the works of Edward Gordon Craig, Adolphe Appia, Josef Svoboda, and Richard Foreman amongst others who have proposed their own scenographic approach towards a work of arts Nigeria is not left out of this scenographic development as theatre practitioners from the likes of Hubert Ogunde, Duro Ladipo and Kola Ogunmola amongst others have experimented with the usage of scenographic elements. Nigerian theatre designers like Demas Nwoko, Sumbo Marinho, Duro Oni, Sumbo Marinho, Domba Asomba, Sunday Ododo, Nwadigwe Charles, Odiri Solomon, Enendu Molinta, Alphons Orisaremi, Nnenyelike Nwagbo, and Nasir Taofiq, amongst others have brought about changes in scenographic perception in the country through their designs.

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This study has thus explored the existence and functions of scenographic elements (set, light, costume, props and makeup) in the productions of Ireke Onibudo, Saro and Cats, with emphasis on scenographic representation and how Nigerian scenographers have faired in their designs. The meaning of symbolic representations where analyzed in the play and how it relates to the performance and external factors. The researcher is of the view that Nigerian theatre is gradually attaining the level of professionalism in western theatres especially in the area of costume compared to Cats; the longest running Broadway musical. It thus examines the elements which makes the scenography content in western shows far ahead of Nigerian productions. Though there has been technological advancement, Nigerian scenographers have tried their best to make sure that this does not hampers their creativity, though much would have been done if these developments are reflective in Nigeria theatre.

5.2

Findings

The researcher in the course of this study is able to make some findings on the development of scenography in the theatre, which is discussed below: 

Despite the level of scenographic advancement in theatres abroad, Nigerian scenographers

have tried as much as to make the artistic validity of their work still intact. They have thus resulted to the symbolist, expressionist, and the minimalist approach in the execution of their scenographic explorations. 

Scenographers determine to a large extent how the audience perceives the production as

they help in interpreting the directors intentions, which can either be well interpreted or not due to the scenographers creative ingenuity.

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

The major hinderance to scenographic explorations is the availability of good theatre

facility at the disposal of scenographers. This is a major factor that has improved scenography in the western theatre, as the costumiers, makeup artiste, props manager, light designer and the set designer, have all the equipment which helps in scenographic representation. Most Nigerian scenographers result to the symbolist, expressionist and minimalist approach in scenographic representations, than the realist approach due to dearth of good theatre halls and level of advancement, though this has not affected their creative input. 

Most producers in Nigeria have resulted to the use event halls like Eko Hotel, and Oriental

Hall, amongst others because of its commercial viability, security, and adequate space which they convert into a performance space. 

One of the major bottle necks in Nigerian productions is lack of proper pre-production

meeting and dress and technical rehearsals. It is found out that, most dress and technical rehearsals are always done 2days to the production or even on the day of production. As a result, many directors, and scenographers are not able to correct some mistakes before the production goes on stage, thereby giving rooms for flaws during the production. This is a major problem Saro encountered, as there were no proper dress and technical rehearsal before the show opened on Friday 25th October 2013 to the public. Technical difficulties in the area of light and set were encountered on the first and second day which could have been a dress and technical rehearsal, until the last show on Sunday where the technical problems were solved. This problem can also be accrued to the renting the hall for four days of the production which gulped 22million. 

There is a dearth of technical know-hows in Nigeria. Most of the technical practitioners

available according to the researcher have not been retrained in order to match the current trend in technical theatre, and the level of creative abilities in the world. Thus, most Nigerian production 122


still adopt the use of outdated equipment to light a production, and most lighting designers are well versed in light manipulations. Despite this disadvantage, the only venue where theatre is still done regularly though not a proper theatre hall is Terra Kulture in Victoria Island, Lagos. Though this venue lacks proper lighting equipment and a proper backstage, it has housed many productions in Nigeria, and provided a platform where artist can express their art, with low funding. Theatre designers still needs to be creative enough in using these small theatres with the way they construct set pieces and manipulate the light to create effects that is close to those obtainable in proper theatres that has larger stage. Theatre technicians however need to go for retraining in the area of technical theatre as those taught in the universities are just foundations of what obtains in the outside world.

5.3

Recommendations

The following recommendations are made by the researcher; 

Due to the state of technical theatre, Nigerian scenographers need to adopt a unique method

which will still make performances more appealing to the audience, as seen in the mise en scene of Ireke Onibudo. As such, the use of backdrops and moveable sets should be explored amidst songs and dances, while blackouts between scenes should be reduced to the minimum. This is because set changes has proved difficult to quickly manipulate on Nigerian stage due to level of technological advancement which takes away from the flow of the performance. 

To ensure scenography developments in Nigerian theatre, and also avoid mistakes during

productions, more time need to be given for dress and technical rehearsals. This can only be done when there are proper theatres, meant solely for theatre performances alone, where the production crew move into this theatre two weeks or more to the venue to do a proper dress and technical 123


rehearsal with the actors before the show opens. Proper funding of the theatre industry also needs to be provided by the government to make this feasible. 

More theatres need to be built to house theatrical performances only, which has more depth

and stage height. It is only when this is done, that there can be several technical manipulations in the area of set, and light. This factor is a major advantage to the theatres on Broadway as their theatres are well built with good stage height, depth and proper flying systems which gives room for spectacles on stage which is the case in Cats. 

