Theatre Designs for Counter-Terrorism: Performances of Ojo Bakare’s <i>Drums of War</i> as Paradigm

Abstract

The fight against terrorism has been unabated because as military forces kill members of terrorists groups, the terrorists are recruiting new members. So, there is a need to imbue in every society's psyche, a strong revulsion to be conscripted for terrorism. This study, therefore, uses Drums of War performances which were staged at different times of groups and communal hostilities with a glaring atmosphere of imminent bloodbaths in Nigeria, as paradigms with which to investigate the potential of theatre designs (in rousing the stark horrors of war/violence) as a psychological strategy for engineering in a people, a mindset that eschews violence or terror against fellow mankind. This study adopts a qualitative research methodology (which includes: participatory observation, focus group discussions with members of the audience community and interviews with the playwright and play director) for primary data gathering; while secondary data are gathered from journals and other library materials. This study anchors its argument on the Hypodermic Needle Theory and submits that: if every society (especially ones that are easy targets for terrorist recruitment) is strategically and effectively saturated with dramas that arouse an anti-terrorist vibe, the people (who are potential recruits for terrorist’s acts) would be indoctrinated against becoming willing conscripts into terrorism; hence, a dwindling in the manpower for the continuous proliferation of terrorism.