Sparkling satire, clever corn in ‘Pitchy Patchy’

Pitchy Patchy, the revue which audiences can enjoy at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts (PSCCA), Mona, for the next three weekends, elevates form over substance.

That would be a criticism with most theatrical pieces; not so with this one. Pitchy Patchy is satire: its intention is to illustrate and mock the society’s foibles and failings. It does so with energy and sparkle – mirroring the enthusiasm and bling of the audience at Saturday’s gala opening.

Moreover, it does so with evident affection. So even while you wince at the barbs, you accept, and laugh at, the jooks. Your role is a child being scolded by an elder for your errors.

Pitchy Patchy is the brainchild of Rayon McLean, chief writer, executive producer and director. Supporting writers are Joleen Tomlinson and Adrian Campbell, while art director Shantay Madden and production designer Maya Wilkinson are identified as the creative team. But you got the impression on Saturday night that everybody associated with the production was creative.

You started being entertained and plied with food and drink from you entered the well-lit environs of the theatre. On the stone terrace were eating stations and on the hillock and lawns around it were 15 or so booths and display tents.

They belonged to some of the numerous corporate entities who took out colourful ads in the thick programme. Its centre pages carried the colourfully clothed official patron, Novia McDonald-Whyte.

Two earlier pages showed action photos and bio-sketches of the seven actors you would be seeing onstage. They were Christopher ‘Johnny’ Daley, actor, comedian and radio and TV personality; Juliet Bodley, structural engineer, life coach and social media personality; Tanaania Tracey, media personality, model, businesswoman and actress; Sheldon Shepherd, founding member of the reggae-dub poetry band No Maddz, actor and author; Joylene Alexander, principal member of Quilt and drama teacher), Keticia Chatman (dancer, social influencer and creative), and Dr Sanneta Myrie, actress, model, beauty queen and medical doctor.

A frenetic opening dance featured the well-known Jonkunnu character, Pitchy Patchy, and his costume made up of a thousand bits of coloured cloth. Then the cast strolled on stage singly, with attitude and the cool stance of boasy inner-city youth. But the cool was soon replaced by the exuberance of teenagers as the cast threw themselves into a multiplicity of roles.

The characters they portrayed appeared in several situations: A couple in a restaurant trying to order a fancy meal eventually learn that all that is available is peas soup and chicken; a well-spoken talk show host converses with a creole-talking country woman who is having problems with the JPS; children in a schoolyard bad talk one another and we learn that their parents are as gossipy; a couple in a living room trying for a romantic evening thwarted by an uncooperative Alexia; and a man at a fast food outlet who tries unsuccessfully to order two chicken legs.

It’s all everyday stuff, but it’s done – no, overdone – with style and effervescence. You can’t help laughing, especially as often you see yourself and your friends in the characters.

Lively music fills the spaces and blackouts between the items, which have evocative titles like Eng up di phone, Finger mash nuh cry … memba a play we a play, A waitress in distress or a waitress causing STRESS? and Ever hear ah Jamaican talk inna colours?

This reviewer’s favourite piece was not funny. It was the poignant poem It’s not Supposed to be the Sound of Guns, about the weeping mothers of the Jamaican children who are almost daily being slaughtered. Happily, it got even more applause than some of the comic sketches and showed the versatility of the performers, who can as easily provoke laughter as elicit tears.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com