Use of projections is a good alternative to problematic scenic changes in Nigeria

productions, but the art of projections have to be mastered. It eradicates the heavy scenery and makes it easy for the director to adequately interpret his artistic intentions on stage. However, this is not to say that the use of flats should not be encouraged, but provides solution to problems faced in scenic changes. The use of Projections is one of the scenic elements which was popularized by Josef Svoboda, and has thus become a popular trend in the world theatre, which Nigeria needs to adopts to be on the same page with theatre productions abroad. It enhances the story being told on stage and also creates the background with which a scene is acted. 

Professional theatre associations in Nigeria like National Association of Nigerian Theatre

Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) and Society of Nigerian Theatre Artist (SONTA), need to take it upon themselves to send some technical practitioners abroad for training on the latest trend in Scenography in the world, and then come back to adopt it in Nigerian productions.

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5.4

Conclusion

Scenographic exploration is advancing at a considerable rate in Nigerian productions especially in the area of costume, and have started have exploring the usage of projections which brings the icons and symbols in a backdrop to virtual reality. Nigerian scenographers have also tried in making use of the materials available to her to make visual statements which to a large extent determine the director’s interpretation. Conclusively, though there are insufficient trained technical personal in Nigerian theatre landscape, the artistic validity of productions is still intact. It is also of the opinion that though scenography has advanced in the western world leading to scenographers exploring different elements which leads a better visual interpretation of the play, technology should not be allowed to take the place of creativity.

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Kornhaber, David. “Regarding the Eidophusikon: Spectacle, Scenography, and Culture in Eighteenth Century England.” Theatre Arts Journal: Studies in Scenography and Performance, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2009): 45-59. Print. Maitland, Judith. “Controversy and Clues: Recovering and Recreating Graeco-Roman Scenography.” Theatre Arts Journal: Studies in Scenography and Performance, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2009): 92-109. Print. Moore, Carlos. Fela: This Bitch of a Life. Abuja: Cassava Republic Press, 2010. Print. Musa, Enna, and Dennis Ameh. “Scenography, the Stage and African Plays: Experiments and Challenges of the University of Jos Open Air Theatre Model.” Technical Theatre Practice in Nigeria: Trends and Issues. Eds. Oni Duro and Sunday Enessi Ododo. Lagos: CBAAC, 2006. 125-138. Print. Nasir, Olaide. “The Interface between Theatre Technology and Stage Performances: An Interview with Duro Oni.” Fireworks for a Lighting Aesthetician: Essays and Tributes in Honour of Duro Oni @ 60. Ed. Ododo Sunday. Lagos: CBAAC, 2012. 665-677. Print. Nicoll Allardyce. The Development of the Theatre: A Study of Theatrical Art from the Beginnings to the Present Day. Great Britain: George Harrap and Co. Ltd, 1968. Print. Nnenyelike, Nwagbo. “Criticism in Nigerian Theatre Design Practice: The Example of Duro Oni.” Fireworks for a Lighting Aesthetician: Essays and Tributes in Honour of Duro Oni @ 60. Ed. Ododo Sunday. Lagos: CBAAC, 2012. 116-130. Print. Nwadigwe, Charles. “Duro Oni and Multimedia Approach to Stage Production” Fireworks for a Lighting Aesthetician: Essays and Tributes in Honour of Duro Oni @ 60. Ed. Ododo Sunday. Lagos: CBAAC, 2012. 29-38. Print.

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---. “Modern and Postmodern Trends in Theatre Technology: Implications for Stage Lighting and Sound in Nigeria”. Technical Theatre Practice in Nigeria: Trends and Issues. Eds. Oni Duro and Ododo Sunday. Lagos: CBAAC, 2006. 81-93. Print. ---. “Trends in Modern Theatre Technology: Digital Projection and Multimedia Scenographic Art”. Trends in the Theory and Practice of Theatre in Nigeria. Eds. Oni Duro, and Yerima Ahmed. Lagos: SONTA, 2008. 33-46. Print. Obafemi, Olu. Politics and Aesthetics: Essays in Drama, Theatre and Performance. Ilorin: Haytee Press and Publishing Co. Ltd. 2008. Print. Ododo, Sunday E. “Design Practice in the Nigerian Theatre.” Technical Theatre Practice in Nigeria: Trends and Issues. Eds. Duro Oni and Sunday Enessi Ododo. Lagos: CBAAC, 2006. 17-36. Print. ---. “Scenic and Performance Styles in the Nigerian Literary Theatre Practice.” Alore: Ilorin Journal of the Humanities 12 (2002): 88-109. Print. Oni, Duro.

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APPENDIX I Interview with the Technical Director of Ireke Onibudo; Dr. Orisaremi Alphonsus Shireku, on the Technical Aspect in Ireke Onibudo and Scenography, by the Researcher Ibukun Fasunhan on Friday January 17, 2014.

Ibukun Fasunhan: What is your perception of scenography? Orisaremi Alphonsus: Scenography evolves from the word scene and it deals with the visualoral environment for a play production. Scenography is a branch of theatre arts which is evolving and deals with the statement of the visual artist determined by the director. As such, it includes light, set, makeup, props, costume and sound.

