“Leave the dead some room to dance,” sings the Dirge-Man in Wole Soyinka’s beautiful play, A Dance of the Forests. But the living are not willing to do so, and the play’s dynamic is the conflict between the desire of the dead for judgment and the desire of the living to avoid it. This conflict is manipulated by the will of Forest Father, who leads both to a judgment they do not relish, while despairing that his labours will effect any real improvement in human conduct .. .
‘The play opens with the arrival of two dead ancestors, thrusting their heads up from the understreams. They had been summoned by the living to attend “the gathering of the tribes” {an analogue of Nigerian Independence?), but instead of being the idealized figures of the tribal
imagination they tum out to be full of ancient bitterness and resentment and are shunned by everyone as “obscenities.” However, Forest Father selects four of the living and leads them away deep into the forest where, in company with the dead couple, he forces them to confront their true selves and the repetitive pattern of their weaknesses and crimes.’ Times Literary Supplement.
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