THE PHILLIP Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts was once again home to another night of Tallawah performances this weekend. Three groups performed that night: Excelsior Community College, The University Dramatic Arts Society (UDAS) and Mico Teachers College.
The performances from Excelsior were, in the main, unimpressive, with the possible exclusion of Marcus to Marley. The school's first contribution was a play entitled Baby in the House. Its theme was incest and the pain which comes from it.
The only good thing about this play was that there was the attempt to go outside the box. Instead of providing a linear narrative, role playing was used. However, the play suffered from a chronic case of bad direction and thus missed the mark completely.
The lead character Princess, which was played by Kenishe Lowe, cried or whimpered with fear the entire performance. Lowe is by no means a bad actress. In fact she was possibly the only semi-bright spark in the entire performance.
Excelsior's second contribution was a monologue entitled Corinthians Chapter 13. This too was performed by Kenisha Lowe. It was a funny piece and showed imagination as the scripture was dramatised in a pocomania sermon. She did all the necessary wheeling, dipping, and stamping of feet which had the audience laughing. However, once again, with more insight on the part of the director, this piece could have been much more.
Marcus to Marley was Excelsior's final contribution for the night. To say the least, the play was sexist, racist, and far too preachy. It was, however, dragged out of this mire by Orville Hall's performance, which greatly overshadowed everyone else's in the production.
Mico contributed two performances, a play The Tangle and a monologue Pregnant. The Tangle competed heavily with Baby in the House to be considered the worst performance of the night.
It was almost saved by Rowena Pennant's performance, but sadly it was not. The majority of the actors displayed very immature performances with little or no talent as they tried to show how little sexual experience coupled by ignorance can easily lead to pregnancy.
When the play ended, no one was sure if it was done, and this was obviously not deliberate. Their second contribution for the night, however was absolutely fabulous.
Craig McNally played a pregnant man whose aim it is to make all the pregnant men of the world understood. He named among these pregnant men in history, Napoleon, Bill Clinton and Brian Heap.
His anger at the injustices that all pregnant men face was excellently displayed and had the audience eating out of his hand the entire performance. UDAS also contributed three pieces, all monologues. The first monologue, Sea Dreams was performed by Shermaine Desnoes. Desnoes' performance was tolerable and she did a good job of evoking a serene mood to complement her sea nymph-like dress.
Faithful to the End, performed by Janella Precius was an interesting, if rather depressing, piece about a woman who will substitute a bottle for love as she has been so often disappointed.
There is only one word to describe UDAS's final performance of the night excellent, wonderful, fabulous.... Performed and written by Jermilla Kirwan, the piece conveyed how harmful humans can be when they have been hurt and are in pain, until they allow themselves to cry.
The set she used, some shells and a chair, was simple but effective. Her movements co-ordinated with well selected sound-effects to properly convey the mood and evoke the necessary emotions.
