A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY “THE MARRIAGE OF ANANSEWA” BY EFUA T. SUTHERLAND

The Story Teller

The Storyteller relates to the actors on stage, the players and the audience. So, he is both a commentator and an actor. His story could be interrupted and he complies as in the traditional way of story-telling in many African countries.

The Players

All the actors, except the key actors, appear on stage from one side and do not wear costume as specific actors. They enter at the appropriate time to play their roles. They are used as actors when the time comes and go back to join the players. For instance, they play the role of the messengers from the chiefs.

Property man

The playwright defies convention here and brings her Property man (popularly known as prop master in modern theatre) on stage, Usually, he is hidden backstage with the prop hands and he appears during scene changes when the lights are out. Contrary to this usual practice, Sutherland brings him on stage to give the props to the actors in the full glare of the audience. There is no illusion of reality. In fact, he plays the role of a stage manager for he sees to it that all is well.
Musical Interlude (Mboguo)

The musical interlude is used to make comments on Ananse’s plans. It emphasizes the action of the play at a particular point or illustrates the importance of custom. In each case, it is used to advance the story of the play. In some cases, the key actors start the song to emphasize their point and the players join in the song.

Mime

Mime is used extensively in the play by the players. They mime the songs. For instance, Storyteller and two women among the players mime the song on Odum’s Child. (21-22). The mime helps to highlight stories which the songs tell. They also mime certain actions of the play like the Post Office Staff, when Ananse goes to open his letters in the opening scene. The postman also mimes checking the address on the letter against the address on the streets (p. 19).

Humour

This is expected as the play is a comedy. Humour is created mainly through language, (Postman: “Are you house No. AW/6615”) We also see humour in the recurrent visual jokes of the property man as he hands the props to the actors; and in the exaggerated crafty energy with whichAnanse presents his actions.

Play-within-the-play

The play-within- the- play device is used in the play to emphasize the importance of custom. The Akwani and Akosua episode is used to emphasize the fact that until the head-drink is placed by a suitor for hisbride-to-be, he has no claim over her.

Symbolism/Allegory

(a) Some schools of thought believe that the play symbolises Ghana after her independence. It is an allegorical representation of Ghana’s policy of non-alignment in her relations to other nations following her independence. Anansewa is Ghana, Ananse is the leader (more specifically, Kwame Nkurumah while the chiefs represent the international community. The fact that he deceives the chiefs, extorts money and gifts from them while at the same time, does not antagonize them, shows that it is legal to get aidfrom other nations by holding out promises of trade alliances but not making the commitments until the donor nation’s motiveshave been tested and known.

(b). The web used in the play is used to link Ananse’s cleverness in its spinning out of his tricks with the spider’s clever spinning of its web.

Audience Participation

Though the audience is not involved in the dialogue or any obvious action, the actors do not pretend that it is not there. In the beginning of the play, Ananse throws some rhetorical questions to the audience. Also, the Storyteller’s comments are directed mainly to the audience. Like Sutherland said, he is “capable of inducing the audience to believe that they are there with him and similarly involved”. This helps to draw them closer to the actors on stage.
Setting

There is no definite mention of any locale in the play. However, since the playwright is a Ghanaian and as she explains in her foreword, the play is an adaptation of one of the Ananse (spider) stories. The Ananse story is popular among the Akan people of Ghana. Her claim that Ananse is a kind of Everyman, shows that the society presented in the story could be any contemporary society which is expected to criticize itself through the play.

Notwithstanding the above claim, one can rightly say that the setting of the play is the contemporary Ghanaian society. It is a society that is both materialistic and ostentatious.

Themes

The main theme of the play islove – the triumph of love. In theplaywright’s own words, it is love for a rosy future for hisdaughter that makes him , Ananse set out to negotiate thepossibility of each of them marrying his daughter in the firstplace, though he also wants to acquire wealth. This is made clearat the end, when he considers the intention of each chief who had wanted to marry his daughter. He ensures that she is given to thechief who loves her most.On the part of Anansewa, she agrees to be part of her father’splan because she wants to marry Chief-Who-Is-Chief. Her lovefor him, which though began as mere attraction (his virility andhandsomeness), is sufficient justification for her to agree to ‘die’in order to win this chief.Love triumphs at the end of the play, as Ananse’s deceptionallows the young ones to marry each other for true love. This isapparent when Ananse pretends to be in a trance andritualistically pours libation of head drink sent by Chief-Who-Is-Chief and calls on his ancestors to ‘resurrect’ his daughter. Hearhim:

If it is your desire And it is ours That Chief-Who-Is-Chief Should marry AnansewaSee to it that she returns to life. (79)

He then invokes his daughter to wake:

Anansewa, … love, is calling you, return… Chief-Who-Is-Chief loves you true. (80)

On that note, Anansewa stirs, springs out of the bed and claims that she “could hear Chief-Who-Is-Chief” calling her. Efua Sutherland however does not only emphasize individual love but love on a wider social scale. She also believes that a true lover is both a giver and a helper. This is seen in the closing song of the play which emphasizes the need for them to relate in love.

The play shows man’s capacity in using his intellect and cunningto overcome life’s difficulties.Ananse uses his intellectual powerto attain a higher social status without antagonizing anybody. Heoutwits the chiefs.