‘Whiplash’ celebrates 40th anniversary with new production

Whiplash, Keith ‘Ginger’ Knight’s deeply personal and compelling dramatic meditation on the difficulties faced by families in inner-city communities during the emergence of partisan political violence in Jamaica during the 1970s, celebrates its 40th anniversary with a brand-new staging.

The cast features the talents of veteran stage and screen actress Karen Harriott as the family matriarch, and an ensemble of outstanding young actors. A Caliban Production project, Whiplash will begin a month of performances at the Little Little Theatre in St Andrew.

Since its premiere in 1983 with Pablo Hoilett at the helm, Whiplash has had major productions directed by Eugene Williams (1997) and Brian Heap (2012). Heap recalls the play’s effect, describing it as “brutally realistic Jamaican theatre”.

“It was about a period of social upheaval and political violence that we were all living through at that time. And Ginger Knight pulled no punches, resisting the temptation to soften his message with humour or to take serious thing mek joke as his mentor Trevor Rhone often did,” Heap explained.

E. Wayne McDonald directs the current production. His work was last seen on the Jamaican stage in 2019 in Basil Dawkins’ Actor Boy-nominated play, Maas Matt Comes to Town.

“After 40 years, Knight’s Whiplash not only presents the narrative of ‘a so de ting set’, but also brings to foreground the levels of agency we have to reset de ting,” McDonald said.

Whiplash has the rare distinction for Jamaican plays of having made it from stage to print. The text is included in the Honor Ford Smith-edited anthology, Three Jamaican Plays: A Postcolonial Anthology 1977-1987.

“Part of the conversation we hope to have around this project is what plays get incorporated into the theatre canon and what Caribbean dramatic texts are on to the syllabus for high schools and university programmes in the region,” McDonald added.

The play centres on Miss Inez, her two sons, and one of their girlfriends’ struggle to resist being merely statistics defined by history, class, circumstance, politics, and news headlines while dubbing to the rhythms of the decade, from Better Must Come to My Leader Born Yah to Deliverance is Near.

Many of the region’s impoverished and underprivileged people were left behind in the shifting social, political, and historical orders throughout the 1950s through 1980s as the different Caribbean governments worked to achieve political independence from the United Kingdom. The play takes a close look at the turmoil caused by these adjustments and the subsequent reconstruction of what citizenship means.

In the more than 20 plays for the Jamaican stage, Knight’s (1951–2023) work speaks from the insider experience to create a theatre which consistently challenged how stories were told about regular Jamaican life and reshape performance practices in the Jamaican theatre.

Along with Knight, who died earlier this year, this 40th anniversary performance is dedicated to the memories of performers Winston Bell (1961 - 2023) and Leonie Forbes (1937 - 2022), who appeared in the 1997 production.

Whiplash plays at the Little Little Theatre, 4 Tom Redcam Road, St Andrew on Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., with Saturdays and Sundays having two performances at 5 and 8 p.m.