‘Bus Big’ presents a realistic, energetic dancehall musical of inner-city life

The energy hits you in the face and ears like blasts from a furnace. It starts with the shouted, albeit cheery, greeting from the black leather-clad deejay (Kiana Jackson). She goes on far too long, nearly 15 minutes. At least that’s how it was on opening night, Friday. The welcome should be cut to five minutes, at most. She tells you that you’re at a dance in the “ghetto”– ­ an appropriate word, considering its World War II association – for while there is a lot of dancing, there is even more war. Upper Sky Town is battling against Lower Sky Town and the music is frequently drowned out by sounds of gunfire; and the words of a loving couple from either side of the divide are drowned out by savage threats.

That scenario of ‘Bus Big’, the Edna Manley College’s School of Drama production now running at the college, will bring to mind Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and its modern version, West Side Story. Unfortunately, the war rather than the love affair is the focus of Bus Big.

When you remember that Jamaica has become one of the most murderous places on earth, that makes it more realistic; but the result is a less cohesive, less enjoyable tale. And it doesn’t matter that in the end, there is peace between the warring factions. You just don’t believe it. At least, I didn’t – especially after I heard one of the actresses declare that the story was like a slice of her life in the inner city. To be fair, another one called it “inspiring”, and continued, “a lot of beautiful things come from the ghetto”.

The story’s intention is to persuade us that music and love can conquer violence; but strangely, when that promise is made early in the show, the type of music being played is dancehall; but when peace is secured, the music changes to soft rock.

But we must bear in mind that this is not a commercial production for a general audience’s enjoyment. It is rather a school production staged primarily for the benefit of the students. In that context, the show is impressive.

Broken down, the aforementioned “energy” means that the actors speak, dress, walk and dance like ghetto yutes. We are persuaded that what they focus on – the violence, rather than love – is the pervading situation in the inner city. And it’s scary.

The main characters include Rocky (Dean Smith), a singer who is celebrated when he returns to the community with a Grammy, but is forced to choose between singing and killing to avenge a relative’s death; Marvin (TreVon Robinson), his brother; Chrissy (Christene Coote), his girlfriend– for too short a time– and Mary (Brinell Smith), his mother.

Samson (Dane Parsons) is one of the area leaders; Stanley (Kibwe Lawrence) is another. Musta is played by Omaal Wright, an actor who appeared in the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s play, The Beatification of Area Boy, from the 1990s on which this musical is based. Some ancillary staff are among the actors; that could be a first at the school.

Of course, we can’t congratulate the performers alone. They got help from a host of people. At the top of the list to be congratulated is director Owen Ellis. That’s the name on the programme, but he’s popularly known as ‘Blakka’– a comedian, actor, poet and educator.

He told me after the show that he got a lot of help from Michael Holgate, the musical and movement director. The two men had the task of moving some three dozen men and women as well as a couple of motorcycles and a red motor car around the amphitheatre’s stone stage.

The huge set, showing several tenement-style houses, is so complex and spreads so far that the stage could not hold it. Veteran set designer Larry Watson had to make use of the several low hillocks and the high tower around it.

Samantha Thompson was responsible for the huge wardrobe of costumes the actors wear. Again, they are generally realistic, except that only one of the men wears his pants so low that his boxer shorts are visible. Which shows that art sometimes trumps reality. It would be distasteful if all the underpants being worn were on display. Thompson is able to manage the many costume changes with the help of seven assistants.

One of the hardest jobs in any production is that of stage manager. Apart from the over-long opening, the show ran smoothly and Abijah Warren deserves our thanks.

Bus Big can be seen this weekend on April 12 to 14 at 7 p.m.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com