Mustapha Matura and Postcolonial Theatre

Written by Zhiyun ZhaoPhotography by: Tori TisoBorn in Trinidad, playwright Mustapha Matura immigrated to the UK in the 1960s. He was described as "the most perceptive and humane of Black dramatists writing in Britain" by the New Statesman magazine, and his plays have been performed on multiple British stages. His works have a wide range of focus, from the experiences of immigrants to the crisis faced by the newly independent nations in the post-WWII period. I came across Matura's plays in my postcolonial theatre class, and was immediately fascinated by Matura’s insights and humor. Among his works, As Time Goes By and The Coup are two interesting plays I would recommend for readers who are also interested in postcolonial theatre. As Time Goes ByAs an immigrant himself, Matura writes about the experiences of immigrants in his early works. As Time Goes By, one of the first plays he wrote, is set in an Indo-Trinidadian guru’s home in London. In this play, the readers can see the guru, Ram, interact with other immigrants as well as his white hippie friends, while his wife Batee stays offstage in her kitchen for the most part of the play, and constantly interrupts her husband's conversations. One of the most distinguished features of this play is the use of dialect. It serves as a pushback against standardized English, which keeps the immigrants away from the mainstream society.The CoupTrinidad declared independence in 1962, and this play, along with a series of plays, was written after Matura visited Trinidad in 1972. In these plays, Matura shifts his focus to the crises in newly independent states. Commissioned by the Royal National Theatre in 1991, The Coup is a political satire about a fictional coup in Trinidad and Tobago. In this play, the fictional president of Trinidad, who is a charismatic leader, is imprisoned after the coup, and goes through a series of farcical incidents. Even though the tone of this play is farcical, it vividly shows the readers the dilemmas of post-colonial states.