Living Theatre: Staging Ritual in Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman

Death and the King's Horseman by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka is based on true events that happened in Nigeria under British colonial rule in 1946. The character Elesin is the "King's Horseman," the main chief of the Yoruban people. His role is to perform a ritual suicide one month after the death of the king so that his spirit can accompany the king's spirit into the afterworld. However, Simon Pilkings, the British district officer catches wind of the ritual and intervenes, imprisoning Elesin, because he wants to "save his life." Because Elesin fails to perform his duty, his son sacrifices himself instead and the people mourn because this failed ritual will plunge the Yoruban land and people in turmoil and result in disaster and tragedy.

A foreword to Death and the King’s Horseman notes that “Soyinka takes issue with all readings that reduce the play to a simple ‘clash of cultures’; indeed, the play spends considerable energy trying—and failing—to bridge the gulf between them” (1291). Soyinka’s play should not be about portraying a simple misunderstanding on the side of the English; instead, the audience should be encouraged to see the disastrous consequences Pilkings’s intervention has on the Yoruban people. Elesin tells Pilkings that he has destroyed “not merely his life but the lives of many” and that disaster will fall on the whole land (5.19, 20-21). In his author’s note, Soyinka wants a director to accentuate “the play’s threnodic essence,” or in other words highlight the fact that the play is a lament (1294).

As a Nigerian playwright, Soyinka wrote Death and the King’s Horseman for his own people. An English audience will have difficulty in understanding the earth-shattering significance of Elesin’s failure to perform his duty. In order to comprehend the importance of the Yoruban ritual, an English audience must be able to recognize the traditions that they uphold are rituals as well.

The Theme of Ritual

The very structure of the play (A, B, A, B, C) is formulated so the two cultures, Yoruba (A) and English (B), are compared side by side for the first four acts and finally are brought together in the final act (C). The first act introduces the Yoruba ritual that Elesin will perform while the second act introduces Jane and Pilkings as they prepare for the ritual ball. The third act returns the audience to the Yoruba marketplace where there is traditional dancing and music while the fourth act is set at the traditional English ball, with the Duke of Gloucester (Prince Henry) as the honoured guest. The fifth and final act brings these two cultures together. The chanting, dancing, and traditional music performed by the Yoruban people should be seen as just as ritualistic as the European ball the Pilkings attend. Instead of a Yoruban chief as the honoured King’s horseman, the English man of honour is Prince Henry. Iyaloja asks Pilkings, “White one, you have a king here, a visitor from your land… Tell me, were he to die would you leave his spirit roaming restlessly on the surface of earth? …In your land have you no ceremonies of the dead?” (5.296-301). Although Pilkings responds that “we don’t make our chiefs commit suicide to keep him company,” he still has to admit that “Yes,” the English have their own ceremonies as well (5.302). The play should be performed so that the audience understands the importance of the Yoruban ritual and sees the significant meaning behind the action.

Staging the Rituals

To effectively stage Death and the King’s Horseman, the play should be staged on a thrust stage with wide aisles on either side of the three audience sections. These aisles should serve as a playing space that is frequently used, especially during Acts 1 and 3 where there is opportunity for Yoruban dancing, chanting, and music. The staging should allow for an intimate look at the two cultures and encourage an obvious comparison between the two. To further accentuate this comparison, the dances should be blocked in similar areas of the stage. For example, if Elesin’s “brief, half-taunting dance” in Act 1 (1297) is staged center-stage-left (CSL), then Jane and Pilkings’s tango at the beginning of Act 2 should also be tanged CSL (1306).

The stage should be very minimalistic, with only absolutely necessary set pieces, like chairs and a gramophone to represent the Pilkings’ bungalow, baskets and mats to represent the Yoruban marketplace, and an iron-barred gate to represent Elesin’s jail cell. The rest of the set will be visually provided by a large scrim that is hung as a backdrop. The scrim can be used as a screen on which to project video images. These images can help recreate the setting of the bungalow, the marketplace, and the ballroom. Beside the twelve named characters, Soyinka calls for drummers, women, young girls, and dancers at the ball, which could quickly result in a large cast and a cluttered stage. The scrim can help visually recreate a ball room with virtual dancers that can create the atmosphere. Since the focus should rest on the actions of the rituals themselves, rather than the cultural differences, the minimalist stage and a medium sized cast will help keep the audience’s attention on what matters most: the rituals themselves.

Example of a scrim

The scrim will also recreate the spiritual world of the play and will be essential in the later half of Act 5. As Iyaloja describes the fate of the dead Yoruba king, who “waits and waits and knows he is betrayed,” a blurry image of the waiting king with his horse should be projected onto the scrim. The image should change to reflect Iyaloja’s speech as she tells Elesin that the King will be “condemned to wander in the void of evil with beings who are enemies of life” (5.311-12). When Iyaloja asks Pilkings to allow their King to be released because the messenger is coming (5.314), the spiritual world should fade away on the scrim as the Aide-De-Camp rushes in to announce the arrival of the women carrying what is later revealed as Olunde’s body.

The aisles should play an crucial role in the staging of the final hundred lines of the play. Olunde’s body should be carried on the shoulders of the Women down one of the main aisles in a solemn, lamentable funeral-like procession that emphasizes Elesin’s failure to complete his task. The Women will lower Olunde’s body at center-stage and a few will return to stand in the aisles, where they will later sing a dirge, creating a surround-sound experience for the audience. Their presence should be felt but the focus should rest on the minimalist stage and the scene to be played on the scrim.

After the body on the mat is revealed to be Olunde, the blurry image of the waiting King should reappear alone on the scrim. Olunde’s figure should appear a moment later as Iyaloja says, “The son has proved the father, Elesin, and there is nothing left in your mouth to gnash but infant gums” (5.409-11). When the Praise-Singer says to Elesin, “Your heir has taken the burden on himself,” Olunde’s figure should begin to guide the King through the passage (5.416-17). After Elesin strangles himself and his Bride closes his eyes (1340), his figure should appear on the scrim, bent with shame. As the dirge beings after Iyaloja’s final line of the play, the play should end with a blurry image of Olunde leading the King safely through the passage to the banquet table. Elesin’s figure should be seen trailing behind, walking “in the dung” of the king’s stallion (5.423). The last image should picture Olunde and the King at the feast with Elesin kneeling at a distance in shame, before the image on the scrim fades and the lights fade to black.

The use of a scrim will hopefully effectively create the spiritual realm and afterlife that is so real to the Yoruban people. The spiritual realm needs to be visualized in order for an English audience to appreciate the significance of the ritual and the consequences of Elesin’s dishonourable failure.