CMU School of Drama


Sunday, February 17, 2008

Slavery as Seen From the Other Side

New York Times: "Mr. Bandele, a playwright and novelist born in Nigeria, now a resident of England, for a long while wrote mainly about the lives he knew in both. But when the Royal Shakespeare Company had the idea of involving him in a production of “Oroonoko,” the play by the Restoration dramatist Thomas Southerne based on Aphra Behn’s famous novel of the period, Mr. Bandele plunged deep into matters of history, responsibility, power, choices of the heart and the fickleness of freedom. He emerged in 1999 with a new work about Africa and slavery; about slave takers, who are African, and slave traders, who are white."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This definitely sounds interesting and it sounds like a good perspective to take. I'm afraid that here in America everyone is too uptight to accept this play. I'm sure it will open some people's eyes and will also just make other people angrier and more confused. While this is a great idea I don't think it will get as much praise as it did in England. Slavery never happened there so there is no fear of other races and no real tension between these two races.