Hoisted by the members of the ensemble, Chanique Christian celebrates freedom in 'Slavery - A Tale'. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer 'Malcochon' displayed both good direction and strong performances, as the performers embodied their characters. The production was both a great start to the evening and the competition in general.
EXCELSIOR COMMUNITY College (EXED) set the bar on Sunday night at the opening of the annual Tallawah drama competition for tertiary institutions.
Sunday night's performance at the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, University of the West Indies, Mona, St. Andrew, was the start of the 2003 competition.
The night's performances featured contributions from the community college and the Northern Caribbean University drama group, Young Actors Society (YASO). YASO contributed five pieces to the night's events. The group from the Mandeville,Manchester-based university performed a play, If God Was... and four shorter pieces.
If God Was... and the sketch Love Between the Lines were their stronger pieces. Both were written by Keisha Wright. They shared a generally good conception but neither were well executed. If God Was... tries to paint the picture of what the world would look like if God were more like man.
GOOD WRITING POTENTIAL
The piece showed good writing potential in Wright, who also played God. In her piece, God was a rather Jamaican woman who spent most of her time criticising and complaining about people while sucking on a lollipop and reading her Gleaner. Incidentally, she also seemed to have a personal selector/disc jockey who she would have play tracks to distract people from their troubles. The play had some funny moments, but needed greater cohesion and direction.
Love Between the Lines was also an interesting conception. The piece was a mini-musical using melodies and sometimes the lyrics of popular songs in a discussion between a cheating husband and his wife.
The other YASO pieces seemed to be going for 'edutainment' but were stronger on the educational than entertainment value. Aware, also written by Wright, and Slavery A Tale both fell in this category.
Deaf E'ase Gi Liard Trouble was the weakest piece performed. The actors, Charlton Jones and Lucreatia Peart, seemed to depend on their caricature-like costumes for laughs, rather than any actual performance.
The performances from EXED were generally strong. However their three plays and the dub piece Ballad of a Misled Boy strutted past the others. EXED's first play for the evening was Derek Walcott's Malcochon, also called Six in the Rain, a work in mysticism. Malcochon displayed both good direction and strong performances, as the performers embodied their characters. The production was both a great start to the evening and the competition in general.
WELL DIRECTED
The additionally plays were less mentally-challenging than Malcochon. However, both were also well directed and involved interesting performances and writing. Confrontation, dealt with star-crossed lovers in the form of a Rastaman and a Christian girl. Unlike Romeo and Juliet however, the production had a happy ending. The play banked heavily on snappy writing and strong performances by Orville Hall and O'Neil Tobias.
The Crossing, the third EXED play, dealt with two girls, Brittany and Paula, who are very different, but thrown together in the same school they become friends. Both girls feel trapped by their home life and unfortunately in an attempt to seek refuge from it come to tragic ends. The performances in The Crossing were generally good, but Alafia Noel as Paula's mother and Sukeenia Thompson as Mrs. Sinclair were particularly impressive.
The four additional pieces contributed by EXED were all monologues. Christopher Gordon dubbed an impressive tale in Ballad of a Misled Youth. The piece had calmed down significantly from earlier performances focusing on revealing the emotions and nuances in the persona's story.
In the face of the other performances Trini View and Dubble Standard paled. The excerpt from A Man For All Seasons needed no competitors to seem pale however.
Tallawah continues tonight through to Friday. The competition then takes a break on Saturday night and the 'Best of Tallawah' brings it to an end on Sunday night. Other groups yet to contribute their pieces are the University Dramatic Arts Society, The Centre Stage Workshop and the varying halls of residence of the UWI.
