Bisi Adigun Stages Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman Friday at Terra Kulture

Adedayo Adejobi

Nigerian born Ireland-based playwright, theatre director/producer and scholar, will today till Monday, attempt to re-write history , as he stages Wole Soyinka’s topical, comical, polemical and intercultural globally acclaimed ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’, at the prestigious Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The stage Play kicks off at 7p.m. today, and continues 3pm and 7pm from Saturday till Monday 4th September, 2017.

Speaking to THISDAY on the reason why he chose Wole Soyinka’s work, Bisi Adigun said, “Wole Soyinka’s work is based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during British colonial rule: the horseman of an important chief was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities. In addition to the British intervention, Soyinka calls the horseman’s own conviction toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community’s balance. Soyinka wrote the play in Cambridge, where he was a fellow at Churchill College during his political exile from Nigeria. He has also written a preface to the play, explaining what he sees as greatest misconceptions in understanding it. In particular, he says that the play should not be considered as “clash of cultures.”

Adigun well known for kinetic storytelling, having lived in Ireland since 1996, founded Arambe Productions, Ireland’s first African theatre company with a view to diversifying Irish theatre as well as affording Africans living in Ireland the unique opportunity to express and re-present themselves through the art of theatre. Adigun who has been the most sustained and successful of those attempting to reflect Irish demographic change in the theatre is back in Nigeria through his Arambe theatre company to redefine and re-invent what theatre and stage production should be in the 21st century.

The blistering stage play which opens today in Lagos, is already being touted as a departure from the norm, and a leading career-redefining comeback performance.

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