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This collection of essays investigates the way Africa has been portrayed on the London stage from the 1950s to the present. It focuses on whether - and, if so, to what extent - the Africa that emerges from the London scene is subject to stereotype, and/or in which ways the reception of audiences and critics have contributed to an understanding of the continent and its arts. The collection, divided into two parts, brings together well-established academics and emerging scholars, as well as playwrights, directors and performers currently active in London. With a focus on Wole Soyinka, Athol Fugard, Bola Agbaje, Biyi Bandele, and Dipo Agboluaje, amongst others, the volume examines the work of key companies such as Tiata Fahodzi and Talawa, as well as newer companies Two Gents, Iroko Theatre and Spora Stories. Interviews with Rotimi Babatunde, Ade Solanke and Dipo Agboluaje on the contemporary London scene are also included.
List of contents
1. Introduction; Tiziana Morosetti.- 2. Freedom, London 1955: A Story of Modern Africa Written and Acted by Africans, or Perhaps Not; James Gibbs.- 3. Africa on the British Stage, 1955-1966; Stephen J. Nicholson.- 4. 'On One of Those Sunday Nights': 50 Years of Africa at the Royal Court; Tiziana Morosetti.- 5. Biyi Bandele's Theatre of the Afropolitan Absurd; Michael Pearce.- 6. Nigerian Political Satire at the Soho Theatre: Class, Culture, and Theatrical Languages in Oladipo Agboluaje's The Estate and Iyale (The First Wife); Lynette Goddard.- 7. Black Masculinity and the Black Voice: Casting and Canonicity in the National Theatre Gala; Sophie Duncan.- 8. Disrupting Historical Mis-Representations and Constructions: Talawa Theatre, Tiata Fahodzi and Representations of Polyphonic Africa on the Contemporary London Stage; Victor Ukaegbu.- 9. Iroko Theatre and the African Theatre-in-Education Scene in London; Alex Oma-Pius.- 10. 'But [We] Will Delve One Yard below Their Mines/And Blow Them at the Moon': Two Gents: 'Africa', Shakespeare, and the Silent Revolutio; Arne Pohlmeier.- 11. Interview with Ade Solanke; Tiziana Morosetti.- 12. Interview with Rotimi Babatunde; Ying Cheng.- 13. Interview with Dipo Agboluaje; Tiziana Morosetti.
About the author
Tiziana Morosetti is a fixed-term affiliate with the African Studies Centre, Oxford, UK, where she teaches African Literature. She is deputy-director of the journal Quaderni del ’900, and the membership secretary of the African Theatre Association (AfTA). She is the editor of Staging the Other in Nineteenth-Century British Drama (2016).
Summary
This collection of essays investigates the way Africa has been portrayed on the London stage from the 1950s to the present. It focuses on whether — and, if so, to what extent — the Africa that emerges from the London scene is subject to stereotype, and/or in which ways the reception of audiences and critics have contributed to an understanding of the continent and its arts. The collection, divided into two parts, brings together well-established academics and emerging scholars, as well as playwrights, directors and performers currently active in London. With a focus on Wole Soyinka, Athol Fugard, Bola Agbaje, Biyi Bandele, and Dipo Agboluaje, amongst others, the volume examines the work of key companies such as Tiata Fahodzi and Talawa, as well as newer companies Two Gents, Iroko Theatre and Spora Stories. Interviews with Rotimi Babatunde, Ade Solanke and Dipo Agboluaje on the contemporary London scene are also included.
