DEATH AND THE KING'S HORSEMAN.
London.
DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN
by Wole Soyinka.
Olivier Theatre In rep.
Mon-Sat 7.30; Mat 21April,2, 9, May, 4, 6, 13, 17 June 2pm.
Runs: 2hr 20min One interval.
Audio-described 8 May, 9 May 2pm.
Captioned 13 June 2pm.
TICKETS 020 7452 3000.
www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/tickets
Review: by Carole Woddis 8 Apri 2009
Tragedy and ritual with echoes of Shakespeare.
This is a coming home of sorts – for Nigerian poet, playwright and Nobel Prize winner, Wole Soyinka, for Afro-British actors and for a black National Theatre audience who took this play and production to their hearts when it opened in the Olivier this past week.
Soyinka has been a towering figure for four decades. A fierce critic, he has denounced both colonialism and his own country’s leaders when he felt it necessary which has earned him imprisonment and two periods of exile.
Death and the King’s Horseman (1975), set in 1943 comes from just after he returned home from one period of exile. But he also studied, in the 50s, in Leeds under the Shakespearean scholar, G. Wilson Knight. Shakespearean influences emerge here even in a piece so steeped in Soyinka’s Nigerian Yoruba culture and traditions, in Elesin, the King’s Horseman and the Othello-like manner of his death.
But this is quintessentially a piece about African belief systems and mythology. It’s given dynamic visual life by designer Katrina Lindsay in Rufus Norris’ exuberant production, exploding onto the Olivier stage in a riot of dancing and drumming.
That, of course, is all part of the African nature of drama. Whilst Soyinka is at pains to show ties between the dead, the living and future generations, it’s conveyed in the fullest sense of theatre.
In our ritual starved society, it’s fascinating to watch the enactment of a value system, embedded in the community, that entails the sacrifice of the living. Tradition and honour demand that Elesin (the young and hugely impressive Nonso Anozie) follows the king, his dead master. He delays it for one more sexual dalliance, triggering a fateful series of events involving his colonial masters and Elesin’s newly returned, England-educated son.
A mix of narrative and caricature, Lucian Msamati and Jenny Jules’ satirical portraits of the English District Officer and his wife, and a quintet of young village women imitating colonial wives at an official function, provide richly comic moments. They only serve, however, to heighten the ultimate tragedy: the loss of a father and son and colonialism’s malign impact.
Praise Singer: Giles Terera.
ElesinL Nonso Anozie.
Iyaloja: Claire Benedict.
Simon Pilkings: Lucian Msamati.
Jane Pilkings: Jenny Jules.
Sergeant Amusa: Derek Ezenagu.
Joseph: Daniel Poyser.
Bride: Medina Ajikawo.
HRH The Prince: David Ajala.
The Resident: Anthony Ofoegbu.
Aide-de-Camp: David Webber.
Olunde: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
Ensemble: Sarah Amankwah, ‘Kemi Durosinmi, Robert Eugene, Karlina Grace, Hazel Holder, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Tony James-Andersson, Gemma McFarlane-Edmond, Coral Messam, Rex Obano, Demi Oyediran, Jason Rowe, Seun Shote.
Musicians: Sola Akingbola, Ayanlere Alajede, Tunde Ayanyemi, and Ayobami Thomas (percussion); Kevin Hayes (saxophone & percussion); Glenn Williams and Jason Rowe (saxophones)
Director: Rufus Norris.
Designer: Katrina Lindsay.
Lighting: Paule Constable.
Sound Designer: Ian Dickinson.
Band Music: Matthew Scott.
Vocal Arrange/Music Director: Michael Henry.
Choreographer/Movement Director: Javier de Frutos.
Puppet Co-ordinator: David Cauchi.
Company voice work: Jeannette Nelson.
Associate director/Lyrics: Peter Badejo.
2009-04-12 02:51:57