Death and the King's Horseman
by Wole Soyinka
Associate Director and Consultant, Peter Badejo talks about the creative team's experience in Oyo, Nigeria. Click play on video player to watch the full trailer.
Death and the King's Horseman is a Travelex £10 Tickets production: almost half the seats for every performance are £10.
Nigeria, 1943. The King is dead, and tonight his Horseman must escort him to the Ancestors.
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.
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.
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.
Audio Described Performances:
- Friday 8 May 7.30pm
- Saturday 9 May 2pm
Touch Tour Before the Performance:
- Saturday 9 May 12.30pm
Captioned Performances:
- Saturday 13 June 2pm
- Click play on video player below to listen to audience's response to Death and the King's Horseman. Photos by Robbie Jack.
AN ILLUSTRATED PROGRAMME for Death and the King's Horseman is on sale from the NT Bookshop and the Olivier Bookstall and ushers at performance times, priced at £3. To read an extract and see a full contents list, click on programme notes.
Death and the King's Horseman finished on: 17 June 2009
