Writer:\u00a0Oladipo\u00a0Agboluaje<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n
Director: Mojisola Kareem<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crown of Blood\u00a0is based on Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0Macbeth\u00a0but instead of the Scottish moors read 19th-century Yorubaland.\u00a0\u00a0Yorubaland is the historical and cultural region of the Yoruba people, spanning\u00a0roughly 142,114\u00a0square kilometres across southwestern Nigeria,\u00a0Benin\u00a0and Togo. It is home to over 55 million people with the majority in Nigeria. The Yoruba have\u00a0a very rich\u00a0cultural,\u00a0historical\u00a0and political heritage that informs every fibre of this production. As the audience take their seats they are confronted with an impressive set, a central throne flanked by eight carved wooden columns running the full length of the stage. A faint, persistent drumbeat can be\u00a0heard\u00a0and drums are to play a significant part throughout, forming a dramatic accompaniment to much of the action and vocals. This is very much a world of warring kingdoms, divinities, prophecies, magic, customs, vibrant\u00a0colour\u00a0and sound. It is a privilege to\u00a0witness\u00a0how a staple of the Shakespearean canon can be so cleverly and\u00a0successfully transposed\u00a0to such a different time and landscape and brought to life by all concerned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the play starts a figure, crouched at the front of the throne slowly and rhythmically makes its way across and to front of stage trailing a red cloth which forms a long \u201cred carpet\u201d.\u00a0This figure might be a spirit or\u00a0god\u00a0or genie and the effect is to delineate a long trail of blood leading to the throne,\u00a0a very simple\u00a0yet effective metaphor for the action to follow. This cloth can also variously be used to denote boundaries and demarcations. The Macbeth character, here General Aderemi, is played with aplomb by\u00a0Deyemi\u00a0Okanlawon and has a commanding physical stage presence that perfectly fits the part. After saving the kingdom from invaders he is promoted to Field Marshal, as foretold not by three witches but by the oracle. When it also prophecies that Aderemi, who is only the son of a blacksmith and not,\u00a0therefore, highborn\u00a0will also become king it sets in motion the plan that he and his wife, Oyebisi, embark on to achieve their bloody mission and take the throne. Here, Oyebisi (the Lady Macbeth character) plays an even more pivotal role in shaping the events that lead to her husband\u2019s\u00a0downfall\u00a0and she is played by Kehinde Bankole. Oyebisi is\u00a0definitely the\u00a0more proactive of the two, scheming and lying and prepared to take vital decisions\u00a0in order to\u00a0achieve her ambition of becoming queen. Not for her a fate of madness and fading away into the background as her husband takes to the fore but rather sticking it out together till the\u00a0bitter end. All this reflects the\u00a0important role\u00a0women have always played in Yoruba society, as seen in the position of female deities and in the number of certain female historical figures that are still revered today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other main character that deserves a mention is\u00a0Ashadele, played by Mo\u00a0Sesay.\u00a0He is like a combination of the Banquo and Macduff\u00a0characters in the original play, appearing at the beginning with Aderemi as\u00a0one of his co-military leaders but by the end as the man who overthrows him, having had his wife and twins murdered along the way.\u00a0Here is no \u201cBanquo\u2019s ghost\u201d scene but rather the apparition that haunts Aderemi\u00a0is that of the murdered king with\u00a0the\u00a0Ashadele\u00a0character cleverly placed behind him so that Aderemi is looking in the same direction.\u00a0This achieves a nice blurring of the source material\u00a0and invokes the confusion that is\u00a0apparent\u00a0in\u00a0the Usurper\u2019s consciousness.\u00a0Indeed, by now Aderemi has become nothing less than a bloodthirsty tyrant utterly bent on achieving his own ambition\u00a0and even prepared to murder his wife if necessary.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
All the cast, some of them playing multiple roles, portray this world of political intrigue, spiritual dependency and moral choices with skill and not a little humour, and while all cannot be named individually credit must go to Kayefi Osha (aka Deborah Lawal) who is an award-winning Nigerian folk and Afro-Soul singer and songwriter. Her singing and vocal arrangements throughout were haunting and evocative, her voice successfully dominating the various chants and African rhythms that drew on Yoruba heritage. Along with the rousing drumbeat accompaniment they conjured up a multicoloured world that was fully appreciated by the audience who gave a standing ovation at the end.<\/p>\n
Runs until 7th February 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t90%<\/p>\n \t\t\tColourful and dramatic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer:\u00a0Oladipo\u00a0Agboluaje\u00a0 Director: Mojisola Kareem\u00a0 Crown of Blood\u00a0is based on Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0Macbeth\u00a0but instead of the Scottish moors read 19th-century Yorubaland.\u00a0\u00a0Yorubaland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8817],"tags":[156540,748,219743,53369,219744,393,4884,219745,219746,129375,219747,219748,3007,219749,22252,1620,92873,16,15,219750,8820,219751],"class_list":["post-742735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sheffield","tag-benin","tag-britain","tag-crown-of-blood","tag-crucible-theatre","tag-deyemi-okanlawon","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-kayefi-osha","tag-kehinde-bankole","tag-macbeth","tag-mo-sesay","tag-mojisola-kareem","tag-nigeria","tag-oladipo-agboluaje","tag-shakespeare","tag-sheffield","tag-togo","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-utopia-theatre","tag-william-shakespeare","tag-yoruba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116014861932396742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}