WTD 2026: Theatre calls on humanity to shun wars and embrace peace, dialogue
By Tunji Azeez
IN the past few years, no continent of the world has enjoyed enduring peace for an entire year. The spate of wars, insurgence, and ethnic confrontations, around the world attest to the sad reality that humanity is on a journey of self-annihilation, and that if the world will come to an end as some religions claim, man will play a major role in this predicted apocalypse. The evidences are around us. They stare us in the face when we wake up and play in our dreams, when we close our eyes in sleep. As the great English playwright lamented, Act II, Scene 2, of one of his plays, Macbeth, after Macbeth murders King Duncan, “Sleep no more! Macbeth hath murdered sleep”.
Sadly, Shakespeare’s lament echoes four hundred and three years after as humanity has not only continued its murderous acts but we have perfected and still perfecting ways and means to kill our fellows for reasons that even the beast of the wild will be ashamed to imagine. Daily, nations are building sophisticated war tools capable of wiping out an entire race thousands of miles away. Nations compete to outdo one another in the race to build technologies capable of reaching places far removed from them at the speed of light.
These murderous and bestial acts are enabled by organisations that were established to prevent or stop man from sinking to the level of beasts. The failure of these organisations to keep man in check reveals the sad truth that man never learns from history. As we witness the horrible killings of children and other defenceless and vulnerable members of society in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, we call on world leaders to rethink and reflect on history. We call on them to humanize themselves with the profound thoughts of our playwrights across millennia.
Since the dawn of civilisation, the theatre has been warning us of the dire consequences of war and other forms of conflict on our humanity. From Greek and Roman playwrights to those of the Medieval period, from England to Ireland, from America to Africa, humanity has been called by the theatre to shun wars and embrace peace and dialogue. Humanity must retrace its steps and heed the warnings of past and contemporary dramatists who have shown, time and time again that man must rein in his primordial instincts if the world must be a peaceful and better place for us and generations yet unborn.
Therefore, as we celebrate World Theatre Day 2026, the theme of this celebration, ‘Theatre and a Culture of Peace,’ reminds us, most poignantly, that at the end of every war, at the end of every killing, humanity and not the vanquished, loses. The theme reminds us that wars never end on the battlefield but at discussion tables. The Society of Nigeria Theatre Artists (SONTA) calls on leaders all over the world, particularly African leaders, to act in the best interests of their people and deliver on their promises to their people. This is a way to prevent conflicts. They are enjoined to understand that in any society where only a few feed fat on the resources of the land, war and discontent are inevitable. The wars, ethnic conflicts, religious extremism, corruption on the continent can only end when leaders lead justly and selflessly. This is the message that the theatre has preached for thousands of years. It is the same message that the theatre is preaching today.
Happy World Theatre Day!
* Professor Azeez, Dean, Faculty of Theatre and Film Studies, Lagos State University, Ojo, is the president of Society of Nigerian Theatre Artists (SONTA)
