DIDASCALIES, SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC IN MOLELE’S RADIO DRAMA, KE MOYA (1991)

Didascalies, sound effects and music are often disregarded in drama analyses because they are not part of the core elements of drama. The article seeks to investigate these elements in a radio drama and foreground the significant role that they play in the full realization of drama. For illustrative purposes, this article nominates Molele’s radio drama titled, Ke Moya (1991). The article looks closely at the way didascalies, sound effects and music are used to aid the radio drama in question to make it believable. These extraliterary elements are often considered extraneous where the aspects of drama are considered, and this article intends to accord significance to them. Van der Merwe (1992) contends that didascalies is anything which is presented to the audience by the author other than the dialogue and soliloquy. Thus, didascalies inform the audience about occurrences of the story which are hard to ‘dramatise on air’. This study demonstrates that didascalies, sound effects and music are equally important for the successful realization of radio drama performance. While sound effects help the audience to vividly stage radio drama in their minds, music provides rhythm to the story, creates a credible atmosphere, and help evoke the audience’s emotions, thus bringing radio drama, despite its limitations, closer to live performance.