Contemporary African Plays, edited with Introductions by Martin Banham and Jane Plastow of Leeds University, is a collection of some of the most exciting plays from the past twenty-five years of African theatre, spanning the continent's rich and disparate regional and cultural traditions. Included in this collection are three of the most significant plays of this century plus three brilliant plays which will be new to Western audiences: Death and the King's Horseman - A masterpiece from the Nobel-prize-winning Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka Woza Albert! - A skilful and devastating political satire from South Africa by the writers/performers Percy Mtwa and Mbongeni Ngema and Market Theatre director, the late Barney Simon Anowa - A powerful tale from Ghana which tells of a woman's plight and oppression by Ama Ata Aidoo The Chattering and the Song - An ingenious radical drama from the popular Nigerian playwright Femi Osofisan The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco - A witty political allegory about post-colonial Zimbabwe, by Andrew Whaley The Other War - An extraordinary insight into Africa's longest liberation war, by the Eritrean playwright Alemseged TesfaiThe only current anthology to survey the rich variety of contemporary African drama The plays included in this volume are: Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka; Anowa by Ama Ata Aidoo; The Chattering and the Song by Femi Osofisan; The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco by Andrew Whaley; Woza Albert! by Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema and Barney Simon; and The Other War by Alemseged Tesfai. Contemporary African Drama brings together some of the best writers writing from an African viewpoint today.

Contemporary African Plays

Literature & Fiction

SOYINKA, Wole

Aidoo, Ama Ata

Mtwa, Percy

Ngema, Mbongeni

Simon, Barney

Ọṣọfisan, Fẹmi

Whaley, Andrew

Tesfai, Alemseged

Dramas & Plays

Methuen Drama

Based on the ancient myth of Moremi, the life queen who infiltrated the enemy camp to ensure her people's triumph. Morountodun brilliantly brings the story up to date. Two other plays complete a collection by one of Nigeria's best-known playwrights.

Morountodun and Other Plays

Longman Nigeria

African playwrights remain aware of the political dimension of their work. This volume in the African Theatre series examines, for example, a theatrical collaboration inspired by the infamous execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and raises issues around the power and politics of language in a Mauritian version of l>The Tempest/l>.  North America: Indiana U Press; South Africa: Wits U PressBR>

African Theatre: Playwrights and Politics

Gibbs, James

James Currey

First title in the African Theatre series with accounts of Theatre for Development workshops and critical discussions of the theme which continues to be a major area of endeavour in African theatre. North America: Indiana University Press

African Theatre 1: African Theatre in Development

World Literature

Winner of the first Association of Nigerian Authors drama prize in 1983, Femi Osofisan is an important, emerging voice in contemporary theatre. He probes the agency of the ordinary man and woman in an age when the possibilities for productive labor have been globalized, capital is hoarded in the strongboxes of a relatively small number of transnational corporations, and a Nigerian elite further strips the nation of its tremendous physical and moral resources. Grounding his vision of change in a dialectical reading of history, Osofisan manipulated his Yoruba and Western heritages in order to speak of the challenges facing his society and to scrutinize the practice of art. To some Nigerians, he is a radical who is sounding a welcome critique; to others, he is a subversive, intent on wrenching society from its moorings; and to still others, he is a contradictory mix of socialist rhetoric and romantic, elitist impulses.This volume comprises four plays-THE ORIKI OF A GRASSHOPPER, ESU and the VAGABOND MINSTRELS, BIRTHDAYS ARE NOT FOR DYING, and MOROUNTODON-and an introduction by Abiola Irele that examines the playwright's achievement. The plays combine traditional Nigerian folk figures and legends with modern themes, or use the traditional to underscore, and comment on, the corruption and danger found in modern life.

The Oriki of a Grasshopper and Other Plays

Howard Univ Pr

This is an African retelling of Euripides: an unnervingly topical story of a people and a beloved city destroyed by the brutality of war. The play was first performed in Lagos in 2003 under the distinguished director Chuck Mike, and subsequently toured the UK.

Women of Owu

Ibadan University Press

The distinguished Nigerian playwright directed the first performance of this play at the Arts Theatre at the University of Ibadan. Osofisan's incisive vision is put at the service of oppressed humanity. His over-riding theme is that the machinery of oppression in human society is created by man, but man is also capable of demolishing it. The production includes Yoruba songs and incantations, and a glossary provides an English translation - as a guide for other directors to substitute appropriate dirges.

Once Upon Four Robbers

Heinemann Educational Books (Nigeria) Ltd.

Morountodun and other plays

This volume brings together several of the author's unpublished speeches, papers and literary reflections from the 1980s, 1990s and early twenty first century. Subjects include: the writer, artist and journalist as mirrors of a nation's ethos; press freedom and its enemies; theatre and the question of national development; and literacy, reading and books as integral to cultural freedom.

Literature and the Pressures of Freedom: Essays, Speeches and Songs

Essays & Correspondence

Opon Ifa Readers

Major Plays 2 brings together three plays written between 1983 and 1999: Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels (1983), Red is the Freedom Road (1991), and Aringindin and the Nightwatchmen. Aringindin was first published in 1992. The version in this collection includes a new ending, first produced in 1999 after the end of Abacha's rule.

Major Plays 2

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