Ibukun Fasunhan: Why did you include sound as part of scenography? Orisaremi Alphonsus: Because it is an evolving area. About 80years ago or thereabout, the time of Craig and Appia, lighting was evolving. The set has evolved into a considerable visual level in the theatre. Appia, incorporated lighting into his set design, because he has seen the importance of lighting. Beacham divides Appia's work into three or four categories. At some point, he added lighting in his visual expression. Having designed Wagner's music, he said the kind of music he wants executed. That is how lighting has evolved as an act of the theatre within the visual scenographical context. The oral-auditory aspect of the theatre is also just evolving. Our sound twenty years ago in the theatre is mild and manually operated, but we are getting into an era where people use body microphones, drop mics in order to be able to hear what is going on in the theatre very well. While sound and oral aspect must be included in scenography is that sound in the theatre is different from sound in concert and music production. You have to modulate the sound in such 135


a way that it doesn't interfere with the aesthetics of play production. It also must not interfere with the aesthetics of the movement of the actors, while sound in movie production are heavy. It is called sound reinforcement, while in the theatre we want sound modulation. Sound reinforcement is that it must be reinforced completely from the very line of audience to the last line of audience, and it must be heavy and take charge of the entire environment. But in the theatre, we are saying that sound itself must be modulated the way lighting and set design are modulated to aid the actor in realizing the role, and aid the director in interpreting the play. That is why sound is part of scenography, and part of technology in the theatre.

Ibukun Fasunhan: How can you rate the level of scenography in Nigeria compared to other countries? Orisaremi Alphonsus: We are developing. We continue to evolve and revolve ourselves in Nigeria particularly within the academics. The theatres in the universities are more active than the theatre outside the academics. The academic theatre is experimental. In as much as we want to experiment with play production, we do it without due consideration for audience in some of them. We are experimenting to train the student, to carry that idea and transpose it into another form and the art and science of the theatre, when they get out of the university. Based on the experimental nature of the university theatre, we continue to evolve. Examining Ireke Onibudo and Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irumole, we went through entire process of design. We first of all did an abstract design, and while we were discussing, the concept was to do a mobile abstract design that may be probably be symbolic. At some point, the producer; Femi Osofisan, came up with another idea of some level of naturalism particularly in Ogboju Ode. The level of naturalism means that we had to make the forest real. On that basis we had to sit to evolve 136


a forest setting. We constructed trees and tree and tree stump. When you go to the forest, you see huge trees that you wonder whether animals lived in them. We now linked some characters in the play because it is a fairy tale from evolution inside the tree. One of the ghommids had to come from the tree in the midst of smoke effects. It now forms part of the acting arena. What am saying is that the level of scenography in Nigeria is average. We cannot really rate, but outside the university system, our scenographers are concerned with survival. When they get out of the academics, they have the concern of being able to pay bills, electricity, cars etc. The survival instinct made them adopt grandiose concept and made them to migrate from play production to show biz which I personally see as part of the theatre, because Nigeria is evolving with the advent of the gsm companies etc. The scenographers play to the demand and the request of the demands and request for grandiose design in showbiz that will sell their design. There is a constant evolution and re-evolution. In the country's state of economic depression, our scenographers must survive, but when there is a play production in the theatre, some of them are always happy to come to contribute their quota. It is far ahead of countries like Ghana, Liberia and Gambia. I don't know whether the francophone holds sway much than the Anglophone. In the world generally, our scenographers have tried. The late Sumbo Marinho has done some design productions outside Nigeria. The DVC Management Services in Unilag; Prof Duro Oni has done a lot of designs outside Nigeria. He has produced the design of Things Fall Apart at the John Kennedy Centre in the US and went on world tour with Chuck Mike and it was well received. He used the equipment to realize his design in a bigger way than he realized it in Nigeria. So when we are faced with such things, and we go into the technological advanced societies, people there wonder how we are able to use their own equipment to interpret our design. Because where he used the lighting at John

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Kennedy Centre, I am sure that there is no American lighting designer that will be able to use the lighting that way for Things Fall Apart. Technology has hampered thinking in the western world, but it is no so here, because we produce our design by not relying on technology, and when we get into the world of technology, we plan and reproduce the technical execution of that design in a better way because there is more lighting instrument to play with. We went through very solid training process in the 80's at the University of Ibadan. Your training merges theory and practice. In the 80's with Bode Sowande, we produced Tornadoes Full of Dreams, When we saw the light available at the Cinema Hall II of the National Theatre, it was much more than the lights available in the arts theatre Ibadan, because we had less than 10 lights, while we saw about 20 lights in national theatre. We then went to Port novo in Republic of Benin, at the French cultural centre theatre we saw about 50lightensional lighting from Sumbo Marinho to practice. We were able to preset three scenes ahead. Our training gave us the opportunity. We trained on manual technology, even though in Ibadan, I am training the student in digital and computerized technology. I tell them to train manually, so that technology those not take the knowledge basic design elements, colour and colour mixtures.

Ibukun Fasunhan: What informed your design concept and choice of colours in Ireke Onibudo? Orisaremi Alphonsus: I do not have a full grasp of this. We had to create a mobile teacher's office with flats. We had a concept of being able to adapt to any form of indoor or outdoor performance, by making it collapsible.

Ibukun Fasunhan: What challenges did you face in Ireke Onibudo?

