Abstract
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.