New Francophone African and Caribbean theatres

Introduction : instrumentalizing performance and the Francophone postcolonial performative

Cultural trauma and ritual re-membering : Werewere Liking's Les mains veulent dire

The dramatist as epic performer : Eugène Dervain's Saran, ou la reine scélérate

The power and the pleasures of dramatized narrative : Bernard Zadi Zaourou's La guerre des femmes

Theatre as writing and voice : Patrick Chamoiseau's Manman dlo contre la fée carabosse

Tradition instrumentalized : Elie Stephenson's O mayouri

Militariat grotesqueries and tragic lament : Tchicaya u Tam'si's Le destin glorieux du maréchal nnikon nniku, prince qu'on sort and le bal de ndinga

From the grotesque to the fantastic : Sony Labou Tansi's Qui a mangé Madame d'Avoine Bergotha?

Exile and the failure of the nation; or, diasporic subjectivity from below : Simone Schwarz-Bart's Ton beau capitaine

Conclusion : Francophone theatres in the age of globalization.