Reflecting on All for Peace: A Community Theatre Experience in Akungba

Abstract

This work documents and reflects on the community theatre production titled All for Peace, which was staged at the palace of the Alale of Akungba and the Multi-Purpose Hall of Adekunle Ajasin University on July 17 and 18 2024 respectively. This paper is inspired by Helen Cahill’s cautionary note to applied theatre practitioners about the danger of complicity in the marginalisation in applied theatre practice and scholarship. The warning borders on the justification of applied theatre’s specific contribution to attaining social change. The failure of practitioners to intentionally document and evaluate the contributions of applied theatre to social change constitutes the main concern of this piece. This essay deploys Taiwo Afolabi’s “ethical questioning” as a springboard to interrogate the project. Afolabi avers that the art of questioning requires reflection: before, in, and after the action. Consequently, documentation and reflection on the dramatic content and contexts are undertaken. The result is a template for documenting and evaluating a dramatic production.