ABSTRACT
The study has illustrated that theatre can be effective as a medium for development communication. The work of Marotholi Travelling Theatre analysed in this study has confirmed some of the assertions made by theatre-for-development and development communication practitioners and scholars on the relative efficacy of the medium in conscientising a rural population, and in disseminating development messages. 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 study identified three traits of domestication: one is domestication that arises from an innocuous situation intended to liberate, the second is domestication that happens as a result of a conscious effort from an agent who seeks to domesticate, and the third happens through censorship and self-censorship. Communication programmes need to be evaluated to find out what they have accomplished and how they can be improved.
