Wole Soyinka's writing often seems like a juggling act. He can keep any number of plates—and valuable plates, at that—spinning in the air all at the same time. He is able to handle many themes simultaneously without ever endangering the reality of his characters. His people are never ciphers or symbols, always persons speaking in their own voices. He is a volatile writer, and he achieves in his work an almost unbelievable amount of vitality. He is well known as a poet, and he has written one novel, but it is as a playwright that he has done his major work so far. (p. 11)

In his work Soyinka enriches and gives dramatic emphasis to modern themes by drawing upon the religion, the mythology and the poetry of the African past. Yoruba gods inhabit his plays, and he uses the Yoruba drums, including the talking drums, as...