Anansi Plays

Today's post looks at plays featuring Anansi the trickster figure whose intelligence and cunning allow him to triumph over bigger and more powerful people and animals. Anansi's origins are in the Ashanti people of Ghana and stories about him spread through West Africa, the Caribbean and Southern states of the USA. As Tommy L Johsnon notes:

Anansi’s reputation is rooted in his ability to dupe others in nearly every story that’s told about him. [...] Anansi and his stories are important because they argue that with intelligence, the underdog can beat the top dog.

The Black Plays Archive holds details for 11 Anansi plays, some of which have already featured during the Black Theatre History Month posts. These include a number of pantomimes and the children's play Grandad Anansi.

For many writers, creating plays about Anansi is a way of keeping the stories of their childhood and heritage alive or introducing them to new audiences. Grandad Anansi is a good example of this, as writer Elayne Ogbeta explains:

I grew up listening to lots of wonderful stories about the roguish spider Anansi told by my dad. He is still a great storyteller to this day and has continued to delight all nine of his grandchildren with gripping versions of the classic Jamaican tales. Grandad Anansi takes these oral stories, which have been passed down through generations, and places them on the stage, in front of new audiences.

Justin Audibert, director and writer of Anansi the Spider, also saw the stories as a way of reflecting the diverse heritage of the audiences of the Unicorn Theatre in London:

I think that there will be children with West African or Caribbean heritage who will be really engaged to see stories from their homes come to life in front of them, and there will be children who will be introduced for the first time to an exciting new character and world. We at the Unicorn want to reflect the different cultures that are found in London and the UK, and this feels like a really exciting way of doing that.

In pantomime, where the story has to work for children and adults, Anansi's cunning is often more politically motivated as he battles racism and works to outsmart the authorities, as in Gloria Cameron and Manley Young's Anansi and Bre'r Englishman (1972).

Resources

Book Grandad Anansi tickets for 2025 tour

Unicorn Theatre's Anansi The Spider Re-Spun Teacher Resource Pack for Years 1 and 2