ACS Works-in-Progress: Scattered Notes on the Quest for a “More Mozambican Language for the Stage” ⎻ Luís Madureira

SAVE THE DATE for a presentation part of the newly created “ACS Works-in-Progress” ongoing series!

“Works-in-Progress” gatherings are monthly symposiums that will give ACS grad students and faculty the opportunity to share their work with listeners and receive feedback. These meetings are open to all students interested in learning about diverse topics and perspectives within the field of African Cultural Studies. Any student or faculty of any major or background can feel free to come by and listen.

See the details for this month’s presentation by Luís Madureira below:

Scattered Notes on the Quest for a “More Mozambican Language for the Stage”:  The Mutumbela Gogo Troupe, Mia Couto, and the Emergence of a “National Theatre” in Mozambique 

This paper is adapted from a chapter of my monograph in progress on Mozambican theatre. I examine the rise of one of Mozambique’s premier theatre companies, the internationally renowned Mutumbela Gogo collective. As my subtitle suggests, I focus on the troupe’s sustained effort to create a more “authentic language” for the national stage. By concurrently analyzing the extensive collaboration of prominent, Euro-descendant Mozambican writer Mia Couto with the group (in particular, a few of the plays that Couto wrote, co-wrote and adapted for the company), I endeavor to gauge the creative and political potential as well as foreground some of the antinomies and limitations underpinning Mutumbela’s project to produce a theatre of social intervention, “truly national” in scope and ambition.