Cue Online (Grahamstown)
Jessica Blase
10 July 2009
“In the beginning there was a river, the river branched out and turned into a road, and because the road was once a river, it was always hungry,” says the narrator in Helen Iskander’s stage version of Ben Okri’s acclaimed novel, The Famished Road.
Iskander sets her play in a generic Africa, on a journey between the human and spirit worlds. Fresco Theatre director Iskander describes her piece as a “surprisingly wordy, yet visual feast”.
Why did Iskander decide to transform the novel into a play? “I sometimes ask myself the same question,” she laughs, after describing the play as “unstageable”.
She says that the play is only based on the novel: “If it were adapted properly, it would be a nine-hour epic.”
For Iskander the book represents “a beautiful and colourful way of looking at the world. What I really found fascinating was Okri’s sense of magic realism and the level of humanity he brings to it.”
Okri's book
Okri’s book shows how, from a life of bliss and no material concerns, a spirit child, Azaro, is born into poverty and hardship.
He is continually pulled back into the spirit world, but he resists taking the road that would lead him astray. “To put the play in one line, it is Azaro’s choice to stay in the human world beside all odds,” says Iskander.
She says that as humans we are always looking for something better, or to make our lives easier, but for Azaro it is the love for his parents that makes him want to stay in the mortal world, despite the struggle.
“For Azaro, it is a phenomenal and amazing blessing to be alive,” says Iskander. The spirit world is seen as utopia, but he “would rather feel hardship than nothing at all.
“This play will hopefully leave the audience with the feeling of celebration to be alive and to be human despite all odds,” says Iskander.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Cue Online. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
