Submitted in Partial Fulfilment for the Phd in Theatre and Performance
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THEATRE, PERFORMANCE AND REPRESENTATION: AFRICAN DIASPORIC IDENTITY ON THE BRITISH STAGE RACHEL EKUA EKUMAH-ASAMOAH GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PHD THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE JANUARY 2015 Submitted in partial fulfilment for the PhD in theatre and performance DECLARATION I hereby declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Signed: ____________________________________ Date: _____________________________________ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I give thanks to my maker, God Almighty, without whom this research would not have been possible. I give thanks also for the support, understanding and patient diligence of my supervisor, Professor Osita Okagbue, who has been more like a father figure to me on this academic journey. He gave me the space to broaden and deepen my academic vocabulary and instilled a love of critical thinking. I would like to extend special gratitude to Prof Robert Gordon, the Lead Investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project Beyond the Linear Narrative- Fractured Narratives in Diasporic Writing and Performance in the Postcolonial Era, with the support of Prof Helen Carr, Prof Blake Morrison and my supervisor Prof Osita Okagbue for the opportunity given me to serve as a postgraduate student on this project. My sincerest thanks goes to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for supporting this research project and sponsoring a conference trip to Kampala, Uganda in 2010. I am extremely grateful to Dr Victor Ukaegbu, Dr Lynette Goddard, Ben Pester, and Dr Deirdre Osborne for their time and invaluable rigorous feedback on my writing that greatly impacted this research. ii The roots of this research lie in my involvement with the theatre company Tiata Fahodzi and I am thankful to its founder Femi Elufowoju Jr. for his generosity in making the time to speak with me about his term with the company. To my family and friends who are like family, I am eternally indebted to you for your patience, understanding, encouragement and the diverse ways in which you all kept me grounded and focused. I love you and thank you! I dedicate this thesis to the memory of my father, Mr Alexander Akyempon Ekumah, who did not live to see me finish this research but you were there at the start. iii ABSTRACT The focus of this thesis is the performance of African diasporic identities through a unique theatre emerging from the second and third generations of peoples and communities of the African Diaspora in Britain. The politics, the dynamics, articulation and representation of these identities on the British stage, forms a major part of this investigation, which also goes beyond the stage to comment on British society itself. The discipline of theatre and performance are appropriate vehicles to research the notion of African diasporic identity because they continue to be an essential part of any nation’s cultural discourse on who, what and why they are. Nadine Holdsworth argues that theatre at a basic level is intrinsically connected to nation because it enhances “national” life by providing a space for shared civil discourse… Theatre as a material, social and cultural practice, offers the chance to explore histories, behaviours, events and preoccupations in a creative communal realm that opens up potential for reflection and debate. (2010, p. 6) The relationship between the current context of Britain and an emotional or physical link to Africa or the Caribbean and the negotiations that characterize that relationship underpin the examination of the constantly shifting diasporic identities iv in this study. The theatre coming from these African diaspora communities is exhibiting characters on the British stage that are a reflection of African diasporic individuals who are no longer agreeing to be confined to the margins of society by claiming their rightful place in the public domain, in the centre themselves. The theatre is reflecting that by beginning to move outside the confines of the margins. This investigation looks at a spectrum of African diasporic dramatists and theatre companies, examining how they use the theatre to explore the complex, multifaceted and subtly layered identities that the African in the diaspora has become, whilst revealing whether the current prominence of African diasporic dramatists in the mainstream is only perceived or confirm that indeed African diasporic identity has claimed the space to articulate being ‘here’ and also relating to ‘there’ v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION …………………………………………………………………..ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT …………………………………………………………iii ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………..v TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………….vii INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………...