Jamaican Plays

Rapturous laughter erupted at the Green Gables Theatre amidst some breathtaking action, and a lot of suspense at the showing of “Backbiter”.

The Roots Play genre have been accused of being too laid back and simply offering audiences weak storylines riddled with catchy punch lines to score big laughs. So it is quite refreshing to see the effort that goes into the production of the comedy “Backbiter”, steer clear of that and still have the audience buzzing with excitement as the story unfolds to a point where at the end of the scene the audience was moved to applause. And rightly so, as daughter Cassandra was about to test some drugs she was selling, thinking that maybe it was too weak, she was caught in the nick of time by mother Pam. The emotion and the message were very powerful.

The play is a never ending drama as the characters often square off, especially due to the mischief of Pempeh who is a recovering drug addict; who declares that “nutten nah miss mi, mi affe inna de pickle”. He knows everyone’s business and often gossips with his woman Gwen, the biggest friend-enemy to Pam.

Backbiter is Cassandra’s story, a girl from the country, her mother got pregnant at an early age. Both mother (Pam) and father (not in the play) comes into town to make life but the father got involved in drugs, he killed the don and had to run away. Pam brings Cassandra to live with her in an effort to realize her dream of becoming a lawyer. Things, however takes a twist as Razor Blade, the don’s son was out for revenge, but the man he searches for was overseas. He sets out on an intimidating the family, but met strong resistance from Cassandra, fresh out of the country and knows no danger. In his bid for revenge and her wanting to wear the latest style, he got her to start selling drugs, however with her not knowing the rules behind the world of drugs, proceed to break them all. Razor who says, “Man a bad man” was having none of it and attempts to set her straight and she declares war saying, “Man a bad gal”.

The play is action-packed with some edge of the seat moments like when Detective Butty was making a pass at Cassandra and Pam comes home and she hides him in the closet. Pam leaves the room and while attempting to get him out Pam returns, she covers him in the couch and Pam almost sits on him. There was another scene when Razor pulls his gun on Cassandra and she grabs it from him and butts him in the forehead. There were a lot of scenes of that nature and the patrons really loved it.

Overall, it was interactive and thrilling. For the duration of the play the theatre was filled with laughter as the antics of most cast members offer non-stop laughter in several scenes. The jokes were shared as most of the characters delivered a few laughs with the standouts being stand up comic now actor Leighton Smith as “Pempeh” really had us rolling with laughter and the crowd favourite, Cassandra played by Georgette Wright, was a very hard act to follow putting you in the mind of a young “Delcita” as echoed by patrons. She was hilarious and the growth of the character from the naive country girl to dancehall diva then to real bad gal was tremendous, especially when she transformed in front of our eyes into army fatigue as she presents war.

The rest of the cast was good support for the leads as Dainty Bellanfantie as Pam executed her role well as the mother. Christopher Johnson as Razor Blade was ok and was really dressed for the part to the delight of the ladies. Lorraine Barrett as the backbiting, mix up Sister Gwen was convincing and Wayne Clue played Butty.

Backbiter was written and directed by Luke Ellington, who managed to keep the audience captivated with a brilliant storyline with a lot of thought-provoking plots, while still giving us a lot of laughs, as advertised for action, suspense, and mix up. It was truly so, they only left out what a good story it was.

The lightening and sound effects and the intimate setting are added bonuses and the song selections were very good with each song matching the situation well. Backbiter has a very strong message and was well worth seeing and you can take the children with you can take the children with you. Well done Lukington Productions.