THEATRE OF REVOLT: THE ROLE OF INSURGENT WOMEN IN FEMI OSOFISAN’S ONCE UPON FOUR ROBBERSAND MOROUNTODUN MOROUNTODUN

The issue of radical women in radical drama as presented by radical male or female dramatists is fast becoming a phenomenon in modern Nigerian Theatre. The emergence of the woman and her role has continued to remain superficial and contentious. In other words, the challenges of projecting female characters in a vantage position over their male counterparts has been very daunting owing to the indigenous cultural beliefs of the African origin. Indeed, in the ancient Greek era they (women) were completely omitted from role playing in drama. Thus, the role of “agenda-setting” through drama is purely seen from the point of view of a male dominated society. In fact, history has shown that most dramatists actually reduced or dislodged the force and value of female characters in their drama. Thus the issue of national development for instance has been mostly handled with patriarchal and sexist prejudices towards the female gender. The aim of this paper however is not to castigate the male gender or to advocate for the mortgage of their rights. Rather it seeks to re-define and re-negotiate the character of the male-chauvinist in Nigerian drama today in relation to that of their female counterparts. It also strives to re-discover factors that necessitated the emergence of ‘a theatre of revolt’ and at the same time debunk a phantom vision created by archaic concepts about women in drama. In concentrating on the insurgent role of women in modern Nigerian dramaturgy therefore, we attempt to project the concept of the women’s place in Nigerian drama from a highly contributive, functional and positive angle. The two plays’ Once Upon Four Robbers and Morountodun by Osofisan have been used to buttress the point. The plays also reveals the Marxist and radical ideological learning’s used to unfold the situation of women in these plays.