By Tanya Baston, Staff Reporter
UWI tutor, Jean Small - File
IRVINE HALL put their own stamp on 'Tallawah' on Friday night. It was the final night of five nights of competition and all the entries came from Irvine Hall's drama club. The students took this one step further by dedicating the night to actress, writer, director and producer Jean Small. Ms. Small was also adopted as the evenings patron. They presented an entertaining and varied night. The 14 pieces were all directed by Rohan Garricks and included poems, monologues, story telling and plays.
The most impressive piece of the night was written by Jean Small. The monologue, 'If Bob Could Sing' was performed by Simone Harris. Though it depended largely on Harris' acting, 'If Bob Could Sing' also involved music and dance. Interestingly, the sound track included none of Bobs' work.
DEATH AT BOB'S STATUE
The monologue dealt with the death of a man who was murdered at the foot of the Bob Marley statue on Arthur Wint Drive. The set, simple though effective, was devised to look like the scene of the murder. This was in part created by having Matthew Maharaj standing in for Bobs' statue. Much to the disbelief of many members of the audience who began to question whether he was real, he did his job very well. Maharaj moved hardly a muscle through the entire monologue which last well over 10 minutes. He was in a word, statuesque.
It was Harris' performance and small very powerful words which truly brought off the piece, however. Dressed in skin-fitting black rags and wearing make-up which signalled despair and horror, Harris embodied disbelief at the senseless crime. Her performance was extremely well-nuanced and exhibited great direction.
SET MATCH WAS A HIT
Another very good performance for the evening was the story 'Set Match' written by Paul Keens-Douglas and performed by Dillison Stoddard. 'Set Match' was a well-timed sunny tale about a cricket set match. As the story explained a set match is a game wherein how much rum is drunk is far more important than how many runs are made. This game was particularly interesting because it was played, literally over a hill. As a result, the bowler could not see the batsman and vice versa. Stoddard had the audience laughing throughout the tale.
Another interesting story came from Tanice Pantry who related Amina Blackwood-Meeks' Growing Bananas. The story is a satire on globalisation and its disastrous effects on the Jamaican economy. Though Pantry avoided the subtle humour usually involved in satire, her performance was still a funny one.
Julien Meaves' performance of 'Sentencing to Hang', another intriguing monologue, was also rather good. 'Sentencing to Hang'was written by Francis Peters and dealt with a young man's journey from innocent childhood to murder. Meaves displayed a particular ability to move from great delight to dismay. In his third performance for the evening, Meaves also performed in the skit The Mighty Corbeaux and the adoption of the movie John Q, for Mickey.
'The Mighty Corbeaux' has been written by Meaves and showed that he had more than just acting talent.
TWO THUMBS DOWN
The monologue 'Repentance: Dancehall-style' was one of the most interesting and disappointing pieces of the night. It started out as an intriguing tale which seemed to have the audience in rapt attention and then suddenly took a nose-dive. Though its plot was not original, it was being told in an interesting way.
'Repentance: Dancehall-style' dealt with a Christian woman who is tempted, falls into lust and finally repents. For most of the performance, the performers were silent. Instead, the tale was told by different dancehall tunes while red ribbons would drop from above to show how far into temptation the woman had fallen. The intriguing drama plummetted, however, when suddenly protagonist launched into a prayer/ceremony that would make a bus preacher squinch.
The weaker performances included 'Agnes of God' and all the pieces involving Dahalia Martin. Martin performed in three pieces: 'Something Artistic', 'The Linguist' and 'For Mighty'. Her performance in For Mighty could have landed her with a lawsuit for so wantonly destroying the good script from the movie, John Q. Martin displayed a distinct penchant for over acting, choosing to ring every drop of life from each word she spoke.
What the night certainly displayed, however, was that Irvine Hall certainly takes drama seriously and the entire theatre community can benefit from their offerings.
