Paper short abstract:

This paper probes the production of Beyene Haile's play "Weg'i Libi" ("Heart-to-Heart Talk") to contextualize the seemingly eminent provincial contemporary concerns that in fact are the concerns of the continent Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Written in one of the Eritrean languages Tigrinya, Beyene Haile's play "Weg'i Libi" ("Heart-to-Heart Talk"), 2008, comes with a fresh form cock-tailing myriad national and continental contemporary concerns such as migration, power consolidation, aesthetics, oral tradition... which hinder it from immediate production.

Though written by a prominent novelist, unlike all the government-sponsored productions with professional actors, this play was staged by amateur university students after it got rejected from production by professional directors and actors. This is dealt with to lay ground to the concerns of the play which are also examined from the ideals of post-colonialism.

The form which includes various elements from western classical to other various modern theatrical performances and African traditional performances is examined from the point-of-view of modernism.