The Yoruba Travelling Theatre

The Yoruba Travelling Theatre

The Yoruba Travelling Theater was developed in the 1850s and used a combination of traditional Yoruba art forms with the incorporation of Western performance paradigms. It has been pivotal in the development of the Cinema of Nigeria. The Yoruba Travelling Theatre has focussed on fantastic folktales, farcical social satires, and historical or mythological accounts derived from oral tradition. Plays were performed in the Indigenous Yoruba Languages to educate Yoruba children. The Yoruba Travelling Theatre has disseminated Yoruba culture.

History

The Yoruba Travelling Theatre began when three doyen of Theatre started the theatre playwright which include Hubert Ogunde started his first opera titled "The Garden of Eden and the Throne of God, was performed with success in 1944; Kola Ogunmola with his playwrite "Ife Owolabi" (Love of Money) in 1950 and was published in English translation in 1965 and subsequently stage playing Omuti apa kinni in 1963 which brought Kola Ogunmola into fame. The third amongst them is Duro Ladipo with the famous stage play Oba KO So (The King did not Hang) and Eda (Everyman). In these feats, each one of these doyen were more particular about the propagation of Yoruba voices towards the apartheid rulership of the colonialism in those days. What culminating into "Yoruba Ronus" a particular phrase being used to call the attention of the Yoruba people into deeper thinking of Self Preservation and ethnic elongation purposes in the country till date. The success of The Yoruba Travelling Theatre can only be measured with the feats of Herbert Ogunde when he staged his first playwrite "The Garden of Eden" and The Throne of God in 1944; but the Theatre group became more famous with their staged play called "Yoruba Ronus" in 1945, which was showed during the general Strike in 1945. The Yoruba Travelling Theatre has been a precursor to the current stage dramatist our time to further push the Cultural values of the entire Yoruba people.

Plays performed

1. The Garden of Eden and the Throne of God staged play in 1944.
2. Strike and Hunger played in 1946 which dramatise the event of the General Strike in 1945
3. Yoruba Ronus staged play in 1964 during the attack on Ladoke Akintola
4. The Tigers Empire which was also staged play earlier in 1946 to give clearance to women to have access to dramatisation. These were the major plays of Hubert Ogunde.
5. Ife Owo and Omuti are all Playwrites of Kola Ogunmola which further reshape the essence of The Yoruba Theatre play.
6. Oba Ko so and Eda by Duro Ladipo