Death and the Kings Grey Hair and Other Plays

Book excerpt: Death and the Kings Grey Hair and Other Plays is a collection of three plays, Death and the Kings Grey Hair, Truce with the Devil, and Fringe Benefits, which are all experimental plays from the early period of the writing career of Denja Abdullahi, who is presently renowned as a poet of populist expressions. Death and the Kings Grey Hair examines the use and misuse of absolute power based on an ancient Jukun myth of young kings and short reigns. Truce with the Devil is a satire on the later abandonment of the creed of Marxism by its adherents, a kind of mockery of turncoat revolutionaries in the grip of practical social realities. Fringe Benefits, a radio play, is an expose of the happening in Nigerias ivory towers, seen from the eyes of a participant-observer.