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Orisaremi Alphonsus: Normally, Osofisan's influence always bears on his type of writing and production. He writes his plays in a way that it can be produced under any circumstances. We pinpointed key places, which is the teacher's ghommids, palace setting. It’s an abstract play where there was liberty to do what you wanted to do. We just created a movable set supported by a backdrop which also interprets the play. If you watch Saro, because of the early screen that they used for backdrop, which rental is averagely 1million a day depending on the size, you will see a merger of reality, actuality, and audio-visual. The nature of the hall also makes you see it as cinematic-effect, which someone sitting close will not see. There is a merger of the stage actors with the screen movement. You see a scenario where somebody wearing the same costume, who from inside the screen, then came out in full glare of the audience. Part of the challenges we had is that, we were not able to create that merger. So when you see that backdrop, it is a permanent one, and then the theatre itself in Nigeria must capture the audience. We must then subjugate technology to our own utility.

Ibukun Fasunhan: Why the choice of no blackout in the play. Orisaremi Alphonsus: We evolved a performance concept that will flow from one scene to another. Even the scene changes become part of the performance. And when there is no blackout, you have serious challenges in design before execution. And the challenge in design is that that characteristics of movement come to play heavily and much more heavy than intensity. That is part of Osofisan's concept. So you see it as entertainment when a scene moves into another, with music and dance. We had an instance where we had to go and correct a scenario during performance on stage, and we always encourage our team to be on black. The crew member who is not part of the play production walked in the glare of the audience, blended into one of the spirits 139


in the play and made the adjustment. We did that in terms of saving time and allowing for fluidity. Fluidity in play production also allows for movement in scenography.

Ibukun Fasunhan: How can you rate Ireke Onibudo to other productions you have designed? Orisaremi Alphonsus: I have designed a lot of productions and it will be very difficult to rate. Each production has its own challenges. We did Sarafina and had its own master design which I had to design to Nigerian setting based on equipment and stage space. We used Planet 1 for the play. Sarafina is music theatre, Ireke Onibudo is folk theatre. We had a lot of similarities and because of money in Sarafina, we were able to extend the stage. We even built an armour tank on stage with wood which is quite expensive. We created some level of sitting arrangement as created in Saro the Musical. The budget for the technical in Saro was 10 to 15million, which was not enough according to the designer, while the budget for Sarafina is 7million. Finances most times allow to overcome challenges, but it must not allow for rating, so that we do not run into problem. Creativity is not money. Ireke Onibudo had limited resources, but it is better than any other production you can produce on campuses. The entire budget for a university play will barely be able to produce the design of even Ireke Onibudo not to talk of Saro or Sarafina. Aesthetics and maturity comes to play in design. You grow in each production, and comparing becomes a problem when you are growing.

Ibukun Fasunhan: What do you think is a major hindrance to scenographic explorations in Nigeria? Orisaremi Alphonsus: The hindrance to some extent is facility, technological problems. One must be familiar with AutoCAD and other software’s of design to give life to design expression. 140


It is just last year that I am making it a condition that all technical students must get familiar with these software to express their designs. No contradiction when I said technology should not interfere with design. Even Appia said it, that we must subjugate technology. We are the ones that will decide what technology will do for us. When Appia talked about mechanization and evolution of the big screen, he said mechanization should not interfere with the theatre. Robert Edmund Jones also delivered series of lectures, and explained that American theatre is evolving into realism. He was lamenting that technology has taken over and that designers no longer think and sited an instance of the Greek theatre, where there was a healing clinic beside the theatre. He said people that were healed are then brought into the theatre as therapy to recuperate before they merge into the society. Our students now, go about with computers without learning how to use it. When I was using Corel draw, it will take me days to come up with a design, but it is different now. We have people coming into the business of theatre without training. People work on two or three productions, and come out to say that they are lighting designers, whereas they are electricians. We must be able to distinguish between a scenographer, designer, carpenter and an electrician. Also few students are interested in the technical aspect of theatre. Some of them get into the area in confusion of where to go to, and study to pass. They then find themselves in areas they do not have passion for.

Ibukun Fasunhan: How best do you think Nigeria can meet up with scenography trends in the world? Orisaremi Alphonsus: I am not a good adviser, I only made suggestions. But in terms of realizing our scenographic components in Nigeria, we must redesign our theatre in a way that will involve space management. The University is planning a new theatre and I hope they will contact us, so 141


that we will have our own input. I plan to meet the VC on the changes in the design. We need a reasonable backstage that and a collapsible cyclorama that will merge the backstage and the stage itself. We need a backstage that can form part of the stage. The backstage then must be in layers. We have the first collapsible cyclorama, second and the third. We can then have a spacious basement workshop that has the level of the backstage underneath. Even the theatre has no ability for space management, no capacity for modern scenography in the terms of layers of backstage. In some theatres, we have a backstage bigger in dimension that the stage itself. All the halls we have are event halls and we have the big people in the society thinking business and no good theatre is built, apart from the main bowl which is dilapidated. Fortunately or unfortunately, because of capitalism the Ben Bruce family is beginning to bring the cinema back. That is now encouraging the building of halls not theatre. We even have a government that wants to take away national theatre and convert it into a tourist centre with hotels etc. We must redefine our proposal and build a theatre that will serve modern scenography purpose.

