Documentary Theatre: Professional Methods for Verbatim Performance and Social Testimony in Nigeria

This study examines documentary theatre as a professional performance methodology in Nigeria, investigating how verbatim performance and social testimony practices are being deployed to engage audiences with real-world social issues. Documentary theatre, which draws on recorded interviews, public documents, and eyewitness accounts as primary source material, has a growing international profile as a form of engaged political and social performance. The research investigates how Nigerian theatre practitioners are developing and staging documentary performances on topics including labour rights, gender-based violence, environmental pollution, and electoral fraud. Data were gathered through interviews with documentary theatre practitioners, review of production scripts and interview transcripts, and observation of staged performances in Lagos and Port Harcourt. The study finds that documentary theatre practice in Nigeria is emerging but unevenly developed, with practitioners facing challenges related to source material access, ethical clearances for sensitive testimony, and audience unfamiliarity with the form. Productions that maintain strict fidelity to recorded testimony while employing skilled dramaturgical structuring have achieved the strongest audience engagement. The research concludes that documentary theatre offers a powerful professional methodology for socially engaged performance in Nigeria. Keywords: documentary theatre, verbatim performance, social testimony, engaged theatre, Nigerian practice.