By Oyeniyi Esan
The team of 500 young people from the department of theatre at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State in Nigeria, has vowed to break the World’s Guinness World Record for the longest marathon theater performance by a team in order to top on the list of marathon theatre.
This was revealed during an official press conference held at the Theatre Art Department Hall, University of Ibadan, on Friday, focusing on the need to redefine theatre in the Africa and the world at large.
According to the director and coordinator of the performance, Nathaniel Adedoyin, said the attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest theater performance by a team is a challenge to retell the narratives of African theatre as a distinct and unique voice of expression. The record is currently held by Team USA since in 2014, which means the United State holds the record for the period of 8 years.
According to him, “We are a team of 500 people attempting to break the record in order to restore the glory to Africa where it originally belongs. When we approached the state government that we were attempting to break the world record for the longest marathon theatre performance by a team, the governor of Oyo state, through the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism shows serious support and concerns in achieving this attempt to break the world’s records.
“It is on record that only Oyo State embraced us, and by May 29th, we would have restored the glory where it rightfully belongs, he noted”.
The live performance will take place at the Wole Soyinka Theatre Hall at the University of Ibadan, with 100 hours of theatrical performance spread across five days from May 25 to May 29, 2022.