APPENDIX II Interview with the Costume Designer of Ireke Onibudo; Dr. Grace Uchechukwu Adinku, by the Researcher Ibukun Fasunhan via E-mail.

Ibukun Fasunhan: Can I meet you ma. Grace Adinku: My name is Grace Uchechukwu Adinku, a professional costume and Makeup artist and a Scholar of African Arts and Culture. I attended the University of Ibadan where I studied

142


Theatre Arts and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi where I recently graduated with a Ph.D. in African Arts and Culture.

Ibukun Fasunhan: When launched you into the profession of costuming for theatre Grace Adinku: My first encounter with the field of costume began in 1988 when I was in Obafemi Awolowo University as a certificate student in Dramatic Arts. I had the privilege of working with our own Auntie Joke Muyiwa as wardrobe assistant for the convocation play Hopes of the Living Dead written and directed by Ola Rotimi. It was a refreshing discovery because up on till then I never realized how challenging this indispensable element of the theatre is artistically. I just assumed that any individual from the list of those that attended a play audition can be assigned the role of the costumier. But this beautiful experience changed my opinion and inspired me into studying course.

Ibukun Fasunhan: What design concept did you adopt in the costume design for Ireke Onibudo? Grace Adinku: First I will begin by stating that in a profession setting, the costume designer may have a range of choices but he strongly will depend on the director’s concept. The directorial concept for “Ireke Onibudo: The Fabulous Adventure of a Sugarcane Man” stems from the adventurous nature of the play. As you are aware, the play is a series of stories and folktales described or reported by the hero. Hence, the director insisted on the combination of representational and symbolic style. Based on this, my task therefore as a costumier is to develop costumes that carry the appropriate imaginative and symbolic qualities required. For example, the Mermaid (Arogidigba) scene, presented mermaid like character with half fish/ half human costume. The animal characters such as the lion, the cat (Ologbo Ijakadi), and the tiger had animal 143


skin fabric jump suits costume to symbolize bestiality. Supernatural beings such as the ghost Ireke’s mother was in symbolic corn like whit see through stiff net fabric. The giant Cyclops, the dragon snake, the monster, Ewure Iberu and the masquerade character afforded me the opportunity to create exaggerated costume that looked almost like a circus. The human characters, such as the Old Ireke, Beyioku, Oba Alupayida, Adisa, Ifepade, to mention a few, had costume that heightened the ancient Yoruba culture that the director’s concept sought to depict. With a rich display of the Yoruba hand woven fabric designed in different styles and all these came in variety of colours

Ibukun Fasunhan: Ireke Onibudo so far according to my research is one of the best productions in Nigeria, as regards costuming. What informed your choice of colours especially the costume you used in depicting the spirit world? Grace Adinku: Thank you for the compliment. My choice of colour was motivated by the central message of the play and that is love. Nevertheless, with storytelling / folk tale based images in mind, I chose the combination of bright colours for moments of joy and dull colours for sober moments in play. White was used to depict innocence and purity as portrayed in the white hand woven cloth (Aso Oke) worn by Ifepade when she was to be sacrificed to the dragon snake. Though colours green and brown run through the entire costume because of the animals and forest images, other colours displayed ranges from the highest hue of red to the lowest hue of grey to achieve balance and unity.

Ibukun Fasunhan: What challenges did you face during the production? Grace Adinku: Though it’s been close to five years since the production came up, I quit remember that the major challenge encountered during the pre-production process was the inability to assess 144


tailors who could understand the techniques of sewing theatre costumes. However with the help of Dr. Chukwuma Okoye and his wonderful student such as Ify, Emden, Labake, and Mariam to mention a few, we were able to overcome the problem. Originally, the leotard designed as basic costume for all the other animals apart from the Tiger and his wife, the Cat and the Lion who were supposed to be in brown colour but I experienced challenges in getting the total yard of brown fabric needed for the number of animal characters. Hence, I had to settle for the three colour (brown, light and light purple) available in the market at the time.

Ibukun Fasunhan: Based on the tempo of the production, what structures you put in place in costuming, to make sure it served the purpose of the performance. Grace Adinku: Well to ensure that costume changes do not delay or drag the tempo of the production; wardrobe hands were assigned to major characters to assist them during costume changes. And all the other animals had the leotard as the basic costume on which the can add another costume when the need arises.

Ibukun Fasunhan: How can you rate the level of scenography in Nigeria? Grace Adinku: I frankly think that artistically there has been tremendous improvement in the attention given to scenography today compared to 15years ago. Producers and directors are now demanding quality service because the Nigerian audience are becoming more and more sophisticated.

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Ibukun Fasunhan: Considering, Ireke Onibudo and other productions you have designed, do you consider Ireke Onibudo better? If not, what informed your choice of the good production you selected? Grace Adinku: You know as an artist, I believe each production is unique. Hence my designs are based on the demand and expectations of the script and most of all the directors’ concept. So personally, I do not consider any of my design better than another. Rather I mostly will reflect on the challenges encountered during the process of design, so that when next I am confronted with similar situation, I will improve on my technique.

Ibukun Fasunhan: If you were given the chance to costume Ireke Onibudo again, what are the things you would change due to your current exposure in costuming? Grace Adinku: Definitely I will create a bigger mask for the animal with some kind of devise that will allow effective articulation and projection.

