Radicalism and drama-in-education: A study of Saviour Agoro’s crazy papers and Ben Binebai’s drums of the delta

This article investigates radicalism in Nigerian drama, using Saviour Agoro's Crazy Papers and Ben Binebai's Drums of the Delta as primary texts for analysis and discussion. Adapting the avant-garde tradition as put forward by Alfred Jarry, the study uses literary, historicalanalytical and direct observation methods to interrogate the radical elements in the two dramatic texts with a view to highlighting the drama-in-education (D-I-E) potential in them aimed at bettering society. The principal characters in both texts represent a radical ideal that is required to revamp the almost comatose educational system in societies such as Nigeria. The authors` visionary creativity places the principal characters as transformative forces against oppression from the capitalist structure in the dramatic universe. Regardless of the existential challenges they are faced with, we see their persistent adventures, albeit non-conventional efforts to achieve the deliverables in the educational ecosystem and structure of society they found themselves in the play texts under investigation. The study surmises that being radically different can be a revolutionarily credible way to engender positive change through theatre-in-education (TI-E) in society.