Postdigital theatre: Beyond digital alienation of live theatre on the Nigerian performance space

Abstract

The challenges of studies in humanities in the wake of the ongoing digital revolution in science and technology sum up the crisis of the place of live theatre in response to skit making on social media apart from the traditional film medium like cinemas and home videos. There are perhaps arguments around the presumed effectiveness of digital theatre in terms of its ability to reach wider audiences across the globe at once through the deployment of technology. Nevertheless, it is clear from my experience of live theatre as recent as May 15 and June 19 2022 by the House of Arimata Theatre Studio in Osogbo, that digital theatre cannot take the place of a live theatre. The communal ritual essence of live theatre, its liminal phases, the necessary separation, the shattering of the performers in the limen, their re-assemblage/merging with the audience, and the communal re-emergence with a new consciousness, all in the transitions and the festivity of a live theatre, cannot be captured in/by a digital theatre. Thus, the lacuna is clear even in the rate at which humanity is commoditised with its knowledge and cultural productions monetised in most digital theatre productions. It is on the basis of the argument of postdigitalism that this paper uses direct observation and historical-analytic methods to argue that while live theatre retains the power to humanise through communal participation, digital theatre can only continue to commoditise/zombiefy humanity with its focus on traffic generation and advert placements essentially for materialism.