ABSTRACT
It is significant that Malamah-Thomas adds the qualification ‘if properly used’ to his statement on the efficacy of theatre. Like all other media, theatre’s effectiveness in development communication depends very much on the proficiency of the practitioner. In theatre-for-development the proficiency should not only be in the creation of highly polished productions of great aesthetic merit; the practitioner must also have clarity of what development and development communication entail. [. . .]
The plays that evinced efficacy were those that concentrated not only on the artistic product, but also on the process of analysis from the rural community’s perspective. The practitioner must find the balance between aesthetics and function. This study has shown that the two are not in opposition. Indeed, it was clearly illustrated that those works which were of high aesthetic quality in the utilisation of popular performance modes such as lifela were the most effective in drawing people to participate in a critical analysis process. In those plays, then, theatre-fordevelopment was able to serve the following functions:
1 Mobilisation in support of national development: People were motivated into effective participation in programmes geared towards people’s self-reliance. . . .
