Those who missed the production of Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott’s, Pantomime staged at the UWI Open Campus in Antigua, missed out on a faithful representation of one of the Caribbean’s greatest literary works.

The show, starring Dramaworks founders, Patrick Foster as Henry Trewe and Simon Alleyne as Jackson Phillip, was an open-air production and luckily, last Friday, the skies were cloudless. For those unfamiliar with the play, Pantomime tells a story that speaks to the deep issues of race, slavery and post-colonialism with which most Caribbean people are intimately acquainted. It is ironic that even now in the 21st century, the issues of Walcott’s play, written in the mid-70s, are still pertinent and for many others, still touch a nerve.

Pantomime is set in the crumbling Tobagon Castaways Guest House, and revolves around two protagonists, Henry Trewe, an Englishman and retired actor/music hall performer and owner of Castaways, and Jackson Phillip, a Trinidadian and retired calypsonian. At the onset, Henry plans to put on a pantomime production of the classic tale, Robinson Crusoe, to attract tourists and shore up dwindling business.

It is from this point that the underlying themes of Walcott’s noted work takes off through classic and Creole acting as Walcott uses his two characters to demonstrate colonial and post-colonial role-playing, while satirically examining imperialism, the effects of colonisation and the convention of the master/slave relationship. The first half of the two-act play sped by quickly, or perhaps it just seemed that way as it introduced the philosophical ruminations tied to the reversal of roles between master and slave. Walcott’s play deftly created a fresh take on a topic some would say is often exhausted in discussions throughout the Caribbean Islands.

The second half seemed much longer and unfortunately dragged on a bit at points. Some patrons could not decide whether this was due to the many intense and emotional themes put on the table courtesy of Trewe’s personal woes, or whether it was due to the manner in which the play was divvied up. Although the occasional dialogue flub was heard, the acting was more than believable and both Alleyne and Foster portrayed their characters with a humanity that was at times both humourous and achingly heartbreaking.

In an interview with 365antigua.com, Foster stated that in creating the theatre production group, he wished to not only give encouragement to the next generation of Caribbean artists but to also expose Caribbean people to the wealth of talent that exists in the region since, as he put it, “Everything we need is already here. We already have the perfect setting.” Foster also stated that his desire to give actors, writers and directors an opportunity to display their talents came partly from the frustration he felt whenever he saw, “a Caribbean person in a film not being portrayed accurately and with an accent unrecognisable to those who live in the region and who know better.” Indeed, many people in the region have arguably grown tired of the caricature so often used to portray Caribbean peoples in mainstream film and television.

Alleyne stated his hope that the movement to give Caribbean people a stronger stake in mainstream media will continue in other islands so that writers, actors and other creative types will be given a chance to share their work with their peers, while simultaneously giving themselves the exposure that is ultimately so important for success in the theatre/creative arts industry.

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