Republic of the Congo / All works
Theatre
La Fable du cloître des cimetières
Not translated into English
Caya Makhélé · 1991
Synopsis
Makiadi, a former stamp-sticker at the Ministry of Public Health, drifts from bar to bar in a tramp's life and looks in vain for his image in a broken mirror. A letter from Motéma declares her love to him, tells him she is dead to him and begs him to come and fetch her from the underworld. He sets off for a buffoonish afterlife, changing appearance at each stage, in turn a woman, a monk and a tramp, and meets an old man who is at once morgue attendant, policeman and barman, or a little girl who refuses to live in this world.
Context
The play was written in 1989 at the Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, where its author was in residence with a grant from the Centre national du livre; the Chartreuse published it in 1991, then L'Harmattan reissued it in 1995, followed by another play. It was programmed in 1997 at the Festival international des Francophonies in Limoges, and Czech national radio broadcast it in 2003 in a translation by Matylda and Michal Láznovský. Critics read it as a rewriting of the myth of Orpheus, transposed to an Africa of poverty.
Who it is for
A short play in French, of about fifty pages, in which the world of the living and that of the dead merge. It helps to know the myth of Orpheus, which it rewrites.
Prizes and reception
Grand Prix Tchicaya U Tam'si of Radio France Internationale for theatre in 1993; translated into English, Czech and German.
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