Theatre Scenography and Adaptations: A Study of Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart

Abstract

For any work of art to be able to transport the reader into the utopian world of any artistic expression there is great deal of manipulation of semantics. Such can be said of Achebe and his works. The creation of suitable environment to house a dramatic action is a no mean feat as it involves selection of appropriate elements from the imagined world of the writer and merging such elements to the concepts of the production and finally to the realized stage of televised depiction of the works. To say that Achebe is an artist who uses words just as the painter uses his brush on canvas is merely stating the obvious. The richness of scenographic elements in Achebe’s works has attracted attempts to dramatize these works. The aim of this paper is to highlight the various scenographic elements as exemplified in selected works of Chinua Achebe. It also establishes the similitude of drama and prose as artistic genres of entertainment and transportation from word to life using scenographic and technical elements loftily.