Naa Ashorkor transforms “5 Hours With Mario” into a masterpiece

“5 Hours With Mario” was produced in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy and starred the Asaase media personality Naa Ashorkor

Winifred Lartey September 6, 2022

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Naa Ashorkor on stage in the Ghanaian adaptation of Miguel Delibes’s 1966 novel Five Hours With Mario — Naa Ashorkor starred in 5 Hours With Mario

The play 5 Hours With Mario, by the Spanish author Miguel Delibes, was adapted by Globe Productions’ Latif Abubakar and staged as a monologue at the Accra International Conference Centre over the weekend.

5 Hours With Mario was produced in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy and starred the Asaase media personality Naa Ashorkor, in an adaptation of the Spanish play for a Ghanaian audience.

One of the finest and best-known Spanish novels, Five Hours With Mario was transformed by Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku into a profoundly moving and fluid work that touches on humour and loss. The novel, first published in 1966, addresses the authenticity of rural life compared to life in the city.

Speaking on the Between Hours show on Monday (5 September), Naa Ashorkor said, “A lot of the time you see a woman with a man and you ask her, ‘Why are you with this man? What do you see about him?’ but she can’t tell you. That’s this woman’s situation.”

The scene is set in the couple’s living room, where the deceased man has been laid to rest while his wife conducts a solemn wake. This is where Naa Ashorkor’s portrayal of the widow, Dzidzor, opens up.

She and Mario have been married for 20 years and, judging by her outbursts, she did not enjoy her marriage at all. She gives a lengthy monologue in which she bares it all.

“I wouldn’t say I was acting throughout. It was an extension of me. I don’t know how I did it but I let myself carry Dzidzor and her pain,” she told the Between Hours sit-in host Solomon Ter. “Everything I did on stage, I felt it. It took a certain level of vulnerability I didn’t know I had.

“When people told me they were crying at some point of the show I didn’t expect that. When people told me they were crying at some point, and they would later suddenly burst out laughing and then they would cry again, I was happy.

“I am happy that I am able to elicit all sorts of emotions. I did not expect that,” the award-winning radio personality said.

Latif, in a message written to Naa Ashorkor during the show, said, “Thank you, Naa, for nailing it, for performing beyond our expectations. And for thrilling our patrons. Yes, you made us proud. You are blessed. God bless you more. Amen.”

Reviews of the play:

A memorable play adapted by @latifabubakar20 and incredible performance by @Naa_Ashorkor “Five hours with Mario”, from a Spanish novel.
Thank you and congrats dear Javier @EmbEspGhana for the successful cultural collaboration with 🇬🇭 pic.twitter.com/LyPybAxGlY

— Amb. Irchad Ramiandrasoa Razaaly (@IrchadR) September 4, 2022

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