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Africa takes the stage in London
Africa is providing a lot of fine material for the London theatre these days.
A rare outing for Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman was a highlight at the National last year. This was followed, also at the National, by Matt Charman’s The Observer, which unpicked preparations for an election in an unnamed African nation.
More recently, Lynn Nottage’s excellent Ruined, which dealt with tough themes relating to women’s lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has just finished an acclaimed run at the Almeida in Islington.
Last night saw the press preview of Moira Buffini’s Welcome to Thebes, which transposes ancient Greek myths to another unidentified African country (Liberia?) emerging from years of war.
I haven’t yet seen many reviews of Richard Eyre’s fine-looking production at the National, but the Guardian’s Michael Billington gives it a reasonably respectful nod.
What did I think? We arrived 15 minutes late due to a slight technical error, but we were riveted until the end.
It also didn’t hurt that this is one of a series of plays in which London’s usually horrendous ticket prices are held down to a more affordable 10 pounds.
Death and the King’s Horseman
The National Theatre is offering a rare chance to see the work of Wole Soyinka in the British capital.
A gorgeous production of the Nobel Laureate’s “Death and the King’s Horseman“, directed by Rufus Norris and choreographed by Javier de Frutos, is playing to enthusiastic houses at the Olivier.
If you ever wondered whether it was possible to get a Yoruba market place on to the stage, the sights and sounds are wonderfully portrayed here.
The play is based on an incident in Oyo in 1943 when a British colonial official prevented the horseman, played by Nonzo Anozie, from committing ritual suicide in accordance with ancient Yoruba custom in order to accompany the dead king on his journey to the afterlife.
Soyinka himself has warned against seeing the play as simply a depiction of a clash of cultures.
The writer has also suggested that the piece, written in 1975, may be attracting new interest because of the rise of suicide bombing in the Middle East, something that “is making people ask questions of that defining moment”.
Some of the all-black cast play the parts of British colonialists in white face. That’s something that might have been expected to get a reaction, but the audience on the night I went did not seem too concerned.
Amazing how some INDIVIDUAL would so callously relegate 800 million people to disdain.