A Dance of the Forests

A Dance of the Forests
Name	A Dance of the Forests
Caption	First edition (1960)
Writer	Wole Soyinka
Premiere	1960
Place	Lagos, Nigeria
Original language	English
Genre	Drama, Tragicomedy

A Dance of the Forests A Dance of the Forests is a 1960 play by Wole Soyinka written for the Festival of Negro Arts and first performed at the Festival of Arts event in Lagos, Nigeria. The play premiered amid the decolonization era involving Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Patrice Lumumba, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and other postcolonial leaders, engaging debates associated with the Pan-Africanism movement, the African Union, and the intellectual currents around Negritude, African socialism, and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Background and Historical Context

Soyinka composed the play in the context of Independence Day celebrations in Nigeria alongside contemporaries such as Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Amos Tutuola, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and critics from Cambridge University, Oxford University, Harvard University, and Yale University. The commission intersected with cultural initiatives led by figures like Leopold Sédar Senghor, Aimé Césaire, Léon Damas, and institutions including the British Council and the UNESCO cultural programs. Debates about national identity involved newspapers such as The Times, The Guardian, Daily Sketch, and journals like Transition and Black Orpheus.

The historical backdrop included the 1960 Declaration of Independence of Nigeria and the political environments shaped by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello, and regional tensions in Northern Region, Nigeria and Western Region, Nigeria. Soyinka’s milieu also overlapped with artistic networks around Royal Court Theatre, West End, and fledgling African cultural policy makers linked to Festival of Britain precedents.

Plot and Structure

The play adopts a nonlinear, episodic structure influenced by Greek tragedy conventions from Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus while incorporating elements from Yoruba oral performance, Nigerian ritual, and modernist techniques used by Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot, and Jean-Paul Sartre. The narrative interweaves past and present through a frame employing a chorus-like ensemble reminiscent of Aristotle’s poetics and ritual sequences similar to Oriki praise poetry and Egungun masquerade practices.

In the plot, characters traverse a forest that becomes a liminal space recalling myths of Oduduwa, Sango, Ogun, and other Yoruba mythology figures, while evoking historic episodes from Transatlantic slave trade, Abolitionism, and encounters with European colonialism represented by figures akin to Frederick Lugard and institutions such as the British Empire and the Colonial Office. The structure mixes satirical tableaux, allegorical dialogues, and tableaux vivants akin to those staged by Peter Brook and Grotowski-influenced ensembles.

Themes and Symbolism

Major themes include national memory, accountability, and the tension between mythic heritage and modern political leadership, resonating with leaders like Julius Nyerere, Leopold Senghor, Kwame Nkrumah, Haile Selassie, and Sekou Touré. Symbolism deploys the forest as palimpsest referencing Yoruba cosmology, Ifa divination, and rites connected to Egungun and Orisha traditions, while also invoking images found in works by William Shakespeare, John Milton, and William Blake.

The play interrogates prophetic rhetoric and revolutionary idealism associated with figures such as Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and Fidel Castro, contrasting them with postcolonial disillusionment exemplified in critiques by Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Aimé Césaire, and Sierra Leone intellectuals. Stylistically, Soyinka engages with theatrical theories from Antonin Artaud, Richard Schechner, and Herbert Blau to explore memory, myth, and ethical responsibility.

Characters and Dramatic Roles

Principal characters include two central figures who function as archetypes and revenants, accompanied by a chorus of Forest Spirits and city-dwellers linked to social types familiar from Lagos life, the bureaucracy of Colonial Nigeria, and pan-African networks. Dramatic roles echo those found in classical repertoires performed at venues like National Theatre, London, Royal Shakespeare Company, and festivals such as Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Soyinka’s dramatis personae reference historical and mythic personages indirectly related to Akan and Yoruba histories, invoking analogues to courtiers in the courts of Mansa Musa, Oyo Empire, and leaders in the Sokoto Caliphate. The play demands performers adept in vocal traditions related to Yoruba language prosody, African drumming patterns, and movement vocabularies influenced by Dalcroze and Laban techniques.

Reception and Influence

Upon premiere, reactions ranged from acclaim among critics at publications like The New York Times, The Observer, The Times Literary Supplement, and The New Yorker to controversy among political elites in Nigeria including Sir Ahmadu Bello and members of the NPC party. Intellectuals such as Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and Ama Ata Aidoo engaged the work in essays in journals like Research in African Literatures and forums hosted by Institute of African Studies institutions.

The play influenced dramatists including Femi Osofisan, Zakes Mda, Athol Fugard, Lloyd Richards, August Wilson, and directors such as Wole Soyinka (director), Peter Brook, Gordon Craig-inspired practitioners, and shaped curricula at University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, SOAS University of London, Columbia University, and Yale School of Drama.

Performance History and Stagings

Stagings have ranged from the original production in Lagos through revivals at Royal Exchange, Manchester, the National Theatre (Nigeria), St. Mark's Theatre, New York, and festival presentations at the Edinburgh International Festival, Spoleto Festival, and Avignon Festival. Notable directors who have mounted the play include Wole Soyinka, Eddie Ugbomah, Om Puri, John Kani, and influential theatre companies like Black Theatre Cooperative and Talawa Theatre Company.

International translations and productions have appeared in French theatre venues tied to Paris, in German productions at the Berliner Ensemble, and in adaptations by university theatre programs at Howard University, Cornell University, and University of Cape Town. The play’s demands for ensemble choreography and ritualized staging have led to collaborations with choreographers versed in Kathak, West African dance, and contemporary forms taught at the Juilliard School and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Category:Plays by Wole Soyinka Category:Nigerian plays Category:1960 plays