ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights how The 14th Tale and Untitled, both written and performed by Inua Ellams, intervene in existing black British dramatic representations through his exploration of the middle-class Afropolitan self. It raises questions regarding the ways in which contemporary African British playwrights position themselves in relation to established second-generation black British culture and dramatic traditions. The chapter describes his journey and transformation across national spaces and over time, and performs the evolution of the self from boy to man, Nigerian to Nigerian British. In relation to black British plays in this book, what is striking is that he plays discussed here do not explicitly speak to wider social or political concerns as they intersect with issues of race. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. argues that the recurrence of the trickster archetype in African origin cultures in the 'New World' renders it a 'repeated theme or topos' and is proof of 'shared belief systems maintained for well over three centuries'.
