Death and the Kings Horseman

Nigeria, 1943. The King is dead, and tonight his Horseman must escort him to the Ancestors. I am the master of my fate. When the hour comes watch me dance along the narrowing path… My soul is eager. I shall not turn aside. As Elesin Oba dances through the closing marketplace, flirting with the women, pursued by his praise-singer and an entourage of drummers, he promises to honour the ancient Yoruba custom of ritual suicide and so accompany his ruler on the final journey. But a life so rich is hard to leave, and this is a British colony where such customs are not tolerated, no matter how sacred. Set against the conflict of indigenous and invader, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s extraordinary play uses Elesin’s transition from the living to the dead to examine the essence of corruption and the power of the human will. You white races know how to survive; I’ve seen proof of that… But at least have the humility to let others survive in their own way.