Martin Banham & James Gibbs 
African Theatre 13: Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Wole Soyinka 

Directors and collaborators assess and comment on the production of plays by West Africa’s Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and East Africa’s most influential author Ngugi wa Thiong’o.


Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong’o are the pre-eminent playwrights of West and East Africa respectively and their work has been hugely influential across the continent. This volume features directors’ experiences of recent productions of their plays, the voices of actors and collaborators who have worked with the playwrights, and also provides a digest of their theatrical output. Contributors provide new readings of Ngugi and Soyinka’s classic texts, and astimulating new approach for students of English, Theatre and African studies.


The playscript for this volume is a previously unpublished radio play by Wole Soyinka entitled
A Rain of Stones, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002.


Volume Editors: MARTIN BANHAM & FEMI OSOFISAN Guest Editor: KIMANI NJOGU


Series Editors: Martin Banham, Emeritus Professor of Drama & Theatre Studies, University of Leeds; James Gibbs, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, University of the West of England; Femi Osofisan, Professor of Drama at the University of Ibadan; Jane Plastow, Professor of African Theatre, University of Leeds; Yvette Hutchison, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre & Performance Studies, University of Warwick

Table of Content

Editors’ Introduction – Martin Banham and Femi Osofisan and James Gibbs

Reading & performing African drama: how Wole Soyinka & Ngugi wa Thiong’o influenced my work – David Kerr

Ayan contra Ujamaa: Soyinka & Ngugi as theatre theorists – Biodun Jeyifo

ENCOUNTERS WITH SOYINKA: I Working with Wole Soyinka – Tunji Oyelana and Sola Adeyemi

II The difficulties of a neophyte staging Wole Soyinka’s
The Beatification of Area Boy – Tunde Onikoyi

III Pentecostalizing Soyinka’s
The Trials of Brother Jero – Bisi Adigun

IV
The Lion & the Jewel in Mombasa – Silviah Namussasi

ENCOUNTERS WITH NGUGI: I Choru wa Muiruri: reflections on the Kamiriithu Experience – Mugo Muhia

II Producing
I Will Marry When I Want in South Africa – Fredrick Mbogo

III Ngugi wa Thiong’o: the unrecognized Black Hermit – Oby Obyerodhyambo

IV Kamiriithu in retrospect – Gichingiri Ndigirigi

Wole Soyinka & Ngugi wa Thiong’o: plays in production – James Gibbs and Mugo Muhia

The making of
The Trial of Dedan Kimathiby Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Githae Mugo at the University of California, Irvine: a personal reflection – Ketu H. Katrak

Playscript:
A Rain of Stones. A previously unpublished radio play by Wole Soyinka – Wole Soyinka

Book Reviews

About the author

Femi Osofisan is an internationally lauded playwright, scholar, poet, novelist, actor, director, songwriter, and activist and Professor Emeritus of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan. Osofisan was awarded the Thalia Prize in 2016. He has published five novellas, six volumes of poetry, and more than 50 plays.