Theatre
The Marriage of Unequals
Yalacha Gabicha
Mengistu Lemma · 1963
Synopsis
A comedy of manners. An educated young man finds himself pressed to marry a young woman who passes for Europeanised, but whose modernity lies only in her clothes, her hairstyle, her accent and her manners. Through this marriage plan, the play mocks the prejudices of a class society and argues for unions between different backgrounds.
Context
First staged in 1963 in a production by Abate Mekuria, the play belongs to the renewal of the Amharic theatre carried, in the last years of the reign of Haile Selassie, by authors trained abroad. The author himself translated it into English under the title The Marriage of Unequals, published in London by Macmillan in 1970, then reissued in Addis Ababa with Marriage by Abduction, his other marriage comedy. A thesis of Addis Ababa University studied it in 1981 from the angle of comedy with a social aim.
Who it is for
For discovering an Amharic comedy on marriage and class, readable in its author's English translation.
Prizes and reception
The Poetry Translation Centre recalls the great popularity of his comedies with the Ethiopian public.
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