Overview

Owerri, Nigeria, 1967, on the brink of the Biafran Civil War. Sisters Lolo, Nne Chukwu and Udo are grieving the loss of their father. Months before, two ruthless military coups plunged the country into chaos. Fuelled by foreign intervention, the conflict encroaches on their provincial village, and the sisters long to return to their former home in Lagos. This Student Edition of Inua Ellams’s adaptation looks at how Anton Chekhov’s original play has been transposed to an African context, the background to the Biafran War and how its politics and people’s experiences are represented in the play.

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9781350473188

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Reviews

""A startlingly vivid account of the civil war and a direct assault on British neocolonialism ... Ellams brilliantly uses the context to sharpen specific relationships ... Above all, the play offers a searing attack on British responsibility for the war dating to the time when they created Nigeria out of 250 ethnic groups and languages."" --Guardian ""The new setting gives the play a freshness and punch that makes its humane complications and disappointments live and breathe in new air ... It's brave enough to be funny too; the comedy makes the tragedy weigh all the more heavily when it arrives ... Each character is delicately and carefully fitted into this new setting ... A smart and sophisticated rethinking ... provoking new thoughts and old feelings in a very Chekovian way."" --Whatsonstage ""Proof that Inua Ellams is one of our most exciting playwrights"" --Daily Telegraph

Author Information

Inua Ellams was born in Nigeria and is an internationally touring poet, playwright, performer, graphic artist and designer. He is an ambassador for the Ministry of Stories and has published four books of poetry. His plays and stage adaptations include The 14th Tale (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Fringe First winner), Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre) and Three Sisters (National Theatre). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Oladipo 'Dipo' Agboluaje is a British-Nigerian playwright and academic, born in London and educated in Britain and Nigeria. He studied Theatre Arts at the University of Benin, Nigeria, and later wrote a doctoral thesis at the Open University, UK, on West and South African drama. He won the Alfred Fagon prize for playwriting for his play Iya-lle and is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, working in partnership with the University of East London, UK. He has written the commentary and notes to the Methuen Drama Student Edition of Inua Ellams's Barber Shop Chronicles (Bloomsbury, 2021).

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