Ritual and theatre at the crossroads of poetics, politics and epistemology: Femi Euba (and WS)

ABSTRACT This study returns to the issue in world theatre scholarship of the boundary between theatre and ritual as forms or modes of performance, with reference to modern African drama in general and the dramaturgy of the Nigerian playwright Femi Euba in particular. The central argument hinges on the crossroads at which, for the successful integration of drama and ritual, aesthetic boldness, radical politics, and epistemological daring meet and clash. Deploying the notion of suspension of ritual disbelief as its central heuristic, the study explores the question of whether or not it is necessary for a playwright and her audience to believe in the gods and their rituals for ritual motifs and idioms to be successfully or productively integrated with dialogue drama. The author examines formal technique, thematic concerns, and cultural location – Africa/Diaspora – in three plays by Euba: The Devil, The Gulf, and The Eye of Gabriel.