Based on events that took place in Oyo, an ancient Yoruba city of Nigeria, in 1946, Wole Soyinka's powerful play concerns the intertwined lives of Elesin Oba, the king's chief horseman; his son, Olunde, now studying medicine in England; and Simon Pilkings, the colonial district officer. The king has died and Elesin, his chief horseman, is expected by law and custom to commit suicide and accompany his ruler to heaven. The stage is set for a dramatic climax when Pilkings learns of the ritual and decides to intervene and Elesin's son arrives home.
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1976, Oduduwa Hall, University of Ife (Oduduwa Hall, University of Ife), Nigeria
2002
W. W. Norton & Company
978-0-393-32299-6
Available on archive.org: https://ia902309.us.archive.org/21/items/wole-soyinka-the-interpreters/Wole%20Soyinka%20-%20Death%20and%20the%20Kings%20Horseman.pdf. Winner of the 1986 nobel prize for literature.
Available on archive.org: https://ia902309.us.archive.org/21/items/wole-soyinka-the-interpreters/Wole%20Soyinka%20-%20Death%20and%20the%20Kings%20Horseman.pdf. Winner of the 1986 nobel prize for literature.
Historical
Twelve inmates in a closed ward in a mental hospital for soldiers suffering acute PTSD presenting a cabaret about the assassination of Yitzhak (Isaac) Rabin, Israel’s former prime minister following his peace negotiations with the Palestinians. In a show they can't control they explore the infrastructure of Israeli society and present the deep internal conflicts that led to this tragic assassination.
Hisrotical
"A one-person play about the history of Zionism. The play is told as a monologue through the character of an Israeli history professor who begins the lecture as a critic of Zionism but moves into an emphatic pro-Zionist stance, shifting from reason to passion or to put it another way from the rational to the irrational." - Arab Digest
