There are few plays that have you spontaneously belly-laughing with such ease, almost dropping off your chair, while simultaneously seated in the discomfort of a truth that is known and felt by, likely, an entire Jamaican audience. ‘A Rose of Sharon’, written by Basil Dawkins and directed by his daughter TK Dawkins, is one such Dramedy.

I rarely read much about a production before seeing it, believing in the adage “show, don’t tell”, because I want to sense what the universe has laid out for me in real time, without someone else’s opinion influencing my own. Now here I am writing to tell you what I thought about the play, not really to make those of you who have not seen it envious (but you should be!), but rather to absorb the life-harrowing elements underlining the script.

In a nutshell, Basil Dawkins has written a play about a lady road sweeper who takes in a deportee on the bone of his backside, at the risk of upsetting her son. What a simplistic storyline, right? Don’t make assumptions……How could this possibly go deeper than it sounds? Keep reading….How could three actors show the audience a full understanding of the lives their portrayed characters have experienced and are still experiencing? Allow me to illustrate.

Beginning on the backstreets of Kingston, street-cleaner Vida bucks up a down and out man, Fahrenah, who has recently been detained by ICE and deported from the United States. He is a shell of who he once probably was, cowering under the confidence of Vida, who is intent on calling him “husband” as soon as she gets home to her son, Tall Man. But Tall Man, a delightfully amicable young rasta who is very small in stature, but big in presence, shows Fahrenah what he really thinks of him, making no attempt to curb his raw Jamaican patois so that this foreigner can actually understand him.

As dialogue unfolds between the two gentlemen, their use of the stage and the props permit us to truly absorb the set. Vida has created a home in a gully, literally under a bridge, for herself and Tall Man. The cut stone wall has a beauty about it, reminiscent of somewhere peaceful in the countryside, but we are jolted back to reality when we notice that Vida has used someone else’s tossed out tarpaulin and rusty zinc to create partitions within the “rooms” of her “house”, which is fronted by an enduring wall of disposable plastic bottles. Terrific touch, TK, lest we forget that we must each make the effort to ensure a greener environment for everyone on earth. Rather fitting with a script whose main character likes to keep the streets clean!

Award-winning actress Deon Silvera succinctly demonstrates Vida’s lifetime (thus far) in less than two hours. Sure, much of this is depicted in her lengthy monodrama lines, but she still has us hooked with her ability to exhibit the multiple people and events, which were placed along her path, in those monologues. Ironically, Silvera has the audience howling with hilarity and bursting with uninvited and bold-faced comments, all due to her talented delivery of her story, as the misfortune and hardship in Vida’s life is hardly comedic.

Indeed, Vida’s curated family, Fahrenah (Dennis Titus), who repeatedly reflects on his own family, and Tall Man (Derrick Clarke), who was abandoned by his mentally ill biological mother, yet still makes gestures to care for her, both also manage to mask the underlying heaviness of their situations. And the audience on Saturday night ate it all up, unable to stop the laughter, even for a moment to acknowledge the characters’ tragedies. Make no mistake, while we all bellowed, it was not lost on me (and others I am sure) the denial playing out in each of our psyches. This is Life’s life. (See what Basil Dawkins did there!)

In case those of you who have not seen this play will get to watch it one day, perhaps Mother’s Day I hear, I won’t give away any more of this rich story. But I will take my leave with a few last words……

As we applauded the three-people cast, the director, the playwright, and every other person involved in this near-perfect production, a part of me yearns to know what happens to Vida, Fahrenah and Tall Man after the script ends, because their stories are not over. Does Vida stay living under the bridge? Should we be concerned about her? Vida, meaning Life in Spanish, and her utter abandon to her god, makes you wonder if she is even worried. Vida is simply “lifing”.

emma@becyberbright.com