Wole Soyinka

192 Pages·1986·12.95 MB·English

by  James Gibbs (auth.)

MACMILLAN MODERN DRAMATISTS
Maemillan Modern Dramatists
Series Editors: Bruce King and Adele King
Published titles
Reed Anderson, Federico Garcia Lorca
Eugene Benson, J. M. Synge
Renate Benson, German Expressionist Drama
Normand Berlin, Eugene O'Neill
Miehael Billington, Alan Ayckbourn
John Bull, New British Political Dramatists
Denis Calandra, New German Dramatists
Neil Carson, Arthur Miller
Mauriee Charney, Joe Orton
Ruby Cohn, New American Dramatists, 1960-1980
Bernard F Dukore, American Dramatists, 1918-1945
Bernard F Dukore, Harold Pinter
Arthur Ganz, George Bernard Shaw
James Gibbs, Wole Soyinka
Franees Gray, John Arden
Julian Hilton, Georg Buchner
David L Hirst, Edward Bond
Helene Keyssar, Feminist Theatre
Bettina L Knapp, French Theatre 1918-1939
Charles Lyons, Samuel Beckett
Jan MeDonald, The New Drama 1900-1914
Susan Bassnett-MeGuire, Luigi Pirandello
Margery Morgan, August Strindberg
Leonard C. Pronko, Eugene Labiche and Georges Feydeau
Jeanette L Savona. Jean Genet
Claude Sehumaeher, Alfred Jarry and Guillaume Apollinaire
Laurenee Seneliek, Anton Chekhov
Theodore Shank, American Alternative Theatre
James Simmons, Sean O'Casey
David Thomas, Henrik Ibsen
Dennis Walder, Athol Fugard
Thomas Whitaker, Tom Stoppard
Niek Worrall, Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Turgenev
Katharine Worth, Oscar Wilde
MACMILLAN MODERN DRAMATISTS
WOLE
SOYINKA
James Gibbs
M
MACMILLAN
© James Gibbs 1986
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in acordance with the
provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims
for damages.
First published 1986
Published by Higher and Further Education Division
MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS L TD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by Type Generation Ltd,
London EC1
Gibbs, James
Wole Soyinka. - (Macmillan modem dramatists)
1. Soyinka, Wole - Criticism and interpretation
I. Title
822 PR9387.9.S6Z/
ISBN 978-0-333-30528-7 ISBN 978-1-349-18209-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-18209-1
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
A Note on Accents vi
List of Plates vii
Editors' Preface ix
1 Brief Life 1
2 Sources and Influences 18
3 The Leeds Plays 39
4 The Independence Plays 54
5 Plays of the Sixties 71
6 A Post-War Play 99
7 Plays of Exile 107
8 Plays for Nigeria of the
Seventies and Eighties 128
9 A Play of Giants 150
References 162
Bibliography 166
Index 171
v
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank his family for support, advice
and encouragement; his students and colleagues in Ghana,
Malawi and Nigeria for ideas and information, and, finally,
Wole Soyinka for creating such remarkable theatre and for
permission to quote from the unpublished rehearsal script
of Opera Wonyosi quoted on page 131.
A note on accents
Yoruba words and names usually appearin Wole Soyinka's
books without apostrophes, subscripts or superscripts. I
have followed this practice in this study, retaining, as
Soyinka does, the accent on Ake.
Soyinka's own name is more properly spelt Soyinka; S
has a sound roughly equivalent to 'Sh'. For further
information on all issues of Yo ruba orthography and
intonation the reader is referred to R. C. Abraham's
Dictionary of Modern Yoruba, published by the University
of London Press.
vi
List of Plates
1. The Lion and the Jewel, Royal Court Theatre, 1966.
Femi Euba as Lakunle and Hannah Bright Taylor as
Sidi. Photo: John Goldblatt
2. The Lion and the Jewel, Royal Court Theatre, 1966.
Photo: John Haynes
3. The Trials of Brother Jero, Bristol University Drama
Dept, 1974. Courtesy: The University of Bristol
Theatre Collection.
4. as No. 3
5. The Strong Breed, Chancellor College, Malawi, 1976.
Anthony Nazombe as Eman. Photo: James Gibbs
6. The University of Malawi's Travelling Theatre pro
duction of Chi/de lnternationale, 1979, Villah Ngwira
as Titi, Evelyn Kanwijolo as her mother. Photo:
James Gibbs.
7. Kongi's Harvest Wole Soyinka as Kongi. Directed by
Ossie Davis for Omega / Calpenny Films 1970.
8. Wole Soyinka with actors from The Road, 1972.
9. The Road, Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London,
1965. Horace James (Professor) Dapo Adelugba
(Murano) and Alton Kamala (Say Tokyo Kid).
10. The Road Goodman Theatre, Chicago 1984. Cour
tesy: The Goodman Theatre.
11. The Bacchae of Euripides. National Theatre, 1973.
Martin Shaw as Dionysus and John Shrapnel as
Pentheus. Courtesy: University of Bristol Theatre
Collection.
12. Norman Matlock and Ben Halley in Death and the
King's Horsemen, The Goodman Theatre, Chicago
1984. Courtesy: The Goodman Theatre.
13. Opera Wonyosi The University of Ife Theatre and
Students 1977.
The authors and publishers wish to thank copyright holders
for permission to reproduce photographs.
For my parents and my wife.
Editors' Preface
The Macmillan Modern Dramatists is an international
series of introductions to major and significant nineteenth
and twentieth century dramatists, movements and new
forms of drama in Europe, Great Britain, America and new
nations such as Nigeria and Trinidad. Besides new studies
of great and influential dramatists of the past, the series
includes volumes on contemporary authors, recent trends
in the theatre and on many dramatists, such as writers of
farce, who have created theatre 'classics' while being
neglected by literary criticism. The volumes in the series
devoted to individual dramatists include a biography, a
survey of the plays, and detailed analysis of the most
significant plays, along with discussion, where relevant, of
the political, social, historical and theatrical context. The
authors of the volumes, who are involved with theatre as
playwrights, directors, actors, teachers, and critics, are
concerned with the plays as theatre and discuss such
matters as performance, character interpretation and stag
ing, along with themes and contexts.
BRUCE KING
ADELE KING
ix