‘A force to be reckoned with’

Following an intimate funeral service in Florence, Italy, Starr Brewster, widower of late theatre icon Yvonne Brewster, says he hopes to honour her life and work at two upcoming ceremonies: one in the United Kingdom (UK) and another in Jamaica.

Yvonne Brewster, remembered for her work as an author and across theatre, television, radio, and film, died on October 12, just five days after celebrating her 87th birthday. Her husband explained the veteran thespian had been ill for some time.

“She died here in Florence with me; she had not been in a good state at all. In some ways, for her, it must have been a great relief [that] it happened now rather than later. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to continue on,” Starr Brewster told The Sunday Gleaner.

“Since then, there has been an outpouring of love from persons who really appreciated her input [in] the world of theatre, and much more; she was a powerful influence,” he added.

With fond admiration, Starr Brewster described his late wife as a powerhouse. “She was a force to be reckoned with, and she always had enormous energy and vitality. She was always appreciative of everything around her, and [had] an equitable review of everything around her,” he said.

PASSION FOR DRAMATIC ARTS

A pioneer of the theatrical arts, both locally and internationally, Yvonne Brewster was born on October 7, 1938, and by the age of 16, her passion for the dramatic arts was sparked. As she recalled in a 2004 interview with Caribbean Beat:

“When I was about 16, my father took me down to the Ward Theatre [in Kingston] to see a French play called Huis Clos , written by Jean-Paul Sartre. And in it was Mona Chin (Mona Hammond), who I thought looked just like me. She was fantastic. I looked at this woman and I said, ‘Hey, Daddy, I want to be like her’ .... I decided to do drama after seeing Mona.”

At 16 years old, she left Jamaica for the UK to study drama at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, now called the Rose Bruford College. In her early days there, one of the first plays she saw was Flesh to a Tiger, which was being held at the Royal Court. The play would resonate with her deeply as it was the only black play on, and she was also the only black person at Rose Bruford. In 1959, she graduated from Rose Bruford and was also awarded a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music.

By the 1960s, Yvonne Brewster was back in Jamaica, where she became the first drama teacher at Excelsior High School. In this role, she successfully advocated for teachers of the arts in Jamaica to get equal pay in accordance with that of their peers. She also worked as a radio announcer at Radio Jamaica Ltd., did interviews of public figures for the Jamaica Information Service, and hosted her own radio show, Open House, which aired on Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. Still, by the mid-decade, she and others began to grow dissatisfied with the local theatre scene. As she recalled in her book, Vaulting Ambition: Jamaica’s Barn Theatre 1966-2005, Yvonne Brewster wrote:

“In 1965, a number of young Jamaicans, some of whom had been trained in theatre arts either in Britain or the United States of America, came together in an alliance cemented by a shared sense of the frustration they had experienced upon returning home from their studies. They had met with little welcome, indeed an almost tangible hostility from members of the existing theatre establishment and offered virtually no opportunity of putting their training to any real use.”

Bouyed by this motivation, Yvonne Brewster joined forces with Sydney Hibbert, Grace Lannaman, Pat Priestley, Billy Young, Trevor Rhone, and Munair Zacca to create Theatre 77. The group chose their name as it served as a reminder of their goal: “To establish a fully professional theatre company in Jamaica in 12 years.”

THE BARN THEATRE

Due to a lack of monetary resources, the group rehearsed on the veranda of a house at 5 Oxford Road – the home of Yvonne Brewster’s parents. Soon after, the group established The Barn Theatre. With Trevor Rhone writing and Yvonne Brewster directing, while the other members filled other production and acting roles, The Barn Theatre – with its 144 seats and 24 wide by 19 deep stage – soon grew into one of the most acclaimed artistic endeavours in Jamaica’s history. As Yvonne Brewster would write in A Short Autobiographical Essay Focusing on My Work in the Theatre:

“The idea was to give young, irreverent Jamaican actors, directors, and playwrights a chance to test their wings and wits in a safe place. To see themselves and the society they lived in reflected on the stage.”

