Quand le tronc se fait caiman: Drammaturgie di Costa d'Avorio (review)

Abstract

This book is part of a very interesting series, dedicated mostly to francophone Africa and edited out of Turin's Center for the Study of emerging literatures. It is a monograph, and apart from J. P .Guinganne's pioneering work on Burkina Faso, we have very few complete monographs on the theater of an African country. Ivory Coast is indeed a very good case to study because of the continuity of its production for over seventy years—several Ponty students in the 1930s were from Ivory Coast—and also because of the importance of Dadie's continuing work. Last but not least, Ivory Coast is still producing innovative drama. The Cameroonian WereWere Liking as well as the Guinean Souleymane Kolly have made Abidjan a metropolis of African theater, housing the first African market for scenic arts, the MASA. Natasa Raschi writes well: the book is divided into four chapters, titled "teatro sotto tutela" ( under colonial supervision), "di leggere" ( to be read), "di ricerca" (of research), "recente" (new). These divisions make a lot of sense and the author is very much aware of the Ivoirian "point of view"; for instance, she perceives the undercurrents that inform the Ivoirian moral feeling in the first years of production, in fifties (p. 56): a sense of bitterness, of "amarezza," a theater of disillusionment, which gives its moral tone to the literature of the era . She has read everything and discusses important although forgotten authors, such as Charles Nokan, who has recently made a surprising comeback.