This paper is a critical investigation of the production of Madam Tinubu: The Terror in Lagos by Akinwumi Isola, directed by Ireayomi Daniel Omokunga at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) Theatre and Media Arts (TMA) theatre. As part of the FUOYE TMA 2025 Festival of Plays, the staged production ran between the 7th and 17th of April, 2025. Brechtian epic theatre and Rasaki Ojo Bakare’s terms of performative idioms are utilised to read performance selections, aesthetic design, and cultural staging. By participant observation, close textual-performance interpretation, and comparative recourse to local work on theatre aesthetics, the paper contends that the staging effects significant cultural recovery and critical challenge whilst demonstrating persistent technical failings in work on accent, sound focus, and ensemble accuracy. In conclusion, the paper suggests the study’s contribution towards discourses on African historicity in performance and provides practical recommendations towards staging historically informed drama in Nigerian university theatres.
