Originally published in 1982, this book explores concepts such as ‘traditional performance’ and African theatre’. It analyses the links between drama and ritual, and drama and music and diagnoses the confusions in our thought. The reader is reminded that drama is never merely the printed word, but that its existence as literature and in performance is necessarily different. The analysis shows that literature tends to replace performance; and drama, removed from the popular domain, becomes elitist. The book’s richness lies in the constantly stimulating analysis of ‘art’ theatre, as exemplified in protest plays, in African adaptations and transpositions of such classical subjects as the Bacchae and Everyman, in plays on African history, on colonialism and neo-colonialism. The final chapters argue that the form of African drama needs to evolve as the content does.
1.Traditional Performance in Contemporary Society 2. Drama as Literature and Performance 3. Transpositions and Adaptations in African Drama 4. Plays About Colonialism and the Struggle for Independence 5. The Art Theatre: Three Ghanaian Plays 6. The Art Theatre: Soyinka’s Protest Plays 7. The Art Theatre: Political Plays 8. Theatre and Development.
Biography
Michael Etherton is a specialist in popular theatre in the developing world and in the development of Nigerian drama. He was reader in Drama at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria.
‘The author’s profound knowledge of African theatrical practice has enabled him to present this highly topical account of modern drama.’ Vladimír Klíma, Archív Orientálí, Volume 51
‘Speaking from experience [Etherton] is able to make a genuinely original contribution to the discussion of perennial problems: the transformation of oral into literary cultures; the relation between text and performance and the role of the theatre audience.’ D. Bradby, Theatre Research International, 9 (3).
‘This is an excellent book on which to start students, particularly as it has an easy and functional glossary for beginners at theatre in the front of the volume.’ Elaine Savory, Research in African Literatures, Vol 15, No. 3.
