“…the contents of the play revealed a brilliant mind at work in an attempt to deal with some basic ambiguities of human existence,” wrote Julius S. Scott Jnr. of Spelma College-Atlanta, when he saw an American production of The Son of Umbele.

Indeed, this Ghana National Book Award winner has endeared itself to theatre enthusiasts as well as scholars since its premier at the Ghana Drama studio in 1972.

Bill Marshall’s sensitivity to realities of the human existence and the conflicts of the mind is eloquently manifest in his writing, be it a novel, a TV Drama or a Stage play.

The author appeared on the Ghanaian Arts scene in 1966 when he joined GBC-TV and helped to establish the Drama Department of the Television Station. He worked with the Corporation for several years, writing, production and directing plays for Television, He subsequently left for the private sector, working for Lintas Ghana Limited and in his own company, Studio Africain. In 1984, he was appointed the Director of the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) in Ghana.

Other published works by the author are Novels: Bukom, Brother Man, The Oyster Man, Uncle Blanko’s Chair; Plays: Shadows of an Eagle, Stranger to Innocence Asana, The Crows and Other plays.1966The Son of Umbele is a tragedy played out in front of the home of a fisherman[1] in which the principal character, Joshua, becomes the victim of his own flaws. The play is in three acts. The first act introduces us to the household of Sumako and his children with their sick mother. The second act is about the love affair between Joshua and Duella, at the same time Joshua is beginning to know the son of Sumako. The third act looks at the duel between Benko and Joshua which eventually leads to the latter shooting himselfThe play was written while Williams was in the US.[1] Baldwyn W. Burroughs directed the play in 1973 in Ghana[2] (Mohammed ben Abdallah played the lead in that production[3]) and a few months later directed it in the US, at Spelman College. The reviewer for Black World wondered whether a Western audience would ever appreciate the show.[2]