Ursuline Convent School of Barbados stamped its authority on the Caribbean Secondary Schools’ Drama Festival stage with a strong performance of the late (great) Tobago poet/playwright Eric Roach’s classic 1968 folk drama Letter from Leonora.
Ama Jones, playing Mercy, and Caitlin McKeever as Sheila produced some of the festival’s outstanding work. Their competent interpretation of roles originally meant for more mature players belied relative newness to the theatre stage. The fast pace of the play requires a combination of exhausting theatrical choreography and supreme dramatic and comedic timing. In most instances, the young cast delivered in style.
Festival adjudicator, Kentillia Louis, was impressed with the fight sequences which produced concerned gasps throughout the half-filled auditorium of the Southern Academy of the Performing Arts (Sapa). She was not alone. Her remarks on the subject drew loud applause. McKeever, in particular, moved about the stage as if she lived there. In the play, she is Mercy’s young and nosey neighbour. Her involvement in the circumstances surrounding the marriage plans of Mercy’s granddaughter, Leonora, makes for a variety of theatrical opportunities facilitated by Roach’s magnificent script.
The gradual unfolding of Leonora’s letter is used as a platform for the building of intrigue upon intrigue. For starters, the envelope does not contain the customary cash remittance from Mercy’s overseas-based grandchild. Then comes announcement of an imminent wedding—one that will not be held in a church.
Mercy faints. She screams. She prays. Why her? What has she done to deserve this? Is it because Leonora is pregnant? Or is she marrying a divorced man?
Neighbours Tan Georgie (played by Tia Simpson) and Cha Celeste (Stephanie Zerpa) are there to add to the intrigue. Zerpa and Simpson turned out to be no slouches on the stage either and their command of physical comedy was impressive, however much they missed the subtle tragic twists.
In the process, the audience is taken on a comedic journey that explores issues of religion, marriage and divorce ostensibly located within the context of mid-20th-century T&T. For example, Lionel Seukeran, referenced in the play, was a legislator up to 1966.
There is also the message of five Caribbean women—Simran Thani is village “macco” Joyce and completes the cast—haplessly locked in immovable roles. Director Rashida Harding did a good job with a cast of young, talented players. And Jasmin Jones designed a thoughtful, minimalist set. Had Roach lived, he would have turned 100 this year.
The delicate wisp of tragicomedy in Leonora is as easily missed as were the signals of his own self-inflicted demise in 1974. This, perhaps, was the intention of one of the great Caribbean poets.