Theatre
On joue la comédie
Not translated into English
Sénouvo Agbota Zinsou · 1975
Synopsis
In a theatre, the presenter Kuma, who runs the troupe, promises the audience the best play in the world; but his actors cannot manage to perform it, a spectator threatens to demand a refund, and two policemen burst in looking for a troupe that would incite citizens against the government. Kuma then announces a play about Chaka, liberator of his people; everyone picks a role, and the show slips toward apartheid South Africa, under the constant interruptions of the spectators.
Context
The play won the grand prize of Radio France Internationale's inter-African theatre competition in 1972, which made its author known outside Togo, and he staged it during a tour in France. RFI published it in Paris in 1975; it was reissued in 1984 in Lomé, by Haho, and in Haarlem, preceded by a study by Tohonou Gbeasor. The presenter sets the action “in South Africa, at home”, and a character reminds the audience that the chains of segregation still hold, in South Africa as in Mozambique or Angola.
Who it is for
A brief play combining dialogue, song and dance, in the manner of the concert-party; the audience in the hall becomes a character.
Prizes and reception
Awarded the prize in Lagos in 1972 by the jury of the RFI competition, published three years later, then reissued in Lomé with a critical study.
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