Study of Performance Aesthetics in the Works of Contemporary Yoruba Female Playwrights

Female Yoruba playwrights have produced a distinct body of dramatic work challenging patriarchal narrative conventions while maintaining indigenous performance aesthetics, and examining these aesthetic strategies in contemporary productions provides important insights into gendered theatrical practice. This study examined performance aesthetics in the dramatic works of contemporary Yoruba female playwrights, focusing on plays produced between 2018 and 2023. A textual analysis and production analysis approach was employed, selecting 12 plays from 8 female Yoruba playwrights for detailed examination. Analysis categories addressed narrative structure, character agency, use of Yoruba oral tradition, spatial and visual aesthetics, and thematic focus. Five recorded productions were analysed alongside script texts. Results showed that female protagonists occupied central active roles in 11 of 12 plays, contrasting with the male-centred tradition. Yoruba proverbs were used with deliberate subversive recontextualisation in 9 plays, reinterpreting traditionally male-coded wisdom. Circular narrative structures appeared in 7 plays, resisting Western linear dramatic conventions. All 8 playwrights cited the challenge of achieving production for their work as their primary artistic constraint. The study concludes that contemporary Yoruba female playwrights are producing aesthetically innovative and culturally engaged work that deserves wider recognition and production support. Recommendations include dedicated publication initiatives, production grants, and curriculum inclusion of female Yoruba playwrights in university drama syllabi.

Keywords: Yoruba female playwrights, performance aesthetics, dramatic form, feminist theatre, Nigerian drama