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Middlesex University Research Repository: an Open Access Repository of Middlesex University Research Middlesex University Research Repository: an open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Anyanw ụ, Chikwend ụ P.K., 2011. Adapting A man of the people to stage: can stage adaptation successfully return Igbo literary fiction to Igbo people? Available from Middlesex University’s Research Repository. Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this thesis/research project are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Any use of the thesis/research project for private study or research must be properly acknowledged with reference to the work’s full bibliographic details. This thesis/research project may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from it, or its content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. Adapting A Man of the People to Stage: Can Stage Adaptation Successfully Return Igbo Literary Fiction to the Igbo People? Chikwendụ PK Anyanwụ A thesis submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of PhD degree in Creative Writing. Middlesex University Trent Park Campus Bramley Road London, N14 4YZ September 2010 CONTENTS Page No Acknowledgments i Abstract iv INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter One DEFINING THE IGBO AND THE IGBO NOVEL 17 Chapter Two THE ADAPTATION SCRIPT (FINAL DRAFT) 47 Chapter Three STAGING OF THE PERFORMANCE SCRIPT 91 AND AUDIENCE RESPONSE Chapter Four THE PERFORMANCE: THE CREATIVE PROCESS 122 Chapter Five CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE ADAPTATION AND PERFORMANCE 153 CONCLUSION 164 BIBLIOGRAPHY 174 APPENDIX Adaptation (Performance Script) 185 Video Clips (DVD) of Stage Production (Attached) Inside Back Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank God for providing me all I needed to complete this study. I am indebted to so many people through whom God made this possible. I thank His Grace, Most Rev AJV Obinna, for giving me the opportunity to study in the UK. I am very grateful to my supervisors for being there for me all the time. It could not have been better with anyone else than Dr Maggie Butt, head of Media Studies, formerly, a journalist with the BBC, a poet, editor of literary magazines and Chair of the National Association of Writers in Education, as my Director of Studies; James Charlton, a radical, prolific and award-winning playwright, as my script supervisor and Ferdinand Dennis, another prolific writer, sociologist, novelist, well versed in post- colonial literature and with teaching experience in Nigeria, as the critical analysis supervisor. I consider myself most fortunate working with them, firm and yet very humane, especially, Maggie, with great concern for my financial and emotional situations which often interfered with my program. I thank Charmain Alleyne, the department administrator for being very supportive. For providing me accommodation, feeding and financial support during the period of this program, I thank my sister, Daada Ngozi Henrietta. May God bless and reward her as well as my brother, Ugochukwu, his wife and my caring sister-in-law, Ngozika Joyce and mother, Mama Eunice. My special thanks to my friends Rowena Flaherty, Rev Fr Chukwuemeka Mike Okere for their financial, spiritual and moral support. I am very appreciative of the support of my family members back in Nigeria, especially, Reginald my brother and Ndaa Maria Eke, who always made sure I had food and was comfortable whenever I stayed in the village. My immense gratitude goes to our eldest brother, Ephrem, and Mr Victor Udom who always welcomed me at Lagos airport and made Lagos more approachable. To all my friends who gave me various support – Uzoma & Chidera Dike, Ndu & Adaeze Anike, Mario & Kate Amaechi, Elizabeth Akalawu, Chikodi Akalawu (now Chukwunyere), Franca Agoha, Edozie & Ngozi Mbanu, Nnamdi & Margaret Echemuna, Longinus & Edith Iwu, Rosanna Opara, Okoli family, especially, Ezinne Christie, Grace and Christina, Chukwudum Ikeazor, Ogo Chigbo, Hyacinth & Rose Ani, Cyril Onwubiko, Rev Frs Emefiena Ezeani, Basil Nze i and Raymond Nzereogu as well as the family of Late Dr Augustine N Okereafor. May God reward him with a place in his Kingdom and continue to protect his wife, Ugo, and the family. Thanks to all the members of Umu-Igbo Katolik Community, UK, for being very supportive from the beginning to the end of this program. Thanks to Fr Anthony Chukwudi Njoku for his inspirational contributions towards the proposal. To the writers and artists, Oladipo Agboluaje, Ndu Anike, Jude Akuwudike, Christina Okoli and Adaeze Anike, I owe so much for making time for the reading of my performance