Abstract

This dissertation titled Stage Drama in Independent Malawi: 1980 to 2002 is a historical, performance and literary study of a significant period in Malawi’s theatre history. It focuses primarily on the academic / highbrow theatre produced at the University of Malawi, and its dichotomous counterpart, the professional popular commercial stage drama, produced in the period under the spotlight. The central argument of the thesis is that political and social developmental policies implemented under the banner of Independence affected stage drama by influencing ideology of aesthetics and the organization of Malawian stage drama. On the one hand, University Theatre has been interpreted using a combination of principles and theories of academic literary theatre and performance as articulated by David Kerr, Femi Abodunrin, Olu Obafemi and Ahmed Yerima, among other theorists and thinkers in the field. Karin Barber’s and Ian Steadman’s con-textual and descriptive theoretical approaches have been used to reveal previously hidden fundamentals of the Malawian popular commercial theatre practice, on the other. What the investigation reveals is that the evolving state of affairs in Malawi as an independent state affected the organization, production, and consumption of stage drama. The personality of the political leadership and the government policies they followed in the different decades saw university drama responding accordingly. The focus of the artists in popular commercial stage drama, on the other hand, was on how to earn an income from drama as alternative employment, considering the low level of education most of them had. Unwittingly, they re refined aesthetics of approach to form a new style which constitutes, arguably, a guiding principle, “peculiar” to Malawian drama. The study is in two sections. Section one focuses, in four chapters, on the various theoretical, political and polemical premises through which university/high brow drama out manoeuvred censorship, or how it directly commented on some problematic policy issues that the government followed. Section two, “Popular commercial drama in Malawi, investigates the innovative ways in which plays were created, delighting audiences and re-writing aesthetics of dramatic presentation. Conversely, the thesis attempts to answer questions about who some of the drama practitioners were, the important performances they staged, the way they organized their activities, the principles they followed and the critical responses they received, within the context of Malawi as an independent state

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School	: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Issued Date	: 2006

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