Riccarton Players in Caribbean setting

Press, 6 November 1978, Page 6

Riccarton Players in Caribbean setting

Bv | Howard McNaughton ■ “.Moon on a Rainbow Shawl," by Errol John. Directed by Stewart Robertson for the Riccarton ! Plav ers; Kirkwood Intermediate School Hall, November 4 to 11. Running time: 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Trinidad in the 1940 s was not exclusively a matter of coffee-selEng and cricket. There was also, if we believe this play, a life off th« f eld: coffee to be drunk, Fats to be oiled, a whole cosmopolitan culture tn fall apart at the drop of a ha’. As it happens, the hat d-one just as 'he hat-oiler is robbing a cafe and. when t ' 'one am of the law s“ ; zes this vital clue, the ref tan' winmk cataclvsm t -vttens rhe very cultural t v val of > 'he various o--j ins. whores, and fish-sell-e.s who make up the non-

i cricketing public. Salvation appears in the form of an orphan who has made good as a trolley bus-dnver and who has a way with the orphans, whores, and bartoilers. but, with a bitter twist of irony, he decides to lemigrate to Liverpool. Stewart Robertson and his Riccarton team have pooled Irheir talents with the result ! that the most impressive things about this production are in terms of stage mechanics. Everything that opens and. shuts in the Trinidad slums is here represented in replica: a gas stove that takes five min-: ites to light but eventually boils coffee, a public water tap that trickles real water.. and an electrical supply that gives ex'ra complexity to the nrasrtute’s routine. But however cunningly such things are devised, they ' must a’«o be efficiently integrated into a performance, and it must have been obvious to everyone that cues

were al! over the place on'; Saturday. One can only! ' guess whether the prime re-h I sponsibility lay with the actor who did not know his; • Tipes or with the technician' • who seemed to be without aj ij script; in either case, it!; 'should be remedied! > promptly. I Casting 16 Caribbean roles lis not easy in Christchurch, ■land some of the Riccarton. i actors are Obviously still! !| learning the basics of their' craft. Ethnic precision is not I • really necessary in such ! characterisations. but to' > present the international! riff-raff convincingly re- '. quires confidence and flu-' • ency; this is best achieved by i .iJennie Goodman and Odette' : Alexander, who give a com-! > mendable lead to the female! cast, and by Max Bollinger, •as the husband. In these •'characterisations there is • interest, and when they are , dominant life begins to seep ■ through the formidable twot storeyed set. !;