
- 370 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Development of African Drama
About this book
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.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Original Title Page
- Original Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Introduction
- 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
- Bibliography
- Index