1 week ago
5
An attractive young woman stopped me as I was exiting the theatre last Friday night. But it was only to give her opinion of the production we’d just seen.
“I liked it,” she said. “It was different. Very educational.” She couldn’t have been more succinct.
Prodding her, I said, “But I was expecting a play.”
She nodded. “Me, too.”
Now to unpack her concise review.
Written and directed by Opal Palmer Adisa, the production, Miss Lou Still Ah Talk, was staged on Friday and Saturday nights in the Vera Moody Concert Hall, School of Music, Edna Manley College of the Visual & Performing Arts. The “Miss Lou” of the title is the pet name that the world affectionately uses for the late Jamaican cultural icon, Louise Bennett-Coverley.
One of the many personalities that the storyteller, poet, actress, playwright, essayist, and researcher created was Aunty Roachy, a woman with insightful, idiosyncratic opinions on everything. She was played with Miss Lou’s characteristic energy by Alexandra Gregory.
With even more energy, many somersaults and a professional dancer’s control of his body, the show’s male lead, Kibwe ‘Scantana’ Lawrence, portrayed another Jamaican icon, Anansi. The spin put on that fictional character is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the story; Midway through the show, Anansi informs the audience that he’s giving up life as a trickster to, instead, promote Jamaica’s culture.
Having come from Africa with captured peoples, Anansi (aka Anancy) has been a popular, and controversial, figure in Jamaican song, story, and theatre for hundreds of years. If Palmer Adisa, and perhaps the Jamaica Tourist Board, develop the concept, the country could benefit enormously.
The other performers, and their roles, are: Stashia Campbell (Nuh True Dat, Aunty Roachy’s roadside sister higgler of snacks), Jomo Tafari Dixon (Shadow, Anansi’s ever-present companion), Jahmiela Nunes (Ms Influencer, an influencer with thousands of followers who promises Roachy online fame), and Adriel Palmer (Gone Already), a young woman whose aim in life is to go abroad and make money.)
Palmer Adisa calls the production “a celebration, a remembrance, and a cultural call to action.” That it certainly is. What it’s not is a traditional play – which may be why the woman who stopped me at the door called it “different”.
The playwright has a message: like Miss Lou, we should build up Jamaica’s culture; and that message is preached by all the characters, some more slowly than others, from start to finish. Emphasis is placed on keeping the roads garbage-free, with Miss Lou’s contribution to the development of the Jamaican language coming in a distant second.
While the best plays are character-driven, this one is content-driven, and, because the content essentially remains the same, both story and characters only develop at a snail’s pace. It shouldn’t be revealing too much to say that Gone Already is the character who changes most.
Happily, a number of elements counteract the drag. The costumes become more and more attractive as the play proceeds, with everyone wearing bright, multi-coloured costumes for the last scene’s closing dance. It’s one of many. Congrats on jobs well done to costume designer Claudette Gayle and choreographer Danah Lawson-Chisholm.
There’s music and witty songs – with lyrics by Palmer Adisa and composition by Franklyn (Frankie) Campbell and Harold Bailey, Jr. In-between some of the scenes, we were treated to a number of videos and recordings featuring Miss Lou herself being interviewed, singing or reciting her poems.
Though the set was minimal – mainly chairs, rehearsal boxes and small snack stalls for Roachy and Nuh True Dat – the director kept the actors moving around the stage, so it never looked bare. Calvin Mitchell’s lighting helped to create the various desired moods.
The limited weekend run comes from the producer, the Louise Bennett Coverley Festival (LBCF), less than a month from an anniversary of Miss Lou’s birthday. Since, the LBCF usually celebrates the anniversary with an event, maybe they’ll remount the show for the occasion. Many, many more people in Jamaica love Miss Lou than would have been able to see the production in its two days in the small hall.
English (US) ·