About “Light,”
A Play Written and Directed by Deon Simms
and put on at The National Theatre of the Performing Arts
by Track Road Theatre
June 19 and 21, 2009
Light spoils the spell of “Light”. It was the same though when the Shirley Street Theatre was a place to watch films.
When people came late or when, during a film, people came and went and the doors opened and into the dark came light, annoyed and distracted, heads turned along with my own.
It is like what happens when a dream is interrupted, one you want very much to be in and to be having and you must wiggle your way into the meat and heart of it again.
It is this same problem with which Richard Wagner wrestled, putting on his operas at his famous Bayreuth Theatre. What was his solution? Not to admit anyone once the spectacle commenced.
To begin this review complaining about light seeping in indicates that for this reviewer, “Light” left not very much to complain about.
In the foyer, during intermission, speaking with a friend, close enough and kind enough to treat me to conch fritters, I mentioned being annoyed by light being let in when people came and went. He is a choreographer. He was once a dancer at La Cabaret Theatre.
Without at all hesitating, he explained how at La Cabaret Theatre, people leaving went first through curtains and then through the door or the reverse when entering or reentering. I remembered it well. It came back suddenly to mind.
The spell in the theatre is cast and it is the thing in which the audience is contained. Unintended light entering with people entering or leaving and the spell can shatter like glass.
I had to have been soaking in “Light” as well as soaking it in. Just before intermission, there was this smell of something cooking. It was about to make my mouth water. What was it, I wondered? Was it in the play – connected to it – to do with it? Was it coming from the world on stage or from elsewhere?
Here were two worlds in conflict – like dreaming and being awake. It turned out to be the smell of conch fritters interrupting – intruding – ladies in the lobby preparing to do business.
The announcement of intermission was another trick upon the audience in response to which they laughed at themselves. The tallest actor in the play came onto the stage with a rifle or a long stick across his shoulder. We all braced ourselves for what was to happen next – for what was to hit us.
He had us and he knew it. Our attention was undivided. In response to our hearts beating in anticipation, he said, “This is not another scene. It is time for intermission.” This was certainly confirmation of the grip of the play upon us. We were certainly under its spell.
“Light” was or is life in The Bahamas, in its capital city, put on stage – the gang-related conflicts and what and who fall out when they clash. “Light” reflects events many of us hear about but do not know first-hand. It is a mirror held up to these happenings and to these times.
Dion Simms, the playwright and director, and his wonderful cast of actors, allow us an up close view of these criminal matters, these tragic events which are more and more becoming the culture within which or too near which, we all must live.
“It is a real play!” I found myself repeating over and over to myself at one point as it unfolded.
Along with complaining about unwanted light being let in, I nit-picked about the entire play being presented or performed in front of the stage curtains – upon what would be the apron of the stage. It was explained to me how the cast and crew had to make do. They would only have been allowed into The National Theatre of The Performing Arts a day or two before the play opened for its two-day run. This is far far from ideal.
What is ideal and what is as it should be would be for the play to inhabit the theatre – move into it as it were – like a family moves into a house and occupies it. There they were, every scene, from the play commenced until it concluded, like a family confined to – restricted to having to live upon the front porch of a house rather than being able to occupy it fully.
All these odds and the play still stood and the play still stands. The courage of Track Road Theatre, I wish, at this point, to applaud. Against what odds and with what determination they make theatre in our town. A town wanting to be grown up but is not.
What we are and what we have is the social chaos – the broken families and broken homes the play is about, our young men chased by and in the hands of the police, being interrogated or locked away.
I am grieved that we haven’t the spaces, functioning as they should, to house such art and to provide employment for professionals in all areas a proper theatre requires. The recently completed, Performing Arts Centre, at The College of the Bahamas, might be such a dream come true. I hope it is.
“Light” is certainly not light. It shines a light, it spotlights what needs a closer look – what needs to be closely examined by us collectively. It provides a perspective and a depth of insight probably not otherwise available to us generally.
It is a work of which, with minor modification, we can be very proud. Because it is well written, it can travel or it can be recreated in theatres around the globe.
What “Light” captures is truth. It is not pretty. It reflects our humanity or our lack of it.