Ibukun Fasunhan: Do you think Ireke Onibudo has been able to reach the Broadway style of production. Grace Adinku: Well that depends on what you mean. If you ask me, I think Ireke Onibudo like other sponsored/commissioned production enjoyed the financial support that made it artistically successful but I do not thing it was afforded the opportunity to run for as long as it should for it to be considered to have attained the ‘Broadway standard ‘. Yes it had the mix of brilliant actors professional and student, a wonderful crew team, huge publicity and an imaginative director yet the play could go behind a ten performances when we add up total performances across Ibadan, Abuja, Lagos and Ondo State. I think we could have done better. 146


Ibukun Fasunhan: What challenges do you think Nigeria theatre is facing in costume design and how do you think it can be solved, considering your level of exposure and professionalism. Grace Adinku: Inadequate information on the advance technology available in developed world that we can adapt. I also think that we need to organize more workshops where amateurs can trained in understand the field experience from the classroom.

APPENDIX III Interview with the Technical Director of Saro The Musical; Alhaji Teju Wasee Kareem on the Technical Aspect in Saro and State of Technical Theatre in Nigeria, by the Researcher; Ibukun Fasunhan on Friday November 10, 2013.

Ibukun Fasunhan: Sir, Z-Mirage is known to be one of the leading technical companies in Nigeria. What prompted you in the first place to want to be the Technical producer and a partner? Alhaji Kareem: First and foremost I am the technical producer and the production designer. The implication of that is that the responsibility of the visual aesthetics of the production, the concept to the execution fell on my shoulders. I was approached by the Executive producer and I believe in her dream. I believe in what she wants to do. There is a big vacuum in the theatre, and being an advocate of rich theatre practice, I think we would make a deliberate measure to clothe theatre in a befitting garment visually. I believe that each play must begin to wear that is competitive to the other arts. I believe to keep the tradition of theatre going with the eye sight of making progress and reaching out to new technology that will make theatre appealing to the young ones because they 147


are the assured audience of our today, tomorrow and future theatre. I think we are doing very little to ensure that theatre and stage performances meet up to the billing of other competitive stuffs out there. When I was invited, I thought this is another opportunity and one which I have always desired.

Ibukun Fasunhan: On Computer Aided Designs (CAD) sir. Do you consider it best for productions, and how were you able to work effectively with this. Alhaji Kareem: it is best for the kind of show we have. One can go back to the traditional stage plays. Even as at that, the present trend is to infuse multimedia. Drama is simply the reenactment of occurrences as straight back from the Dionysus era, Greco-Roman, and the animals reenactment, the farming, hunting experience, the spiritual orgies of the worship of the early days. That metamorphosed into theatre. But today, you cannot continue to be irrelevant, and to be relevant, you must take advantage of the technology. Hence, I was not looking too far to find a fusion, in doing an exportable and visually simulating and fulfilling production. It is a musical and genre in the theatre, and as such the advantage that musical has is to use multimedia to tell the story. There is no writer of any age, period or isms that has advocated anything that you can use to tell the story. There is no theory that forestalls the use of any available medium to tell a story, even the theatre of the poor. You will still use a bed or a mat, a frame for a door, provide a chair, and not go naked when there are costumes. The story must be told as vividly, visually, to become an art. The introduction of projection in scenic design is becoming in vogue, and many productions are adopting it. Hence I did not have to look so far in using projections to making the scenic convincing. Our target is the family, and the children becomes the pivotal, so we can not devoid 148


the visual, the scenic, background, or shortchanged the possibility that abound in creating a beautiful backdrop under the pretense of not wanting to use projections. So the projection became handy, innovative and almost the available tools to make the statement you want to make today. So, we were quick to adopt production, and this is not my first time to use projection in set design. I have been using it for minimal proportions. In Saro, we had 14 clear situations and locale that we do not want to be subjective about. We want to bear it open in front of the audience. If you are in Lagos, and you are talking about period, era, it becomes episodic, and you are able to travel in the mind of the audience. So the visual part of the production became so apt to use. So we adopted that.

Ibukun Fasunhan: Sir, what difference do you think exists in the technical team, when the CAD, and advanced technologies in theatre is in use or not. Alhaji Kareem: At the present stage of using CAD, we are losing something, and we must first appreciate that. We are loosing the organic. The Theatre and drama first and foremost that is so different from other art is that it is very organic. It is organic in the sense that you can touch and feel the story between you, audience and the actor. There is no alienation, and one is part of the story because it is laid bare in your eyes. So, the organic potential of theatre and drama begins the dissipate with the computer aided design, however, that can be compensated for greatly by a good manipulation of the CAD, and it can offer more than what ordinarily a physical set would do, and it can also help you tell the story fluidly than the scene changes would do, because a click on your mouse, will change a scene quick right in front of you, and you have full details of a street, with the road, building, counter, police and people crossing, and one can have that projected while the

149


action on stage is going without loosing attention, as against having people to set the stage for the next scene. You gain that advantage with the use of CAD and projections.

Ibukun Fasunhan: Sir, how many lighting instruments did you use in Saro? Alhaji Kareem: The venue has 38 intelligent lights, and had 36 conventional lights. At the sides of the auditorium, there are 16 short S4. In the ceiling there are 14 flood lights. In essence there are 66 to 72 generic lights and 38 intelligent lights, and Z-Mirage brought in additional 28 intelligent light and 32 conventional lights. We have one automatic follow spot light.

