Dramatic expression in Ghana has two distinct forms, namely, operatic drama and literary drama.

Both forms satisfy the basic element of drama as the representation of life through an enacted
theme, but differ from each other in their mode of enactment. They both also owe their
development to the same sources, namely, indigenous Ghanaian verbal art and western dramatic
art.

Operatic drama has developed in three directions, namely, the Cantata of Christian societies, the
Concert Party, and traditional rites or art forms. A common feature to these modes that makes
them operatic is the element of music that constitutes an essential part of their representation.

The Ghanaian Concert Party, a theatrical form that uses humor and music to tell stories
conveying moral lessons, is one of the many art genres that have emerged in this century in sub-
Saharan Africa that blend or syncretise local and foreign elements. They are professional groups
of itinerant artists who stage vernacular shows for the rural and urban audiences that combine
slapstick musical comedies, folk stories, acrobatics, moral sermons, magical displays, and dance
music sessions. They appeared just after the First World War and since then have acted as a
cultural vortex in Ghana. The first concert actor of note in Ghana was Teacher Yalley and his
career began at his school empire day concert in 1918, when he joked, sang, and danced, wearing
fancy dress, wig, moustache and the make-up of an American Black-and-white minstrel. The
Concert Party originated from the school plays and the cantata of Christian groups. It is a product
of urbanization and westernization processes and has drawn direct inspiration from African
indigenous dramatic traditions to express and highlight contemporary problems and sensibility.

However, in spite of their acculturated nature, the Concert Party contains distinctive features that
express the identities, symbols, aesthetics and underlying value orientations of their African
practitioners and audiences and which distinguishes it from literary drama. Its ability to reflect
and express the moods and outlooks of Africans undergoing rapid socio-cultural transformations
is helped by their often ephemeral and transient nature. The Ghanaian Concert Party begins with
comedies by a comedian from the concert group. The comedy usually takes about ten to fifteen
minutes followed by a short drama of about thirty minutes. The Concert Party combines
spontaneous dialogue with music and action to dramatize simple themes drawn from everyday
social experiences and its characteristic vein is comic even in presenting sad or pathetic
experiences. It employs the style of acting real life stories in speech and song embellished with
the art of character disguise through facial make-up and female impersonation. This tradition of
the Concert Party has been preserved to this day by Ghanaian comedians.

Another unique feature of the concert party was its performer- audience relationship. The concert
party was usually performed at places such as the village square hence there were no daises to
separate performers from the actors. The audience sometimes expresses their excitement by
placing money on the moist forehead of a performer. They also join in when an actor is singing.
In fact, the actions of the audience sometimes influence the performance. For instance when the
comedian realizes that they are not enjoying his jokes, he quickly tries to change to a funnier
one. This is not the case in literary drama because the actors learn scripts to perform so that they
cannot change the script while they are on stage.

The setting and costume of the Concert Party also differs from that of the literary drama for it
employs traditional Ghanaian elements. Besides popular performance, painting and literature, the
Concert Party goes far beyond what in the West is normally called 'art'; for it embraces coffin
designs, house decorations and bar murals, portrait photography, hair barbering advertisements,
sign writing, wire toy vehicles, decorated bread labels, lorry slogans, current jokes and
expressions, and the catch names for printed clothes and hair-styles.

Unlike the literary drama, and like other oral literary forms, the Concert Party as a comic play is
unwritten hence they have no authors because they employ social life experiences, traditional
folklores, and music lyrics in their dramatic presentation. Though they have leaders who usually
come out with ideas about their performances, all the performers also contribute to make it a
reality. For instance each actor will choose what he or she can do best and what to say to
entertain the audience. Some of the Ghanaian concert groups of the fifties and sixties originated
from musical bands and used their song lyrics to create their often transient drama. Some of
these were the Kaakaiku group, Yamoahs, and Kumapem Royals headed by Akwasi Ampofo
Agyei. The literary drama on the other hand has authors who write the scripts for the actors to
learn what to say before they act on stage. They are also put in books with the author’s name at
the back to show who actually owns them

The Concert Party is unique in that the intended audience has been ordinary Ghanaians rather
than the elite. Initial performances drew a socially stratified crowd from lawyers, district
commissioners, clerks, and teachers to semi-skilled laborers, merchants, and small traders but
later turned to the middle class families and later to the rural folks. This transition began in the
1920s when the Concert Party tradition begun to separate into two distinct varieties: the upper –
class shows of Teacher Yalley and the Accra Vaudeville on one hand and Bob Johnson’s
Schoolboy Sixpenny shows on the other hand. However in 1930, Bob Johnson went professional
when, with Bob Ansah, he formed the Two Bobs and the Carolina Girl that staged for villagers
and the urban poor. In short, Johnson ‘hi-jacked’ the genre from the elite which, I should say,
was lucky for Ghana as the high class gradually died out. According to Efua Sutherland (1970)
the Two Bobs shows were given pre-publicity by a masked bell-ringer wearing a billboard,
which was cheaper than hiring out a full brassband. To appeal to the masses, the actors and
creators of the Concert Party have borrowed from a wide range of disciplines, dramatic forms,
and cultures. They use vernacular or informal languages that depict real life situations of their
intended audience. Literary drama in Ghana on the other hand, usually uses English language
and their mode of communication is formal. The Concert Party has existed for many years in
Ghana, continually evolving and transforming itself in order to accommodate ever-changing
social issues.

Drama, as usually defined is theater; it is the abstraction of life or simulated life. However, in
certain respects, literary drama is different from the Concert Party and other indigenous art
genres because, though the Concert Party always has a theme, it does not relate a story in all its
manifestations, nor is it the product of conscious art because it is generally a series of established
customary or spontaneous acts. It does not operate as a rule on conflict and its resolution as in
literary drama.

In conclusion, Ghanaian literary drama is as a result of the total impact of western civilization
upon the educated Ghanaian with such strands as the arts, the sciences, diverse systems of
philosophy and theatrics. Therefore, one identifies significant features that are the direct
influences of the west as well as evidence of the playwright’s efforts to create an African theatre.
However, the Concert Party, though owes its development partly to western dramatic art, it
heavily depends on the combination of spontaneous dialogue with music and action to dramatize
simple themes drawn from everyday social experiences.
REFERENCES.

 Bame, K.N. 1985: Come to Laugh: A Study of Traditional African Theatre in Ghana.
Lilian Barber Press Inc., New York.
 Collins, John 1994: The Ghanaian Concert Party: Africa Popular Entertainment at the
Crossroads. PhD Thesis for the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the State University of
New York at Buffalo.
 Sutherland, Efua. 1970: The Original Bob: The Story of Bob Johnson, Ghana’s Ace
Comedian. Anowuo Educational Publications, Accra, Ghana.