Wole Soyinka received a Nobel prize back in 1986, I think for literature, though I could not be sure based on the production of the above-named play at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It just didn't work as drama.The first act was pleasantly poetic, though somewhat long-winded and close to boring. The second act was more of a longish short story, which did explain some of the magic realism of the first act, but again, it wasn't exactly a play.
An interesting idea, the clash of civilizations, and a way to pay back those awful English for teaching him how to write well enough to tell them off. Still I guess there are many things we must put up with for the sake of getting along. How could we know what is good theatre if we didn't see some bad?
The one thing that was amazing was the guy. Peter Macon, who played Macbeth last night, was understudying the main character in this play, Derrick Lee Weeden, The Horseman referred to in the title, and the bell rang for him to do just that in this performance this afternoon. He was magnificent even if he was looking at the script from time to time. These guys are good even if the play was bad.
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