Jamaican Plays » Keith ‘Shebada’ Ramsay

Serious Business Goes On Islandwide Tour

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:59:55 +0000

Having played to full houses since opening over a month ago, Stages Productions newest hit Serious Business is set to delight audiences across the island in an intensive tour starting on February 6, 2010. The play takes an extremely hilarious yet realistic look at how religion can be wielded for selfish and sometimes deadly means. Church leader ‘Shepherd’ (Maxwell Grant) manipulates and extorts the entire community to gain his riches here on earth, using his coloured past to guide his illegal activities in the present. He however has a major problem. He is rapidly losing his flock and with them the church which he needs to front his activities. The church’s co-founder Elder (Volier Johnson), as part of the solution, brings in Brother Shebbie (Keith ‘Shebada’ Ramsay) a loud-mouthed, feisty, imposter, whose presence threatens to dethrone Shepherd as leader of the church. Can they work together to ensure a larger piece of the pie or will greed be their undoing? The battle never stops as they trade not just words n an effort to win over the congregation’s hearts as well as their purse strings!

The stellar cast also includes Deon Silvera…who plays Sister Sonia. Shepherd’s abused wife whose quest for love points her towards a younger man, Abigale Grant…the mysterious Hot Pepper who carries around a dangerous secret, Junior Williams…who plays Shepherd’s hotheaded henchman ‘Finger’ and Pinciana Ennis…the seemingly innocent but sly Creamy Wayne Newby and Trudy Campbell round out the congregation and along with foot stomping music and word-throwing sermons, audiences are in for a truly unforgettable experience!

Written by Paul O. Beale and directed by Michael Nicholson, Serious Business plays Tuesday to Saturday at 8:30 pm and on Sundays at 5:00 pm and 8:30 pm at the Green Gables Theatre, 6 Cargill Avenue in Kingston. Patrons are urged to book their tickets early in order to avoid the rush for the final shows in Kingston. For ticket info, call 926-4966 and 929-5315.

Shebada & Bashment Granny 2 Cast Thrill Toronto

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:16:40 +0000

The Jamaican roots play Bashment Granny was a hit recently in Toronto, Canada. Patrons came out in their numbers to take in the play that has been receiving rave reviews here. Presented by 2-Lined Music hut and Black Koncepts Inc, it was standing room only in the house.

The final showing of the play Bashment Granny was held at the Delta Hotel in Scarborough, and had hundreds of eager patrons ready for the main act. Greeted by hundreds of fans, Shebada entered the stage receiving thunderous applause, whistles, cheers and people jumping out of their seats which took some time to bring under control.

Keith ‘Shebada’ Ramsay couldn’t help but slip a little smile while the loud applause continued. Having been an actor for several years, the star of the play said “It’s nice to see that level of emotion from fans!”

Maxwell Grant aka Mr. Bashment, Volier Johnson aka Counsel Bertram, Deon Silvera aka Gloria, Abigail Grant aka Babalita and Junior Williams aka Half-a-Dog were also welcomed with loud applause from fans who deemed the cast to be friends they hadn’t seen in a little while.

Acted to a witty script, Bashment Granny 2 continued where part one left off, which saw Half-a-Dog in search of his $12 million. Using excellent segments which included crowd participation, Mr. Bashment was also a favourite as he instructed Babalita, the new bar staff during her interview, that she was “done, finished, ova, tru di door” which the audience happily assisted with. After a quick turnaround in understanding, Babalita gets the job as bar staff, and Mr. Bashment gives her advice on which customers go for the “bottom shelf, middle shelf and top shelf”, which again was delivered with full audience participation.

After a play, a procession of fans lined the backstage area, hoping to take pictures, and get autographs from the play’s actors. One patron even tried to distract the security personnel in the hopes of slipping backstage to see the actors.

Di Driva Makes its Final Stop in Kingston

admin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:15:35 +0000

After sold-out performances in the rural parishes, Di Driva races into Kingston this Friday for a brief stop at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre. So far, the combination of Keith ‘Shebada’ Ramsay, Andrea ‘Delcita’ Wright, Maxwell ‘Maama Man’ Grant and Donald ‘Matress’ Thompson has surpassed expectations. The play is billed as the greatest match up in comedy history, and this is a convincingly honest slogan. In the years of watching Jamaican theatre, I am hard pressed to recall a play in which two characters such as ‘Driver’ and ‘Delcita’ have such a strong hold on the audience as I have seen in Di Driver. It is truly amazing what the writer (Paul O. Beale) and the director (Garfield ‘Bad Boy Trevor’ Reid) have accomplished as a creative team.

The performance at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre is definitely the final Kingston show for Di Driver, and so far, the brisk ticket sales is a strong indication of the positive energy the show is still generating in the capital. As this is definitely the final show for the corporate area, it will only be possible to see Driver in a few of the rural parishes such as St. Elizabeth, Manchester and St. Thomas. Tickets for the Ranny Williams show are available at the Green Gables Theatre, 6 Cargill Avenue.

Hurricane Paloma
Hurricane Paloma threw some serious shower on the island over the weekend but that was not enough to stop the show in Lucea, where the large and faithful audience rocked to the antics of Driver, Delcita and the others. The cast too, had to perform ‘under the weather’, and they had fun whetting the appetite of their fans.

Bashment Granny 2
Di Driver has had a phenomenal run so far, and the only regret that Stages Productions will have on this one is the fact that the show closes soon. The early closure of this Paul O. Beale classic is to make way for the highly anticipated Bashment Granny 2 (The Saga Continues), which is written by Garfield Reid and directed by Michael Nicholson. Look out for that one!