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THEATER

The Festival International des francophonies in limoges, the theatre International de langue française in Paris, Images of Africa in Copenhagen, the Paroles d'Afrique cycle at the 1995 Avignon Festival, the Bénin International Theatre Festival, the Ouagadougou International Theatre and Puppet Festival, the Actor's Festival and the Children's and Young People's Theatre Days at Kinshasa, Malaki Ma Kongo at Brazzaville, Panafest at Accra, the East African Regional Theatre Encounters at Nairobi, not to mention the African Performing Arts Market at Abidjan - the list is a growing one, primarily within Africa itself. Audiences and theatre professionals are becoming aware of the multiple facets of African theatre.

African theatre is alive, it is dynamic, and it is multiple - in French, in English, in Portuguese and in national languages, whether it uses actors (often with music or dance) or puppets, wheter it is "literary" or "social" theatre.

African theatre is fragile, not only organisationally but also, often, in its artistic expression. Economic conditions and the almost complete lack of public resources usually mean it functions in a semi-professional or amateur context, with predictable results: with companies so vulnerable, and coaching and production such precarious affairs, many skilled actor go abroad, especially to Europe.

Some African theatre groups are well known internationally - for example, and in no particular order, Werewere liking's Ki - Yi M'Bock Theatre and Souleymane Koly's Koteba, at Abidjan, the late Sony Labou Tansi's Rocado Zoulou Theatre at Brazzaville, Kantaga Mupey's Theatre des Intrignants at kinshasa; Zitic and the Danaye Puppets at Lomé; or the Handspring Puppet Company at Johannesburg But, by and large, African theatre is little known, not just to the European and American theatre world which tends to scorn what does not conform to western standards, but even to Africans themselves: few are the African productions that cross frontiers, even within the continent.

25 years ago : Senegal's performing arts status

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