Alienation as Catalyst for Dramatic Conflicts in EsiabaIrobi’sHangmen Also Die

The growing concerns about the contradictions of existence, many of which are deeply rooted in desperation for survival, have had a profound impact on the conception and flourishing of existential drama. At the inception of the 20th century, most playwrights, all over the world, have felt the urge to interrogate issues of human apprehensionsin their works by depicting dramatic characters at the brink in the face of hopelessness, frustration and estrangement. It is, thus, against this background that the paper explores the theme of alienation in EsiabaIrobi'sHangmen Also Die. Alienation, one of the sub-themes of existentialism is therefore conceived and deployed in this paper as a literary trope through which we deconstruct the dramatic characters’ dispositions to actionsand counteractions in the text against the backdrop of the situations and existential realities around them. In this analysis, the paperconsiders existential prompts such as “interest” and “survival “anxiety as being fundamental to the generation and escalation of dramatic tension in the text. The study, therefore, reveals that the playwright depicts dramatic characters who, despite their existential predicaments, still prioritise survival by confronting their aggressors through actions and choices they freely undertake. It is within the ambience of these existential circumstances that the paper views the actions and counteractions of the characters in Hangmen Also Die as being motivated by a sense of survival.