BY MULUGETA GUDETA
The birth and growth of Ethiopian theatre started during the time of the last monarchy when new theatre houses were built, including the theatre house formerly known as Haile Sellassie I Theatre, currently known as National Theatre.
Judging from history, theater in Ethiopia at that time was growing fast and many talents could come forward and show their plays, creating a huge interest in dramatic works among the general public.
According to available information, “In 1956 the Ethiopian National Theatre was built and inaugurated in the presence of Emperor Haile Sellassie. The Municipality Theatre was built under the building of the Addis Ababa Mayor’s office and started to show performances written and directed by Ethiopian playwrights and directors.”
Ethiopian theater, over the last forty years, since the revolution has passed through many periods of ups and downs. In fact the year’s rights after the revolution were conducive to the development of dramatic works and to the emergence of notable artists that have left their lasting marks on Ethiopian theatre. This went on smoothly until 1991 when there was a new change of regime that took a new direction as to how arts in general and theatrical arts in particular should evolve.
During that period, new talents joined the former Haile Selllasie Theatre while older artists either left the place to younger ones or were sidelined due to many reasons. The most important event that changed the direction of theatre in the country occurred relatively recently when the tiny film industry made a sudden growth thanks to the involvement of many talented artists, actors, script writers, directors who left the theatre world to join the new world of Ethiopian cinema that had never been attractive to artists who were expecting more creative freedom or better working conditions and salaries.
Meanwhile, developments in the local theatre world went from bad to worse before they showed some promising signs of revival that were fast squashed by the invisible hands of members of the arts bureaucracy. There were many hopes and disappointments in between and the contours of a new revival seems to be taking a new shape at present, judging by the increase in theatre goes and stage performances that are being staged.
We are talking here about the current staging of the American film which is turned into stage comedy, known as “Husbands and Wives”. Adapting a film drama to the stage might be a daunting task for those who have already tried their hands at this kind of adaptation. Yet, according to Haregewoin Assefa, veteran and well-established actress at the National Theatre, who acts in the play, “Husbands and Wives” is an experience worth talking about since it is well received by the Ethiopian theatre goers who found the play reflecting local family realities that they accepted with a lot of laughter and mirth.
Western translations of major tragic or comic dramas that are staged on Ethiopian stages are familiar with the local theatre community in general and theatre connoisseurs in particular. The local rendering of foreign dramas was widely practiced by the late Poet Laureate Tsegaye Gebre Medehin who studied theatre in London and made his name with his translation and staging of Shakespeare’s major works as well as comic pieces like “Tartuffe” by French comic dramatist Moliere.
Tsegaye has also translated German playwright Bertolt Bretch’s “Mother Courage” which he translated as Enat Alem Tenu, a socialist realist rendering of the original by the famous German playwright in the heydays of what we may describe political dramas inspired by the Ethiopian revolution of February 1974.
There were and are also many renderings of Western plays by other less known authors that were staged here at one time or another. One of them is Woody Allen’s 1992 movie “Husbands and Wives”. Woody Allen is an American actor, writer and director widely known for his sharp and darkly funny portrayal of domestic upheavals and relationships in American society. One of his famous such dram is the 199 film “Husbands and Wives” which won critical acclaim as well as prestigious national and international film awards.
“According to one brief review, Husbands and Wives is “A tale of married couples confronted with change who are forced to re-evaluate universal questions about marriage, fidelity, romance, trust and love.” It is an established fact that Ethiopian theatre goers are usually fond of works that reflect comic or dramatic passion and that may be the main reason why Woody Allen’s work is loved by the domestic public although it was also celebrated as a film and received with critical acclaim and has won many awards.
Haregewoin Assefa was a recent guest of a weekly show at a local TV station. The actress was invited to speak about her acting career in general, her life as a mother and artist as well as her acting in the Woody Allen Amharic version entitled Balochina Mistoch. Haregewoin is a theatre and film actress who is also featuring in advertisements and also acts as a radio show host with her own program featuring personalities and current events in the art world.
The show was not actually about the stage adaptation of Allen’s movie. It was rather an encounter between the host of the show and the actress who played a role in the Amharic version of the film. The discussions did not revolve around the drama and what it meant to Ethiopian theatre revival. And yet, the show was interesting because it shed some light on issues related to contemporary theatre in Ethiopia through the personal experiences of the actress who is a veteran of the stage and nostalgic about the good old days and concerned about the present state of neglect of the long traditional of Ethiopian theatre.
Speaking about her career as an actress, Haregewoin sounded a bit disappointed by the current state of theatre in Ethiopia which was once in a very vibrant state while it is at present in a very depressing situation. According to the veteran actress, not only most of the prominent figures in the Addis Ababa theatre scene have abandoned their careers in disappointment but even those who chose to stay are not doing well. The reason? The last three years have been the worst tines for theatre in Addis Ababa as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on it but the post-COVID period has witnessed a rather slow and painful revival.
As proof of her pessimistic outlook on being an actor these days, Haregewoin told the show host that she is advising youngsters “to join the theatre world if they want to languish in poverty” her personal decision to abandon the career that she loved with so much passion was that it could not allow her to support her family and raise her children. According to her, that was the main reason that forced her to resign from the National Theatre and found her advertising agency while acting part time as a guest in films and advertising stints that allowed her to earn enough to provide for her children.
Low pay or lack of job security was the single most important reason that has forced actors and actresses to leave the theatre world and join the small film industry that seemed promising at the beginning but has now become as discouraging as the theatre world. Actors who joined the film industry in the hope of finding a flourishing career are now mostly out of business because of the pandemic and the post-pandemic downturn the industry has gone through in the last two or three years.
The other factor that has led to the depressing state of theatre in Addis Ababa is the lack of interests from a once theatre-loving audience that was suddenly captivated by the proliferation of Amharic language films that attracted them more than stage dramas. Back in the 1990s Amharic language films mushroomed as something never seen before and this was enough to deprive the theatres of their traditional audiences and performers. The defection of actors and script writers to better paying jobs in the film industry had led to a kind of “brain drain” and “audience drain” to the latter while leaving the theatre world without its prominent and critical human resource.
Haregewoin Assefa is a veteran actress who has acted in dozens of theatres and films and distinguished for her amazing talent in playing various characters in dramas and movies. She has acted in some of Shakespeare’s plays like Romeo and Juliet, which was her first experience of acting in a major play, while she also acted in original plays written and directed by prominent Ethiopian authors and directors. What is also amazing is that she has also played the role of male characters in a couple of dramas where she filled the void created by the absence of male actors who could not act at that time for one reason or another.
Despite the challenges, Haregewoin’s devotion to the theatre was legendary to say the least. At one point, she took her three month baby to the dressing room of the National Theatre where she kept the baby sleeping under the care of one of her friends while she was acting in a play. As she told the host of the recent show, Haregewoin was forced to go back and forth from the stage to her baby to feed him when she had a break in between her acting. She was so much devoted both as a mother and an actress who loved her career since her young age.
She went to join the National Theatre despite opposition from her parents and particularly from her mother who later on became her sincerest fan after she saw her acting in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. Haregewoin could thus shine in a traditionally male –dominated career thanks to her determination and courage to go ahead whatever hard her journey later on proved to be. She is a veteran of the stage but she is not at the end of her career. We hope to see her return with another celebrated play by a celebrated local or foreign writer to show the public that her long love affair with the stage will not be over very soon.
The Ethiopian Herald March 23/2023
