An Original Theoretical Investigation into the Aesthetics of Poverty and Inequality in Nigerian Drama

Nigerian drama has persistently engaged with poverty and inequality as both social reality and dramatic subject, yet the specific aesthetic strategies through which Nigerian playwrights and directors represent economic disparity, and the theoretical implications of these strategies for both Nigerian theatre and global social theatre, have not been systematically theorised. This study conducted an original theoretical investigation into the aesthetics of poverty and inequality in Nigerian drama. A theoretical and empirical methodology was employed, analysing a corpus of 40 Nigerian dramatic texts addressing poverty themes from 2010 to 2024, combined with interviews with 25 playwrights and directors working in this tradition. Content analysis examined representational strategies: realism versus allegory, individual versus structural causation framing, comedic versus tragic registers, language register choices, and spatial-material staging aesthetics. The analysis generated six original aesthetic categories: vernacular realism (authentic reproduction of poverty-class linguistic and material worlds), grotesque amplification (exaggerating inequality for satirical effect), testimonial naturalism (direct community testimony integration), allegorical critique (symbolic displacement of critique), spectatorial implication (staging techniques positioning the audience as party to inequality), and transcendent resolution (religious or communal resolution of socioeconomic conflict). Each category was theorised in relation to specific playwrights and productions. Expert review by 22 theatre scholars confirmed the framework's original theoretical contribution. The study recommends the framework be introduced in Nigerian postgraduate drama programmes and submitted for international academic publication.

Keywords: poverty aesthetics, inequality, Nigerian drama, theatrical representation, original theory