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RAS NOAH AND THE HAWK
MEDIA REVIEWS
Imagine a dreadlock building a boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and
about 45 feet deep in the middle of Cross Roads!
Seems preposterous, doesn't it? Well, playwright Patrick Brown
doesn't think so. In fact, he seems to believe that if it could have
happened in the time of Noah, it would have an even better chance now
with the tremendous surges in technology.
But, that is the great thing about writing, especially playwriting:
one can conceive the most impossible things and bring them to life
onstage, and while the dreadlock might have been locked up in Bellevue
and the keys thrown away for attempting to rebuild Noah's Ark,
playwright Patrick Brown and his crew at Jambiz International should be
laughing all the way to the bank this Christmas.
By Balford Henry, Jamaica Observer (Date: December 17,
2004)
Noah (Campbell), as the title suggests, is recast as a Rastaman,
re-emerging in society after five years as a recluse in the Wareika
Hills. His father, Butcha (Samuels), local shopkeeper and unofficial
farmer of "winter vegetables", is under the illusion that Noah is
studying "doctorin" and thus gets the first of many shocks upon seeing
his now dreadlocked, sandal-wearing son. There's Norma
(McDonald-Russell), a sort-of love interest, and other local rabble.
And of course, there's God. As played by David French, he looks like
a failed cross between famed new medicine pundit Andrew Weill and Barry
White, on a really bad hair day, and comes across both authoritative and
wimpy. His first face-to-face with Ras Noah, aided and abetted by
McDonald-Russell as a "sketel angel" is among the play's best sequences.
Flat-out funny.
(Friday, January 07, 2005 ) Michael Edwards, Observer
writer
Ras Noah and Di Hawk begins during Hurricane Ivan. Butcha (Oliver
Samuels) is a shopkeeper who is awaiting the return of his son Noah
(Glen Campbell) from his doctoral studies in the United States. Noah's
return should mean Butcha's elevation in status. His dreams are dashed
when Noah returns with dreadlocks rather than a stethoscope. Noah has
not simply changed faith; he has never embarked on the social status
ladder of 'doctordom'.
The situation is further complicated because Noah now believes that
he is the chosen one. Left at the behest of a confused 'sketel' angel
who keeps getting divine messages wrong, Ras Noah and his father become
the pariahs of their community.
(published: Friday, January 7, 2005 ) Tanya
Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
I bet Patrick Brown is probably the only one of the present group of
writers for the stage in Jamaica who would dare to bring up the "befoe
cockcrow, thou shalt deny me thrice" bit - hugely anachronistic - and
get a laugh in a play whose theme revolves round Noah's building an ark
to survive the flood. Noah's project happened hundreds of centuries
before the betrayal in Gethsemane.
I saw the play Ras Noah and the Hawk fairly soon after it opened and
I'm sure there hadn't been time enough to pay the repeat visits and
memorise the dialogue as the CentreStage audiences are like to do.
(Sunday, January 16, 2005 ) Norman Rae |