Ibukun Fasunhan: What structure did you put in place as the technical producer to make sure that Saro matches up with the Broadway style? Alhaji Kareem: First and foremost, you must have the ability to think it through and conceive it. Do you have the experience, vision and artistically equipped to envision. Have you closed your eyes to see the play in front of you with all the costumes, colour, music, 100 cast, etc. If you can see it, then you settle down, to map it out how it is going to happen. That happened to us technically. We had to go over the water to record some scenes, because we were looking for a village scene and market scene, without much movement at the background involved. So we had to really go in search for this. We had to go into a church to get a church scene. We had to go to the Yaba market during environmental sanitation period, when the movement at the market will be minimal, so that it does not distracting to the movement on stage. So one has to have the ability to envision it, and meticulously put all the things together, and programme it. The programming is very important and there are not too much programmers in Nigeria, even if there is any at all. We had to pick one, because the content and the recording are mine, and to programme and 150


sequence it will be hectic. I of course do not want a programmer that will be training on the job. I want one that is very experienced, in person of James Waudby and Shabaka Thompson. Same on the light, because such projection needed massive light manipulation which includes mood, colour, ambience etc. The implication of this, is that one needs to programme those lights to do all of this, and also needed somebody to do that. I called in Simon Harborow.

Ibukun Fasunhan: What major challenge did you face in the technical aspect of Saro, and how can you rate it to other productions in Nigeria. Alhaji Kareem: There are no good infrastructures. There are no venues with production friendly facilities, and those of them that are a little bit good, don’t have things like; roof stage, roof height, enough deep, flying systems. And you do need all these facilities to get there. Oriental is not one that is really good, but it provides you with one to manipulate, and we knew we were going to have challenges of production friendly facilities. The second one was time. The production needed 4 to 5days for dress and technical rehearsals and 2 days for set up, and we had to do all of that in one day. Those were the production challenges that confronted us. These challenges will always be there, when it is your first time and you have large orchestra. The commercial viability of the production does not have 11million to pay for 2days of rehearsals, so we had to make it work, because that is the spirit of the theatre. We had our challenges, but we came on top at the end of the day. Compared to other productions, I make bold to say NO. The reason is that I have been involved in most of these productions. Umoja came to Nigeria, and I was part of it, Sefina, Ajo Festival, Budisso, etc. I designed the set and light. The new era of Bayo Oduneye as our boss, I did Glass Menagerie, Bishop Alaba. I came with a revolve 151


stage on the stage of National theatre. And we have the likes of Duro Oni who sojourned into theatre, and with the likes of the beautiful stage of The Woman by Bode Osanyin he designed. Nothing compares in terms of technical exposition to Saro, even Kakadu the Musical which was staged at Muson Centre. Agip or Shell stage of Muson is one-tenth of Oriental Ballroom, in terms of stage space, audience space, cast strength and technical. We are talking of two different products entirely, and Saro is almost an Island itself as at now. Other productions would catch up later in the future, but as at today, Saro has laid it bare in trying to attempt to go beyond Fela on Broadway.

Ibukun Fasunhan: Sir, you where the lighting consultant for Umoja in Nigeria. Between Umoja and Saro, which do you prefer in terms of technical? Alhaji Kareem: I never would be able to prefer one work of my art to the other. The smallest of the production that I do is endearing to me as the biggest of production. The creative energy, and intent is the same, but volume differs. In terms of mind conceptualization, artistic inward purgation of your creative energy rivals each other, but how much you pour in the “pot” can vary. Most times issue of quantity of the content, not the quality because it differs from one production to another, but the quantity might increase from one production to another. I have had more productions that require the quantity of my creative energy. COJA was one, Gateway Games and Calabar Carnival is also another one. That is in terms of quantity. But in terms of innovation, there is none that rivals Saro, and there is much of collaborative effort and the theatre spirit in Saro, and not many productions can boast of the creative spirit of the technical, costumes, etc.

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Ibukun Fasunhan: Technical theatre is facing a huge problem in Nigerian theatre and most of the productions and venues like Terra Kulture, and the rest are not well endowed with good technical equipment and knowhow. As a technical guru, what advise do you have sir. Alhaji Kareem: You will never find a better place to train more than places like Terra Kulture. 7 or 10 lights is the organic and the best laboratory for theatre. Make those 10 lights do the job of 100 lights. The theatre and the practice must continue to exist. The basis must be laid bare. You must be able to tangle the wire, unplug, mount instruments and manually control the dimmer. That is important, because it forms the basis upon which you can build the grandeur of sophistication of the fine theatre of lighting and projection. It is from there you can build up. So, the Arts theatre, Ibadan is valid as a theatre, including the Unilag Arts Theatre and Main Auditorium, Terra Kulture, National Theatre. Beyond that, other venues must come to house the theatre. The theatre as at today needs a bigger venue for those big things to happen. And there can be no big shows without the small ones. The community theatre and school theatre must exist, but that should not be a limitation for the bigger magic, because the category of the patronage ranges from one theatre to the other. It is just that the grade of theatre that is top notch is not available in Nigeria.

