In one of the few public performances of Anowa - a 1991 production in London, some twenty-one years after its publication - many critics praised the play, drawing parallels between it and contemporary society. Comparing Anowa to a work by William Shakespeare, Malcolm Rutherford of the Financial Times writes, "do not go to see Anowa looking for something exotic. What will strike you is not how different it is from developed western culture, but how similar." Louise Kingsley of The Independent makes an analogous statement. She argues that "though the intimate bickerings of husband and wife are common to males and females the world over, Anowa's decline is, to European eyes at least, as much a consequence of her uncompromising nature as of her moral stance."

One London critic echoes the sentiments of many scholars who have commented on Anowa. Anne Karpf in The Guardian writes, "Lyrical...