An emotional basket case Robert (actor Philip Clarke) pulls a gun on his wife and her lover during David Heron's 'Redemption' at the Fairfield Theatre in Montego Bay on Saturday, July 14. - Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer

Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

One of the newest additions to the Montego Bay theatre community, actor Philip Clarke all but eclipsed his fellow cast members with a stellar portrayal of 'Robert' in David Heron's Redemption at the Fairfield Theatre, in Montego Bay, on Saturday, July 14.

Director Douglas Prout could not have chosen a better person, as Clarke, in his movement from the sputtering almost manic-seasoned reverend, to the overzealous young pastor trying to get a date, to the innocent schoolboy, had the audience eating out of his hand from his first wrenching cry of "I can't do it!" in Act One.

A teacher by profession, Clarke plays 'Robert', the protagonist, in a love triangle between a pastor, his wife and her lover. The play opens with Robert visiting a private investigator, Scott (Tony Rodney), to find answers to the niggling question of whether his wife of eight years, Linda, (Makeda Solomon) has been cheating.

As they say, 'ignorance is bliss' as when Robert, the faithful husband, gets a front-seat view of his wife and her lover having raunchy sex in the next hotel room, he decides that she must die.

Roles become switched between Robert and Scott as the man of the cloth turns to the heathen for guidance. This immediately casts Scott (Rodney) in the role of priest and counsellor as he tries to reason with Robert. A gifted actor in his own right, Rodney is brilliant in his depiction of the blunt but witty investigator desperately trying not to become an 'accessory before the fact' in the wife's untimely demise.

Raw emotion

Award-winning actress, Makeda Solomon, was also in top form. The sole woman in the play, she depicted both Robert's wife Linda and his mother, Mama. Having shown her ability to depict raw emotion in the one-hander Who Will Sing For Lena? Solomon drew on these skills to depict the fractured heart of a lonely and neglected wife in love with two men.

Playwright and actor, David Tulloch, did a good job with his portrayal of the young rake Mario who adeptly seduces a lonely married woman into his bed.

An examination of the institution of marriage, the relationship between man and wife, man and God, pastor and flock, mother and son, Redemption, whether one ultimately sides with the lonely wife or the betrayed husband, begs the question: 'Which is more important - a promise to man or a promise to God, and when that promise is broken can there be redemption?'

The first play since the theatre was burglarised in May, Redemption is a must-see, but parents, find a babysitter, Redemption is rated PG13.