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Greek, 1, 9, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 42, 46, 59, 105, 124, 132, 133, 138, 146 Grotowski, 2, 48, 57, 134

A Adedeji, 4, 5, 40, 42, 46, 48, 131 Adolphe Appia, vi, 2, 33, 35, 54, 124 Alarinjo, 4, 7, 41, 46, 131 Alhaji Teju Kareem, iv, 9, 60, 87 Alphonsus Orisaremi, iv, 9, 54, 60 Austen Peters, 131

H Howard, xi, 18, 20, 21, 134

I

B

Ireke Onibudo, vi, vii, viii, xi, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13, 58, 60, 61, 64, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 76, 80, 104, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 128, 130, 140, 142, 144, 145, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152

backdrop, 6, 29, 48, 58, 68, 69, 72, 104, 120, 129, 144, 154 Biodun Abe, 55, 56 Broadway, 58, 98, 105, 125, 128, 152, 156, 158 Brooks, 2

J Josef Svoboda, vi, 2, 33, 35, 38, 125, 129, 132, 138

C

K

Cats, iv, vi, vii, x, xi, 4, 8, 12, 13, 58, 60, 61, 66, 104, 105, 106, 107, 110, 112, 115, 116, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 128, 130 City Dionysia, 21 Computer Aided Design, 54 Costume, vi, vii, viii, 74, 77, 90, 95, 112, 122, 138, 148 Cultural Studies, 9, 11, 138 culture, 9, 10, 11, 12, 43, 53, 91, 92, 96, 98, 149

Kenneth Uphopho, iv, 55, 56 Kola Ogunmola, 5, 6, 7, 45, 47, 125

L Light, vi, vii, ix, 71, 87, 88, 106, 121 Lighting, viii, 5, 30, 33, 46, 47, 49, 73, 87, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139

D

M

Duro Ladipo, 5, 6, 7, 45, 48, 125, 133, 137, 138

Machines, 1 Makeup, vii, x, xi, 80, 103, 118, 119, 123, 148 mechane, 16, 27, 105 Middle Ages, 26 Moses Olaiya, 5, 45, 49 multimedia, 3, 54, 58, 82, 83, 84, 90, 104, 120, 154 music, ix, 5, 6, 35, 36, 37, 40, 47, 49, 55, 64, 66, 69, 70, 85, 93, 95, 96, 103, 140, 145, 156

E Egun Alare, 4, 41 Egungun, 4, 41 Eidophusikon, 31, 134

F

N

Fagunwa, 68 Fela, ix, x, 66, 96, 97, 103, 123, 135, 158

Nicoll, 1, 22, 25, 26, 27, 135 Nigerian theatre, 3, 4, 5, 6, 40, 41, 54, 56, 57, 91, 122, 123, 125, 128, 129, 158 Nwadigwe, 3, 7, 54, 55, 125, 135

G Geoffrey Axworthy, 47, 50, 139 Gordon Craig, vi, 2, 33, 35, 37, 124, 131 Grace Adinku, iv, 9, 60, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152

154


O

scenographer, 19, 20, 35, 38, 55, 147 scenographers, xi, 2, 31, 33, 39, 53, 57, 68, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 142 scenographic, xi, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 12, 19, 20, 23, 32, 35, 52, 61, 68, 70, 71, 74, 79, 81, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 146, 147 Scenography, vi, xi, 1, 18, 21, 40, 82, 124, 129, 131, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140 Semiotics, 9, 133, 134 Serlio, 29, 30 Set, vi, vii, x, 68, 82, 104, 105, 120 Shakespeare, 28, 38, 43, 44, 45 skene, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24, 124 Soyinka, 40, 50, 51, 53, 54, 56, 139

Ododo, 7, 41, 42, 46, 47, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 125, 131, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137 Ogunde, 5, 6, 7, 45, 46, 47, 56, 125, 132 Okolo, 55, 56 Oni, ii, iv, 2, 5, 6, 7, 19, 21, 30, 33, 38, 46, 47, 49, 52, 53, 54, 55, 125, 131, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 143, 157 Orisaremi, 7, 60, 70, 125, 137, 140, 141, 144, 145, 146, 147 Osofisan, xi, 4, 53, 58, 61, 63, 68, 136, 142, 144, 145 Oyin Adejobi, 45

P Palm Wine Drinkard, 47, 51 projections, 3, 38, 39, 85, 87, 121, 124, 128, 129, 154, 155 Props, vi, vii, 79, 80, 98, 116, 122, 139 proverb, 99

T technological, 1, 3, 30, 41, 44, 50, 54, 120, 125, 128, 143, 146

R

V

Renaissance, 1, 28, 29, 138 ritual performances, 4 Roman, 1, 16, 24, 25, 26, 40, 42, 46, 132, 135, 138, 154

visual elements, 13, 21, 82 Vitruvius, 1, 2

S

Y

Saro, vi, vii, ix, xi, 4, 8, 12, 13, 58, 59, 60, 61, 64, 82, 87, 88, 90, 91, 98, 103, 104, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 127, 131, 144, 145, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158 scenery, 6, 23, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38, 41, 44, 45, 48, 51, 53, 69, 70, 71, 86, 87, 104, 106, 120, 128

Yoruba Travelling theatre, 5

Z Z-Mirage, 87, 153, 155

155

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