the swamp dwellers theatre for a new audience | written by wole soyinka; director: awoye timpo; scenic designer: jason ardizzone-west; costume designer: qween jean; lighting designer: seth reiser; sound designer: rena anakwe; voice director: andrew wade; properties supervisor: lauren page russell; music supervisor / composer: chief ayanda clarke; production dramaturg: arminda thomas; production stage manager: charlie lovejoy; production manager: jeff harris; associate set designer: sean sanford; assistant set designer: mehula singh; studio assistants: christina shrewsbury, laura valenti; actors: ato blankson-wood, leon addision brown, joshua echebiri, benton greene, jenny jules, jason maina, chike okonkwo, olawale oyenola; scenic shop: daedalus design & production.

press

the new york times
at 90, wole soyinka revisits his younger, more optimistic self
with the off broadway debut of his 1958 play “the swamp dwellers,” the nigerian nobel laureate looks back on the writer he was when he was starting out.
<link to full article>

reviews

the new yorker
’“the swamp dwellers,” written in 1958 by a twenty-four-year-old wole soyinka, is set in a village hut in the niger delta shrouded in mist (via jason ardizzone-west’s astonishing set design). makuri (leon addison brown) and alu (a tempestuous jenny jules) await the return of their son igwezu (ato blankson-wood), who’s been in “the city” for several months. a knock finally comes, but it’s a blind vagrant from the islamic north (joshua echebiri, transfixingly strange); then a pompous local priest (chiké okonkwo) rolls up. the play becomes a delta itself, where tributary identities—muslim, yoruba, traditional, modern—mingle and, when the priest’s hypocrisy is exposed, surge toward confrontation. directed with unhurried assurance by awoye timpo’
-dan stahl

lighting and sound america
”…the swamp dwellers is one of the best-designed productions in town just now. everyone talks about "immersive" theatre, which usually involves tearing up seats and installing multiple video screens, but the new production at theatre for a new audience uses the classic tools of theatre design to transport us to an entirely unfamiliar place. the play is set in the niger delta, an area beset alternately by droughts and floods; as it begins, the waters are receding, leaving in question the fate of acres of previously arable land. scenic designer jason ardizzone-west has supplied a skeletal house on a raised deck made of rough-hewn wood. the floor underneath is black and glistening, suggesting the swamp-like conditions that still prevail. seth reiser's lighting relies on two banks of twenty ellipsoidal units each to create a compelling day-into-night structure. ss darkness falls, a set of lanterns is illuminated to haunting effect. (the sight of actors entering from upstage, emerging out of the darkness, is equally compelling.) qween jean's costumes, which reflect life in this backwater circa the late 1950s, are strikingly colorful; they also reveal much about the social role played by each character. rena anakwe's sound design calls up rainstorms, pesky flies, and drums among other effects. a series of simple, stark gestures make an alien world come alive.’
-david barbour <link to review>

theatrely
’jason ardizzone-west’s set renders the skeleton of the couple’s house just above the audience, whose feet touch a lacquered black floor which evokes moving water, as does rena anakwe’s sound design. qween jean’s costumes are typically excellent, especially for jules. the work, and this production, are haunting: the type of theatre that washes over you with the smooth surf of uneventfulness but leaves a memorable psychic dent in its wake…”
-juan a ramirez <link to review>

theater mania
’director awoye timpo and a pitch-perfect cast slowly crank up the intensity, balancing knife-edge tension with a deeply metaphorical story. jason ardizzone-west’s set gives the convincing illusion of wet swampland beneath the floors of the house. Lighting by seth reiser effectively shows the transitions of time and weather.”
-rachel graham <link to review>

theater scene
’jason ardizzone-west’s set—a weathered wood cabin adrift in a sea of black water—visualizes the play’s liminal atmosphere: the last human outpost before the world dissolves into swamp. seth reiser’s lighting and rena anakwe’s sound design conjure a sensory world thick with tension: the hiss of insects, the breath of damp air, the flicker of light through mist. costume designer qween jean opts for a palette of muted, earth-toned garments that quietly reinforce the play’s themes of endurance and erosion. the clothing feels lived-in and weathered, grounded in the natural world and subtly reflective of the characters’ economic realities and emotional states. there’s a quiet poetry to these choices—nothing ostentatious, but everything resonant. every element works in concert to heighten the sense that this is not just a story of a family at a crossroads, but of a world teetering on the brink.’
-tony marinelli <link to review>

exeunt nyc
’people come and go over the course of the play, but jason ardizzone-west’s set, a dust-brown wood cabin suspended in a black plain, conveys the isolation and self-sufficiency of this family; they are literally at the end of the river, the last place humans live before the swamp takes all. as the play begins, alu and makuri are both working, makuri weaving a basket and alu working with fabric; they’re keeping their hands busy while they wait for igwezu, yes, but they’re also engaged in what they need to do to keep their family afloat. makuri and igwezu work as barbers as well; igwezu has had a barber’s chair sent to the village with great difficulty and expense. rena anakwe’s sound design and seth reiser’s lights, too, bring a sense of place: moisture-filled air with light cutting through it hazily; the whine of flies and the sounds of water."‘
-loren noveck <link to review> 

the front row center
’in this play, every detail tells a story. make sure you arrive early to take in the immersive, dreamlike experience crafted by the creative team behind the swamp dwellers. when you sit down, you are instantly surrounded by the sounds of the niger delta: rain falling through leaves, frog croaks, animal rustlings, and most importantly, the insistent rhythms of west african drums. the swamp dwellers is also visually arresting with a set designed by jason ardizzone-west that is taken up entirely by a bare house, made of slats of wood suspended over what appears to be oily water. shrouded in mist, the house has both the feeling of an oasis and a survivor’s raft, creating the perfect visual metaphor for the lives of alu and makuri who have chosen to stay in their village while both of their sons have fled. It is in this precarious place that the characters come up against their limits, both socially constructed and physical.’
-vahni kurra <link to review>