By Tanya Batson, Staff ReporterTHE PROBLEM with a show that has a double cast is that it often makes a huge difference who is playing the night you attend. Trevor Rhone's 'Bellas Gate Boy' is one of those productions.
The one-man play, now being staged at The Barn Theatre, is directed by Yvonne Brewster and features Trevor Rhone or Alwin Scott. A set, comprised almost solely of books, makes very good usage of the limited capacity of The Barn Theatre, which forces a set designer to either get creative or settle for a lacklustre. Ellen Cairns decided to go with the creative spin.
'Bellas Gate Boy' is the first segment of Rhone's autobiography.
The fact that Rhone plays himself brings an interesting dynamic to the production. What is even more interesting, however, is that Alwin Scott does a far better job of it. With Rhone, what was presented was the bare bones of the production. It was still in potentia. It was funny, but it had not yet reached all that it could be.
Scott brought to the production a dynamism which made the character, the stage version of Trevor Rhone, spring to life and living colour. It would actually be easy to assume that of the two, Rhone should do the better job, simply because he is playing himself. However, that very factor probably gives Rhone a unique handicap. Having overcome all the things he is talking about, he has to go back and replay them, several years in retrospect. Additionally, in doing so, Rhone has to go beyond the intimacy of the pen, remove his public face and come out with a believable character. Additionally, in order to play the character well, he probably has to rid himself of self-perceptions and give over to the director. For his part he did a rather credible job.
On the other hand, Scott effectively brings alive elements which get lost in Rhone's performance. This is in part because of the dynamism Scott brought to his performance by doing the additional voices rather than using a recording. Additionally, Scott also oozed energy, a necessary component of any performance, but especially so for a one-man show.
Of course the differences in the two performances may also be related to the age difference between the two men, or simply the fact that it has been a long time since Rhone has been on the stage, and so he has spent much less time honing this aspect of his craft.
Whatever the reason is, it is actually irrelevant. It is good to see both men tell this story of a man who has had tremendous impact on Jamaican popular culture and Jamaican literature and theatre.
