Ọba kò so (The King Did Not Hang) is a play by Duro Ladipo depicting the mystical and ambivalent personality known as Shango of Yoruba mythology. Historical and Cultural Significance Duro Ladipo's revolutionary play, Oba Kò So, was first staged in 1963 at the Mbari Mayo Club in Osogbo, Nigera as part of an anniversary celebration for the opening of the city's arts centre, notably the same year that Nigeria was declared a republic. Not only did Oba Kò So gain national recognition, but it gained international recognition, as the German Cultural Center in Lagos staged it in 1963, prompting its appearance in a cultural festival in Berlin called the Berliner Festwochen in 1964. The reviews of the Berlin audience highly revered its performance, describing it as one of the “great highlights of the festival”. Ladipo's company was then invited to perform Oba Kò So for the Commonwealth Tour throughout Europe starting in 1965 and continued to perform throughout Europe in addition to being adapted and filmed as a feature of BBC. In 1975, Duro Ladipo sought to extend his international influence and tour in other parts of the Diaspora and America. The tour of Oba Kò So in Brazil is particularly notable due to the immense respect it received, as the Yoruba traditions and mythology connected the audiences to their own living traditions of Santería that have roots in Nigeria. Later in 1975, Oba Kò So toured the United States as part of the Third World Theatre Festival performing in theaters across the country. The Yoruba traditions brought to life on stage represented a new kind of energy and exhilaration that was incomparable to other theater experiences, as audience members described the music and drumming as “vigorous and rich” and the dance as “enervating”. Much of the success of Oba Kò So was in part due to the uniqueness of his creative vision to merge a mythological and human form into the character of Sango, in which Ladipo played himself, as his embodiment of this Yoruba deity reflected a deep personal and cultural connection Ladipo had to the worship of Sango and Yoruba traditions in general. One of main innovations of Oba Kò So was that it departed from the traditional Yoruba folk opera and entered into new postcolonial chapter of Yoruba theater that aimed to reclaim the traditional Yoruba poetry, music and dance rituals that were denounced by