Play Review: Barfoot Battalion

The year is 1834; the setting is a vast, cold, dark and eerie mountainside in Jamaica. Four slaves from Sommerset Plantation have mustered the courage to run away as the atrocities of life, and being at the beck and call of ‘Backra’, has proven too much to bear. Armed with nothing but common sense and courage, the raggedy bunch of misfits have made their way far into the hills, hoping the green lime they so generously used to rub their skins will throw the bloodhounds off their scent. Soon the four become five as the very man that used to whip the flesh off their backs has joined them as though considered to have a privileged position by some, he knows that at the end of the day, he too is nothing more than a mere slave.

This is the basic storyline surrounding Patrick’s Brown ‘Barefoot Battalion’, the current comedic offering on display at the Courtleigh Auditorium. Though the picture painted may sound somber, it is anything but, as the cast and punch lines are ripe with humour. This is especially so as Brown ingeniously manages to juxtapose  the setting of 1800’s bush Jamaica with elements of modern-day references such as Tik Tok, Uber, US visa requirements and of course United States President Donald Trump with such ease that it is not only hilarious but keep the scenes light- hearted and easy.

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