The Raft is not often performed because of the difficulties in staging it. One of the more prominent reasons is that much of the action takes place at night in the dark on a river. Most of the commentary is written by scholars who have generally given the play mixed reviews or qualified praise. Many have compared The Raft to the other two plays In the trilogy, with The Raft regarded as the weakest of three. For example, in a 1964 article in Black Orpheus, Anthony Astrachan writes, "The language is not so rich as in the other two plays; there are fewer metaphors, and the strengths lie in the evocation of life on the river and of Ijaw proverbs and customs rather than the virtue of the words themselves." In contrast, John Ferguson generally praises the playas different from Clark's previous work but suggests ist has...