Jamaican Plays

According to reports out of Canada, Old Tyme Country Wedding, an original home-grown Canadian pantomime, was a big hit on its debut at the P.C. Ho Theatre for Performing Arts on Sheppard Avenue East in Toronto, last night. Jamaican musicologist, composer and choir director, Noel Dexter, was specially flown in from Jamaica to attend the show, and Maud Fuller – a pioneer of Pantomime in Jamaica – was the patron for the event which was reportedly sold out to the point where chairs had to be added in the back of the theatre. Below is a snapshot from the opening night.

This production, by a predominantly Jamaican group, is a tribute to love – love of family; love of heritage; innocent childhood-friendship turned romantic love; love of life; and, not surprisingly, love of food. True to the spirit of pantomime — a longstanding Jamaican theatre tradition, beginning on New Year’s Day each year and running for several weeks – Olde Tyme Country Wedding follows closely the tried-and-true plot of love discovered, love thwarted, and love renewed, all against the backdrop of rousing folk songs and an ample serving of ‘foolery’.

The story-line and script were developed by group members Valerie Laylor, Grace Lyons (Founder/Musical Director) and Orville Green. It is directed by Devon Haughton, whose Jamaica-oriented stage productions are attracting large audiences in the GTA and elsewhere. Grub Cooper, musical director of Jamaica’s celebrated Fab Five band, composed the opening and closing numbers.

Olde Tyme Country Wedding tells the story of Toronto resident ‘Babs Spencer’, whose compelling desire for a visit alone to Uphill, her birthplace in rural Jamaica, after a 10-year absence, is opposed by her overly protective parents. An assertive young woman, Babs makes the trip anyway and, to her dismay, finds herself embroiled in a love triangle. She returns to Toronto in a depressed state, which lasts for several weeks until the tide turns in her favour. The outcome is a true return to her roots, not only to her birthplace but also to a lost tradition – an authentic, ‘old-time’ country wedding.

The ‘old-time’ country wedding harks back to the 19th century, and unique features of the event included: a Wedding Godfather and Godmother charged with responsibilities for the wedding preparations and direction; decorating the wedding site with boughs from the coconut tree; the ceremonial arrival of the wedding cakes carried on the heads of gaily dressed women in procession; guests paying for the privilege of ‘speechifying’ during the wedding reception; and abundant quantities of local foods and drink.