Plays and Their Modern Relevance: Femi Osofisan's Midnight Hotel

Abstract

Society has become anaemic and paralysed due to the cancerous tumult of oddity that has been allowed to entrench. The consequence has become endemic and insidious that it lacks legitimacy and veracity for anyone to confront. However, the creative artist as a street journalist is capable of marshalling all available resources to create stories that relates, reflect its community, and even beyond. Femi Osofisan, a committed apostle or a social crusader for change, has skilfully utilised the medium of drama to expose and satirize the prevalent social vices that has become cancerous to the health of its society. The paper shows how theatre or drama could be used as one major significant medium that is relevant to modern societies irrespective of the period. Its source material has always been from life as it seeks to consciously appeal to the psychological, spiritual and physical needs of the society depending on the point of view of the writer. The paper explores the commitment of Femi Osofisan as an African playwright through his spectrum the concerns raised in his play Midnight Hotel. It shall also attempt to examine the text and juxtapose the concerns highlighted in relation to Africa and specifically the Ghanaian society.