Directing Multilingual Productions: Challenges and Strategies for Nigerian Theatre Directors

This study examines the professional challenges and strategies involved in directing multilingual theatre productions in Nigeria, a country characterised by extraordinary linguistic diversity. Nigerian theatre increasingly reflects the country's multilingual reality, with productions incorporating English, Pidgin, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, and numerous other languages within single performance texts. The research investigates how directors navigate the linguistic complexity of multilingual productions in terms of rehearsal process, actor coaching, audience accessibility, and aesthetic coherence. Data were gathered through interviews with directors of multilingual productions staged in Lagos, Abuja, and Enugu, supplemented by analysis of production scripts and rehearsal notes. The study finds that directors of multilingual productions face distinct challenges including differentiated language coaching requirements for cast members, the management of audience comprehension across linguistic groups, and the risk of linguistic hierarchy within the performance, where dominant language groups receive preferential treatment in scripting. Successful productions employ deliberate linguistic mapping strategies that assign language choices to character identity and social context. The research concludes that multilingual theatre directing requires specialised competencies that should be incorporated into professional director training programmes. Keywords: multilingual theatre, directing, Nigerian performance, linguistic diversity, production strategies.