This book discusses the new roles assigned to oral traditions in the works of contemporary playwrights, and asserts that these oral materials, though old, have enduring vitality and relevance for modern-day society. By looking at the African cultural matrix of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria, this book presents a study of the strategies frequently adopted by contemporary Nigerian playwrights to preserve folkloric materials in their creative works and examines how these writers manipulate different forms of oral tradition to bring cultural and social vision to bear in their dramaturgy.