Ben Okri on Claire Armitstead’s Theatre || The Guardian

By Claire Armitstead

Why was Ben Okri so keen to adapt L’Étranger, Albert Camus’s dark novel about the killing of an Arab, for the stage? He talks about his battle with the French writer’s daughter, his days living on the streets – and the swearword that saved his life

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He regards L’Étranger as “one of those rare books that manage to be both brief and huge at the same time. The cut of its narrative is very unusual. Usually with big novels, the thread involves the bringing together of complicated parts, but this cuts in a diagonal way right to the heart of the big questions: what does it mean to be alive? Who are we? What is the meaning of individual autonomy in the face of society? Who are we in the face of so many false constructs? Are we ourselves or what’s been projected on us? These are big, big Hamlet questions.”

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