Due to her work at The Barn and other endeavours, she was tapped to serve as a director for the Jamaica Festival Commission for a year in 1968. By the 1970s, her work expanded to film, where she worked in multiple production roles on The Harder They Come (1972), Smile Orange (1976), and The Marijuana Affair (1975). By the late ‘70s, Brewster was back in the UK and would lean into her reputation as an esteemed creative arts professional, where she produced and cast multiple programmes for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). These include: The Fight Against Slavery (1975) and My Father Sun Sun Johnson (1976). These productions eventually earned British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards. She also had starring roles in the BBC drama Maybury (1981). From 1982 to 1984, she served as drama officer at the Arts Council of Great Britain with the aim of fostering policy to promote the arts.

However, by the early 1980s, Thatcherism was in effect in the UK political system, and subsequently, funding for the arts was severely cut. In its wake, Yvonne Brewster, alongside Anton and Judy Philips, founded Carib Theatre, which aimed at developing high-quality theatre geared at young black children. Through productions and workshops, the group was able to accomplish this from 1983 till their closing in 2011. In an interview with David Vivian Johnson in 2018, Yvonne Brewster said this of Carib Theatre’s legacy:

“We were able to bring a black perspective into schools, where these inner-city kids had never heard that they had a perspective or that any aspect of their lives was worthy of being shown.”

CHAMPIONING BLACK EXCELLENCE

However, when the Government abolished the Greater London Council (GLC) in the mid-1980s, funding for the dramatic arts industry became more strained. The most affected were artistic programmes that were intended to support black people. Thus, in 1985, Yvonne Brewster teamed up with Mona Hammond to establish Talawa Theatre Company, whose mission is “to champion black excellence in theatre; to nurture talent in emerging and established artists of African or Caribbean heritage, and to tell inspirational and passionate stories, reflecting black experiences through art”. The group’s first production was an adaptation of C. L. R. James’s acclaimed book, The Black Jacobins. By 1991, the company would put on the UK’s first all-black production of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. At the same time, she directed the production of Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding for the National Theatre.

With all of these accomplishments, by 1993, she was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Over the years, these international awards have expanded to include the Woman of Achievement Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain; the Royal Television Society Award and the Living Legend Award from the National Black Theatre Festival, USA. Her honours include being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an honorary doctorate from the Open University, and being a Fellow of the Central School of Speech and Drama.

The 21st century would see Yvonne Brewster publish a number of works. In 2004, there was her autobiographical work, The Undertaker’s Daughter, and in 2010, she edited For the Reckford: A Collection of Three Plays, a compilation of Barry Reckord’s plays. Ironically, Reckford was the author of Flesh to a Tiger. Then there was Vaulting Ambition: Jamaica’s Barn Theatre 1966-2005 (2017) , which details the history of the company.

Though the curtain has fallen on her life, the spotlight on her legacy will forever shine. Acknowledging her contribution to the arts across the black diaspora, David Vivian Johnson writes in Talawa Theatre Company: A Theatrical History and the Brewster Era:

“Brewster’s work cast a clear image of black identity that could not fail to resonate with those African, Caribbean, and black British people whose stories it told, in their own spoken and non-spoken language forms. It was also a catalyst for many performers who would not have been given the same welcome, opportunity, experience, and sense of self from the mainstream.”

Likewise, her work and passion for the theatrical arts will continue to serve as an inspiration for persons involved in the performance arts. As she herself told Caribbean Beat: “... I don’t think I’ll ever stop. I’ll probably still be directing from my coffin somehow.”

Yvonne Brewster is survived by her husband and their son, her two sisters, and other relatives and friends.

J.T. Davy is a member of Tenement Yaad Media, where she writes and co-produces their popular historical podcast, ‘Lest We Forget’. Send feedback to jordpilot@hotmail.com and entertainment@gleanerjm.com.entertainment@gleanerjm.com