Re-imagining and Restaging Ageing and (Dis)ability in Kenyan Theatre: A Reading of Francis Imbuga’s The Return of Mgofu

Abstract

This paper interrogates literary portrayal of ageing and disability in Francis Imbuga’s play, The Return of Mgofu. The paper argues that the playwright uses language deliberately to represent the concepts of ageing, old age, and (dis)ability. This essay seeks to analyze the writer’s use of covert and overt images, dramatic techniques, and characterisation to address questions of ageing, old age and (dis)ability. We examine and discuss Imbuga’s choice of different strategies of language such as allusion, proverbs, sayings, metaphors, dreams and imagery and how he uses them to reimagine notions of ageing, old age and disability in drama and its performance. In addition we explore the presentation of ideas of memory, remembrance, wisdom and responsibility as symbols related to ageing. Moreover, we analyze the construction of characters as a representation of social and cultural constructs of disability. This paper reads The Return of Mgofu from a postcolonial perspective as a representative text on the discourse on ageing and (dis)ability in African drama and theatre.