In traditional African societies, there have always been spaces of revelation of truth and reconciliation of persons and forces in conflict. This space is what Soyinka has artistically explored in the play, A Dance of the Forests. That space is what I have identified as a sacred ground for the enactment of this ritual of revelation which constitutes the drama...
In traditional African societies, there have always been spaces of revelation of truth and reconciliation of persons and forces in conflict. This space is what Soyinka has artistically explored in the play, A Dance of the Forests. That space is what I have identified as a sacred ground for the enactment of this ritual of revelation which constitutes the drama. The entire community is involved in this ritual – humans, dead, living and unborn; spirits, deities, animals, the vegetation. Such is the completeness of the African idea of community. That space of unfolding of facts of existence and celebration of the eternal interaction between all these facets of existence is the Igbo Igbale. This is the space that has been found as the most unique location that could accommodate this giant rite of the ‘Gathering of the Tribes’ dramatized in Soyinka’s play.
The approach to the play's direction, therefore, shall be constructed around the iconic space of ‘Igbale'. A Dance of the Forests is, actually, an ‘Igbale piece’, and as such would be presented within a natural grove environment. The reason, of course, owes to its nature as an act based on the return of the ancestors. This evokes a clear picture of the preparation and emergence of 'egungun', in Yoruba ritual of ancestral veneration, in and from 'Igbo Igbale'. It also invokes the idea of the African traditional festivals unfolding in their most natural settings. This ultimately suitable space of sacred activity, which will accord an inquisitive theatre director like myself, and a technically-stubborn theatre designer like Teju Kareem, the privilege to give it the deserved site specific treatment - a physically challenging and an environmentally symbolic interpretation that should remain memorable for long is what Professor Wole Soyinka has magnanimously granted us somewhere on his own portion of the earth in the wide universe. “Leave a room”, then, “for the Dead to dance”.
--TUNDE AWOSANMI, Director
http://wolesoyinkainternationalculturalexchange.com/index.php/program-outline/play-dance-of-the-forest#sthash.YtUIrb2K.dpuf
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