Theatre for a New Audience Presents
THE SWAMP DWELLERS
By Wole Soyinka
Directed by Awoye Timpo
GET A NEW DEAL TICKET TO ANY PERFORMANCE FOR JUST $20!*
If you are 30 years old or under OR a full-time student of any age, you can purchase a $20 New Deal ticket (up to $95 value). Choose your seat, choose ticket type New Deal (change from Standard), and use promo code NEWDEALSKINT. ONE ID PER TICKET, FOR OTHER ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS – SEE BELOW.
SINGLE TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR ANYONE FOR $65** WITH CODE SKINT65!
GET TICKETS AT TFANA.ORG
“Director Awoye Timpo and a pitch-perfect cast slowly crank up the intensity, balancing knife-edge tension with a deeply metaphorical story…Exciting, beguiling theater.”
—TheaterMania, Rachel Graham
The Swamp Dwellers, a rarely produced drama written in 1958 on the eve of Nigerian independence when Soyinka was about age twenty-four, is in one act and runs approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Yoruba myth is integrated with the mid-20th century in a story about change that includes clashes between parents and children, women and men, tradition and modernity, rural and city life, poverty and wealth, nature and survival, and subservience to religious authority and freedom.
The play takes place during one day in the life of a Nigerian family living in a hut built on stilts over swamps in a village in the Niger Delta.
Director Awoye Timpo (Obie Award winner, Wedding Band) returns to TFANA.
The Swamp Dwellers’ cast is: Ato Blankson-Wood (Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Slave Play, Hamlet), Leon Addison Brown (Misery, The Trip to Bountiful, On the Waterfront), Joshua Echebiri (Merry Wives, Partnership, King James), Jenny Jules (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Crucible, Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman), Jason Maina (Culture Shock, There Goes the Neighborhood, Timon of Athens), Chiké Okonkwo (Julius Caesar, A Matter of Life and Death, His Dark Materials Parts I & II), and Olawale Oyenola as A Drummer.
Polonsky Shakespeare Center: 262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217
* Each New Deal ticket holder must be 30 years of age and under, or a full-time student. A valid ID proving eligibility must be presented for each ticket purchased. IDs must be presented at entry beginning two hours prior to curtain. Failure to show proof of age or student ID will result in a surcharge for a full price ticket.
** $65 ticket discount offer expires 4/27/2025. Full price up to $95. Subject to availability. All internet and phone orders are subject to a handling fee. The offer may be discontinued at any time. Not valid for previous purchases.
Box Office hours are Monday–Saturday, 1–7pm and it can be reached at 646-553-3880 or tickets@TFANA.org.
Face masks are encouraged, but not required.
Click here to learn more about our policy on refunds and exchanges.
Design by Paul Davis Studio / Paige Restaino
Deloitte and Bloomberg Philanthropies are the 2024-2025 Season Sponsors.
Principal support for Theatre for a New Audience’s season and programs is provided by the Bay and Paul Foundations, The Jerome and Marlène Brody Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Fund at the New York Community Trust, The Dubose & Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, The Polonsky Foundation, The SHS Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and The Thompson Family Foundation.
Theatre for a New Audience’s season and programs are also made possible, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the National Endowment for the Arts; Shakespeare in American Communities, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
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