We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Critical Acts.
- Authors
Roy, L. Somi
- Abstract
This article reviews several theatrical productions. Three months after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Sana Macha Nachom Artistes Group of Im-phal premiered a two-hour-long sumaang leela performance called World Trade Centre. The World Trade Centre, a two-hour melodrama, surprisingly cinematic. It cut back and forth, at times using split-screen techniques, from New York City to Afghanistan, from drama to political tract, from tragedy to broad comedy, from song-and-dance interludes to battle sequences. The picture of America that emerges in World Trade Centre is surprisingly more benign than one has come to expect from the Other's assessment of America. The play's perspective is informed and goes beyond the usual com-mentary on local politics or the recontextualization of current events that one finds in folk theatre and rituals the world over. The Third World Bunfight's production iMumbo Jumbo: The Days of Miracle and Wonder dramatizes the actual story of Chief Nicholas Tilana Gcaleka, a spiritual leader and chief of the amaXhosa from the rural Transkei, who Bailey describes as sangoma, priest, liquor salesman, guru in his notes to the published script. The chief traveled to Britain in 1996 to retrieve the skull of his ancestral king, Hintsa kaPhalo, chief of the amaXhosa nation, who had been murdered in 1836 by colonizing forces. In so doing, Gcaleka intended to restore peace to his country.
- Subjects
DRAMA; PERFORMING arts; SEPTEMBER 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001, in art; GCALEKA, Nicholas Tilana; ARTS; HINTSA
- Publication
TDR: The Drama Review (MIT Press), 2004, Vol 48, Issue 2, p68
- ISSN
1054-2043
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1162/105420404323063409