Crown of Blood review – Macbeth’s deadly hurly-burly rooted in mythic Yoruba landscape

2026-02-04 - 20:25

Crucible, Sheffield The supernatural is all-encompassing in Oladipo Agboluaje’s reframing of Shakespeare’s power play in 19th-century west Africa Every time the court historian turns up, he has a new list of phenomena to report. Arokin (Toyin Oshinaike) brings news of a flying elephant, a gorilla with a tortoise shell and a woman with vipers for hair. There has been a lot of this since Aderemi (Deyemi Okanlawon) returned from the battlefield and heard his wife’s prophetic dream. Telling her husband she saw a crown placed upon his head, Oyebisi (Kehinde Bankole) sets him on a course from warrior to despot. Continue reading...