Tailor-made for theatrical fun

Daniel Nelson

Ramjohn_Gookool (Johann Myers) in Play Mas

Image by Robert Day

The brief, it’s-so-obvious-why-ask-the-question response of Paulette Randall, the director of the new production at the Orange Tree Theatre in London, is: “If you're given the opportunity to work on something rather brilliant you'd be foolish not to do it.”

She’s right. The play is rather brilliant, and is part of why Matura – who left the twin-island country in 1962 (“I didn’t need a visa to come to England so here I am”) – has been hailed as the man who “brought the West Indian experience to an unsuspecting 1970s London” and “revolutionised the face of British drama”.

But as Matura explains in an interview in the Orange Tree programme, he wasn’t consciously trying to “explain” T&T to the Brits: “I wasn’t a crusader as such.”

He was more interested in reminding his fellow Trinnies about cultural losses in changing times (even the traditional characters of the annual Carnival, or Mas[querade] are disappearing, overwhelmed by the mega-floats and corporate sponsorship of Brazil’s pre-Easter celebration), and if that, too, sounds a little didactic, ignore it, because Play Mas is above all wonderfully entertaining and is brought to larger-than-life by a gloriously vivacious cast.

The opening scene between the tailor and his assistant is a delightful riff on making a suit – itself worth the price of a ticket.  The assistant’s subsequent rise to power reflects the power shifts in Trinidad between the two main ethnic communities (the unreconstructed racist attitudes and language may well be met by nervousness and then relief to London audiences), but can be seen as relevant to a number of post-independence situations.

In Matura’s words in an interview with Gillian Fisher for Afridiziak: “The African majority who had assumed power started throwing their weight about. They screwed up! They couldn’t manage the country ’cos they had no experience in it. They all started hustling and trying to put something in their pocket. When it comes to skulduggery, we are masters of it; it’s part of the culture. The word for it is rachifi or bobol. It means to steal or to pocket. If you come from anti-colonial position, you want to make up for what you didn’t have. So you want to pocket your bit.”

Yes, the preening self-satisfaction of the new big man at the big desk, and the grasping, bitchy wife are unpleasant caricatures, but they’re part of the fun and let’s admit it, part of the picture.

·         In light of current controversies about lack of diversity in the arts, Paulette Randall’s comments in the programme take on additional significance. Asked about changes in black theatre since Play Mas was written, she says: “One of the biggest changes is in the early 1980s there were maybe 15 or 18 Black or Asian theatre companies in London and that’s almost completely gone.”

And in his Afridiziak interview, Matura says, “In those days [when the play was first performed] to have an all-black cast was an achievement. Also in a strange way, it seems as though there were more black actors at the time than there are now. I think what happens is the age group has gotten smaller. Now they’re all young teenagers; hot. I think it must have been the ‘80s when the soap operas started coming out. Kids all wanted to be rock stars, footballers and actors, so they did drama.”

·         Play Mas is at the Orange Tree Theatre, 1 Clarence Street, Richmond, TW9, until 11 April. Info: 8940 3633

+ post-show talks, 26 March, 2.30pm; 2 April, 7.30pm

+http://www.afridiziak.com/theatrenews/interviews/march2015/mustapha-matura.html  Mustapha Matura – interview