King Musu : a Ghanaian version of Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus on Canadian stages

This thesis examines King Musu, Ernest Kwasi Amponsah’s 2011 Ghanaian adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, as a work of African classical reception realized through intercultural performance practice. It investigates how Amponsah adapted the Greek tragedy by filtering it through Akan cosmology, storytelling traditions, and African Total Theatre aesthetics. Drawing on classical reception theory, adaptation studies, postcolonial theatre, and intercultural performance theory, the study argues that in King Musu, Amponsah strategically filters the Sophoclean tragic structure through indigenous epistemologies to produce a distinctly Ghanaian tragic form. Chapter 1 situates the play within the historical development of West African theatre and African engagements with Greek theatre, establishing a framework that positions adaptation as cultural reinterpretation rather than imitation. Chapter 2 employs practice-as-research methodology to historicize the Ghanaian productions of King Musu (2011–2014) and two Metro Vancouver productions (2024–2025) directed by the author. Through performance analysis and reflective documentation, the study demonstrates how intercultural meaning is constructed through embodied rehearsal processes and diasporic negotiation. The thesis introduces the concept of relay interculturality to describe successive moments of cultural filtering in which Ghana functions as both the target culture for the adaptation and its Ghanaian performances, and the source culture for the Metro Vancouver performances. By foregrounding African interpretive authority, this study contributes to scholarship in African theatre, classical reception, intercultural performance, and postcolonial studies.