Theatrical performance as social work in Nigeria

Abstract

Every day people experience crises which manifest in poor or inability to make use of thinking faculties to decide on adequate plans to solve them. To solve everyday problems people must use habitual patterns of adaptation to restore and maintain their usual level of social functioning. The complexities of urban situations in Nigeria have made people go through different forms of crisis that range from emotional, physical, psychological, medical, social and economic. There are several means of treatment, techniques and methods for solving human crisis but the method explored in this work is the use of theatrical performances. The performances intended here include the theatre, stand-up comedy, music studies and dance performances. Therefore, implied in this paper is the assumption that theatrical performances are intervention treatment for crisis situations.

Keywords: theatre, social work, performance, treatment