script. Special thanks to the playwright, Oladipo, for finding more time out of his busy schedule to come around and see that the Final Draft is taking shape. I am also, hugely, indebted to the play director, ABC Duruaku, who also granted me an interview, to the actors (especially Chinedu Opara who went on errands) and the production crew. Thanks to all who contributed to the success of the production: Prof C. Uwazuruike, the then Provost of Alvan Ikoku College of Education who granted me permission to use the Auditorium freely and to Dr Mrs V. Nwigwe who carried out the negotiation on my behalf. I thank Rev Fr Kingsley Obilonu for accommodation and feeding at Owerri and providing us with a sound system for the second day production; I am sorry that I am not able to repay Alvana Catholic Young Voices for their sound system that got spoilt during the first production. May God reward your generosity and reward all of CKC Alvan Catholic Chaplaincy for providing the seats for both performances. I greatly appreciate the efforts of Honorable Barrister Soronnadi Njoku, for his financial support and making sure we had electric energy by availing us of his power generator for the two stage productions. Thanks to the then Imo State Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism for his financial support; the Director of the Imo State Arts Council, Mr Soki Ohale and the staff of the Arts Council especially Nkem Opara and Jude Eke for providing us with dance costumes. For their support and financial contributions, I thank Good & Nonye Obi, Dr and Mrs Alexander Esomonu, Mr & Mrs Ekweribe, Mr & Mrs A. Oyiogu and through Onyedika Ekweribe, I say thanks to all those who responded to his appeal on my behalf. Thanks to Ebere Opara who made her car available for my use during my first research visit in 2006. For assisting me during the interviews and research in the rural areas and also working conscientiously as the production secretary for Kingdom of the Mask when appointed by the stage director, I ii am very grateful to Ulumma Ruth Opara. My profound gratitude goes to Edozie Magnus Mbanu at M & N Digital for helping with the video editing and making something out of the poorly recorded video. I thank Professor Emeka Nwabueze and Chimamanda Adichie for granting me interviews. I also thank the Librarians at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Imo State Library, Owerri and National Library at Owerri who helped me with relevant materials and granted me interviews. I am ever indebted to our literary father, Chinua Achebe whose novel is the palimpsest for my adaptation and for his encouraging words during our telephone conversation: ―N‘ eme nu ya. O bu ife unu kwesili ime‖ (Keep at it. That‘s what you (plural) are supposed to do). Thanks to the examiners, Dr Osita Okagbue and Professor Susan Melrose for the minor errors they pointed out in this thesis. There are so many unmentioned names who contributed positively towards the success of my research, many who donated generously for the stage performance and I ask their forgiveness and understanding regarding the difficulty in completing this list. May God reward you all for your kind support. Chikwendu Anyanwu iii Abstract With the death of the folk storytelling tradition in Igbo society, the hope of passing Igbo stories to future generations seems to lie with the novel and dramatic theatre. Unfortunately, in the past two to three decades, both the reading culture and theatre practice in Igbo land have seriously declined. The political situation, the economy, the non-practical approach to problem solving by the literary and cultural intellectuals, the ceaseless streaming of popular and trash cultures from the West through television into Igbo towns and villages, the rise of home movies with pseudo-voodoo stories, have all contributed to the demise of honest and purposeful storytelling in Igbo society. Confronted by a society on the threshold of losing its identity, I thought of a practical step I could take to address the situation through the dramatic adaptation of one Igbo novel, Chinua Achebe‘s A Man of the People. Adapting the novel to stage offered me two opportunities in one: to contribute not only towards the revival of literary appreciation, but also of theatre practice, which, as anthropologists like Victor Turner, have argued, belongs to popular culture. This task involved rewriting the novel into a drama script, producing it on stage in Igbo land and observing how it impacted on the audience and community. I chose to adapt A Man of the People because of its relevance to my understanding of the socio-political atmosphere in Igbo land and in Nigeria as a whole.
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