…….…1 Setting the Stage ……………………………………………………………1 Creating Africa’s Diaspora in Britain ………………………………….…..4 Theoretical Framework and Methodology ……………………………...….8 Literature Review ………………………………………………………….18 Multicultural Britain ……………………………………………………….24 Shifting the Centre ………………………………………………………...31 Chapter 1 New Directions or Same Old Story? ………………………………….....51 Shifts in ‘Black British’ Theatre ……………………………………....….55 Enter Africa …………………………………………………………..…...71 2 A Coming of Age: The Distinct Voice of a New African Diaspora Identity …………………………………………………….……81 Different Perspectives, One Nation ……………………………………….92 Oladipo Agboluaje-African Roots on the British Stage …………………..95 Bola Agbaje-Language as Identity ………………………………………..124 Historical Shifts and Agbaje ………………………………………………138 vi Engaging the Sidestreams ……………………………………………..….141 Ade Solanke-Africa Rising ……………………………………………….145 3 Bridging the Gap: Control and Identity …………………………………166 Performance Poetry …………………………………………………........173 Lemn Sissay- Writing Himself into Existence ………………………...…177 Mojisola Adebayo: Decentring the African Diasporic Narrative ………..193 Inua Ellams – Seeking Freedom in Control ………………………..….…208 4 Carving Out a Space in the ‘Centre’: Tiata Fahodzi …………………....232 Origins and History ………………………………………………..…..…236 Taking on the World ………………………………………………..…..254 The Partnerships and Collaborations:The Tiata Delight Years ………….259 The Talawa Context ………………………………………………….….262 [De]Colonising the British Stage ………………………………………..273 5 Collective Artistes: The Journey from the Stage to the Community ………………………………………………...295 CA in Britain ………………………………………………………..…..301 The Partnerships ………………………………………………………...318 International CA ………………………………………………………...321 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………....325 PERSONAL INTERVIEWS ……………………………………………………328 PRODUCTIONS VIEWED ………………………………………………………328 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………..332 vii INTRODUCTION Setting the Stage The landscape of contemporary British theatre, particularly in the first decade of the 21st century, has witnessed a certain vibrancy and diversity that has produced a proliferation of theatrical practices, unprecedented forms of representation and a new generation of playwrights, all of which has changed the face of British theatre from a predictable traditional canon to a more relevant and innovative field. This eclectic mix of work has been in response to major shifts, nationally and internationally, on the political, economic, social and cultural spheres. These include the terrorist attacks on the USA on 11 September 2001, Britain’s support and alignment with USA to confront and put a stop to militant Islamism1 and its resultant ‘War on Terror’ (2001) in Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The 7 July 2005 London bombings, by British born Muslims and its international repercussions have also given rise to questions of national identity, cultural representations and political legitimacy as positions shift and civil liberties tighten as Britain, the USA and its allies fight to protect their citizens and borders. Along side these world events, national shifts were also taking place, most significantly in the change in government from Conservative to Tony Blair’s New Labour government in 1997, whose cultural and social policies had a direct impact on British theatre. Aleks Sierz’ exploration into the phenomenon of new writing over the last decade explains: 1 See Aboul-Enein, (2010) 1 New Labour’s financial generosity meant that all cultural institutions, including theatres, had to deliver on social policies: their mission was to create wider audience access, greater ethnic diversity and a more innovative product (Sierz, 2011, p. 2). The policies under both Prime Minister Tony Blair (1997-2007) and his successor, Gordon Brown, (2007-2010) were indicative of an awareness of the tensions arising from the increased migration to Britain,2 the cultural segregation that excluded minority communities from having their share and parity in a national debate, and the government’s general concern for a national and cultural identity. Studies in this area have been instigated most significantly with the establishment of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, at the University of Birmingham, particularly under the decade long leadership of Stuart Hall, (1969-1979) because of the important links he made with race and ethnicity in the research into cultural studies. The work of Paul Gilroy, particularly in The Black Atlantic (1993) in which he examines the contribution of ethnic identities to the specific areas of British society in which he points out that the scholarship and the political strategies that Britain’s black settlers have generated and the underlying sense of England as a 2 These include for example, the early migrants arriving from Somalia during the 1990s who were escaping