Wole Soyinka, playwright, “Death and the King’s Horseman”

I saw this play performed as part of the Wole Soyinka symposium in Carbondale, Illinois and I’m eager to see it performed again, right here in St. Louis.

The St. Louis Black Rep Company describes Wole Soyinka’s play “Death and the King’s Horseman” in this way:

Considered by many to be the Nobel Prize winner’s greatest play, Death and the King’s Horseman is based on a real incident in Nigeria during British colonial rule when the ritual suicide of the horseman of an important chief was prevented by the intervention of colonial authorities.

Forged out of this story is a metaphor not just for the whole history of Africa and its collision with colonial Europe, but a profound meditation on the nature of man.

Soyinka builds upon the event to tell us about the relationship of life with death and the power of religion, ritual and spirituality in human existence.