The Deep Roots And Shelter of Theater

IN THE YORÙBÁ FOLKLORE OF south-west Nigeria, the Iroko tree is a symbol of ferocious spiritual power. Cut the tree down, and imperil your fate. Cultures across the African continent venerate great trees as places of shelter and communion, the theaters of the precious in human life.

In the United Kingdom (UK), two theater companies with Nigerian roots are weathering the coronavirus storm with the defiant resilience of African hardwood.

The London-based IROKO Theatre Company was founded in 1996 by Alex Oma-Pius, who had trained on a scholarship from Nigeria at the National Academy For Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA), in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the 1980s. During the collapse of the Soviet Union, the scholarship program was dissolved, leaving Oma-Pius stranded in the UK; after an internship with the African theater company, Zuriya, he was inspired to strike out on his own.