‘Jamaican Hustlers’ a rollicking roots experience

Unsurprisingly, Balfour Anderson’s Christmas Day gift to Jamaica was a play. The title is Jamaican Hustlers, and it is now running on weekends at Green Gables Theatre, Cargill Avenue.

What might be surprising, however, is the type of production he has given us. For one thing, the play, originally staged years ago as a straight Roots production, is now a musical. And it may well be the first Roots musical ever produced, if one sticks to the generally accepted definition of the term ‘Roots play’.In a nutshell, it refers both to production style and content.

In staging the play, Anderson, probably Jamaica’s most complete theatre practitioner, called upon all the theatre skills he has honed during his decades in show business – as playwright, producer, director, designer, actor, singer, musician and video-maker. For the record, he was also, for decades, a teacher of Drama, English Literature and Theatre Arts.

Having received education and training in the above while studying at the educational institutions now known as The Mico University and Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, he went on to write some 50 one-act and full-length plays, and to produce many of them. This made him one of our most prolific playwright-producers. Last August, he received a Lifetime Award from the Jamaica Roots Theatre Foundation for his contribution to Roots theatre.

Unsurprisingly, after all that study and work, he decided, in his sixties, to retire. But then, around the time he turned 70 in September, he re-evaluated his situation, concluded that retirement was not for him, and started working on Jamaican Hustlers.

A major stimulus for this was requests from theatre interests in both Cayman and Florida for him to give them a Jamaican play. Instead of writing a new one, he chose to give Jamaican Hustlers a make-over.

A sign of how current it is are references which Anderson makes to the recent Crab Circle affair. The vendors there do share similarities with the characters of the play, but none sells crab. There are three characters around when the story begins following the song-and-dance introduction common to musicals – Daughter (played by Rosie Murray), sells boxed meals; university student Petrona (Kimberly Ricketts), Daughter’s niece and who assists her; and Richus (Rohan Byfield) sells biscuits and cakes.

The three are puzzled when Manto (Peter Heslop) walks up to start taking photographs of the area with his cellphone. They become quite concerned when, on their arrival at the spot one morning soon after, they find that a large white box has been placed between their stalls. That puts it centre stage, the most dominant position on the stage.

Since no one is with the box, there is a bit of suspense as to what it is and who owns it. We do sense, though, that the owner will be an important character, perhaps the most important one. A review should not spoil a story for the reader by revealing the twists and turns of a plot, so the character claiming the box will not be named here.

The characters are clearly drawn: Daughter is devious, Richus is dishonest and quick-tempered, regularly brandishing his knife during a fuss. They both resent Manto and frequently quarrel with him, while he appears to be a reasonable man who is just trying to make a living. Petrona is a peace-maker.

The action takes place on a sidewalk in front of a large, graffiti-covered canvas. Behind the canvas, we hear, a huge building is being constructed. Its purpose is revealed only at the end of the play. That end is a happy one; this is a comedy, after all.

By the time it is reached, the audience has had a rollicking time, and when I saw the play they seized every opportunity to participate in the action by shouting instructions and comments to the cast. Sometimes an actor would break the “fourth wall” – that invisible, usually unacknowledged barrier at the front of the stage between the performers and the audience – and respond to the calls.

All the actors, save Ricketts, have many years of stage experience and are very comfortable with their characters. The newcomer, Ricketts, is also convincing. I gather she received training at the School of Drama.

The seven lively songs have clever lyrics and simple tunes which encourage singing along by the audience. The titles, some of which are Hustlers in Jamaica, Yu Si How Life Funny, Me is a Woman in Distress and Hustler Queen, suggest their content. Anderson and Sam Carty, at whose Lyndhurst Road studio the tracks were laid, completed the task in four days.

The production runs from Friday to Sunday.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com