Theatre
When the Hunchback Made Rain
Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu · 1975
Synopsis
A play that stages the relations between human beings and supernatural powers. Its plot is not known; the author's work is concerned with the erosion of traditional values.
Context
First staged in 1970, the play was published in 1975 by the East African Publishing House, together with Snoring Strangers, a one-act play drawn from village rites and performed by the Ngoma Players in 1973. The author had begun with Family Spear and in 1962 won a Makerere competition with Keeping up with the Mukasas, included in 1965 in David Cook's anthology Origin East Africa. She also produced the play by Byron Kawadwa that Uganda presented at the Lagos festival in 1977.
Who it is for
For discovering the theatre of a great figure of the Ugandan stage of the 1970s, between rites and the supernatural.
Prizes and reception
No detailed review has been found; it is regarded as the principal work of her theatre.