Efua Sutherland was born at Cape Coast in 1924, studied at Homerton and the School of Oriental and African Studies, came home, and decided that the country's storytelling belonged on a stage without being turned into a European play to get there.
The Ghana National Theatre; the Kodzidan "story house" at Ekumfi Atwia; the Centre for National Culture, Kumasi.
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Efua Sutherland and the Spider on the Stage
Efua Sutherland was born at Cape Coast in 1924, studied at Homerton and the School of Oriental and African Studies, came home, and decided that the country's storytelling belonged on a stage without being turned into a European play to get there.
She founded the Ghana Drama Studio and the Ghana Experimental Theatre. She pushed for the Writers Workshop at Legon and the children's park in Accra. And she invented a form: Anansegoro — literally the Ananse play — built directly out of the rules of anansesɛm, the fireside spider story.
That meant keeping what the fireside had and Europe did not. A narrator who talks to the audience and expects an answer. Songs — mboguo — that anyone present can start, interrupting the action, commenting on it, and the actors wait for them. An audience that is not in the dark and not silent and is understood to be part of the performance.
The Marriage of Anansewa (1975) is the result: Ananse, in a modern city, promising his daughter to four rich chiefs at once and collecting the gifts from all of them, and then having to survive the day they all arrive. It is played across Africa and taught in schools in a dozen countries.
And at Ekumfi Atwia she built a Kodzidan — a story house — a permanent village theatre where the tradition could be performed on purpose rather than only survive by accident.
She died in 1996. Every attempt to put Ghanaian storytelling on a stage, screen or podcast since goes through her.
If you visit Ghana. The Ghana National Theatre; the Kodzidan "story house" at Ekumfi Atwia; the Centre for National Culture, Kumasi.
Efua Sutherland was born at Cape Coast in 1924, studied at Homerton and the School of Oriental and African Studies, came home, and decided that the country's storytelling belonged on a stage without being turned into a European play to get there.
She founded the Ghana Drama Studio and the Ghana Experimental Theatre. She pushed for the Writers Workshop at Legon and the children's park in Accra. And she invented a form: Anansegoro — literally the Ananse play — built directly out of the rules of anansesɛm, the fireside spider story.
That meant keeping what the fireside had and Europe did not. A narrator who talks to the audience and expects an answer. Songs — mboguo — that anyone present can start, interrupting the action, commenting on it, and the actors wait for them. An audience that is not in the dark and not silent and is understood to be part of the performance.
The Marriage of Anansewa (1975) is the result: Ananse, in a modern city, promising his daughter to four rich chiefs at once and collecting the gifts from all of them, and then having to survive the day they all arrive. It is played across Africa and taught in schools in a dozen countries.
And at Ekumfi Atwia she built a Kodzidan — a story house — a permanent village theatre where the tradition could be performed on purpose rather than only survive by accident.
She died in 1996. Every attempt to put Ghanaian storytelling on a stage, screen or podcast since goes through her.