Michael Reckord, Gleaner Writer

Those who attended Friday's performance of the musical drama, Speak Life, at the Swallowfield Chapel clearly loved the show.

They cheered, applauded, waved their right hands in the customary Praise God gesture and some even, at the end, obeyed the altar call made by an emotional young woman.

This has been pretty much the reception given the production since it was first staged three years ago in Barbados, according to the author and director, Marcia Bryan Weekes, a Jamaican now living in that island.

Speaking to The Gleaner in a post-performance interview, she added that the musical has also played in New York, St Lucia, South Africa, Mozambique and England.

Weekes, the artistic director of Praise Academy of Dance Barbados, the producers of the musical, is a minister and a dancer/choreographer. She has performed with Harlem Tabernacle Dance Ministries, New York, and has started several dance ministries in Jamaica and New York.

With her husband, Dave, she is the director and coordinator of Taking It To The Streets Ministries (TITTS), an evangelistic ministry which has pioneered missions to Jamaica, Barbados, Montserrat, Curaçao and New York. In 2002, she was asked by the board of Praise Academy Jamaica, led by Mrs Pat Noble, to found Praise Academy of Dance Barbados.

Dry bones scenario

The inspiration for Speak Life came, Weekes said, from Ezekiel 36 and 37. The description in the latter of the dry bones littering a valley floor becoming assembled and growing flesh and skin is the scenario for one of the more powerful dances in the show.

A domestic problem is at the heart of the story. Its focus is a couple's baby, born with a hole in her heart, and the failure of the husband's business because of the cost of the child's treatment. The father starts drinking, and this leads to a worsening of the marital relationship.

Not surprisingly, since the musical aims to minister to its audience, the story ends happily. Prayer which moves from being fervent to frenzied to hysterical results in the miraculous healing of the baby. Ten minutes or so of joyful dancing follows as the parents, neighbours and community give thanks to God.

Melodramatic acting

Generally speaking, the acting is melodramatic. That style matches the story, which is definitely not written in a realistic mode. One hilarious scene, though, is farcical - a scene in a church where, in a mock service, a comically dressed Prophetess Collector Offering tries to squeeze as much money as she can from the congregation.

The dancing is excellent. A host of choreographers created the dances: René Blackman, Pat Noble, Jerilee Evanson, John Hunte, Lajeane Cooke and Sophia McKay.

The beautiful and/or dramatic costumes were designed by Diane Brathwaite, Kathy Weekes, Wayne Smith and Pat Noble. The director chose the numerous gospel songs played throughout the show.

Members of the large cast, of about 30, were drawn from the three Praise Academies in the Caribbean - in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. After a second show on Saturday night, the non-Jamaican group was scheduled to leave the island for home on Monday but, Weekes said, the cast could soon be on tour again, for invitations had come for the musical to play in other Caribbean islands.

Scenes from Speak Life drama in dance, held at Fellowship Tabernacle, Half-Way Tree Road, on Sunday, January 21, 2007. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer