Ecological Performance and Environmental Humanities: Developing an Ecocritical Framework for Nigerian Theatre

This dissertation develops an original ecocritical framework for Nigerian theatre, synthesising ecological performance theory with the specific environmental humanities concerns of the Nigerian context to produce a theoretical apparatus for analysing how performance engages with ecological crisis, environmental justice, and human-nonhuman relations. Ecocriticism in theatre and performance studies has grown significantly as a global field since 2015, yet its application to Nigerian performance contexts is nascent and has not yet generated systematic theoretical frameworks responsive to the specific ecological conditions of Nigeria, including Niger Delta oil pollution, Sahel desertification, Lake Chad shrinkage, and deforestation across the Middle Belt. The dissertation employs a methodological approach combining theoretical framework development, critical analysis of existing ecocritical performance theory, and empirical case study analysis of fourteen Nigerian performance works that explicitly engage ecological themes, produced between 2016 and 2024. Practitioner interviews and community observation supplement performance analysis. An original theoretical contribution is the dissertation's concept of toxic performativity, which theorises how theatrical performance in contaminated and ecologically distressed environments enacts a specific mode of material witness and political demand. Keywords: ecocriticism, ecological performance, Nigerian theatre, environmental humanities, toxic performativity.