The Transistor Radio

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The Transistor Radio is a one-act play by Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941–1995) [1].


The original text

A comedy about a young unemployed Lagos man called Basi, who devises many tricks for not paying his rent to the landlady and generally surviving on the edge in the big city with bright lights.

The play was originally written as a review sketch at the University of Ibadan in 1964, before it was fleshed out and to become a 600 line stage play. The stage text has been published in a variety of collections, e.g. Four Farcical Plays (1989) by Saros International, African Theatre by Heinemann and in Open Space by Kagiso Publishers.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1998: Staged, with The Wheel, in the Dalro Theatre at the Windybrow Theatre Complex in December, directed by Walter Chakela, with Arthur Molepo, Alistair Dube, Emily Tseu and Tebogo Maboa.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa

https://www.worldcat.org/title/transistor-radio/oclc/937274565

Chris Dunton. "Sologa, Eneka, and the Supreme Commander: The Theater of Ken Saro-Wiwa" In: Research in African Literatures, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring, 1998), pp. 153-162. [2]

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