Pantomime

by Derek Walcott

Genres: Plays, Post Colonial, Drama

32 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

Derek Walcott was a Caribbean poet, playwright, writer and visual artist. Born in Castries, St. Lucia, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment."

His work, which developed independently of the schools of magic realism emerging in both South America and Europe at around the time of his birth, is intensely related to the symbolism of myth and its relationship to culture. He was best known for his epic poem Omeros, a reworking of Homeric story and tradition into a journey around the Caribbean and beyond to the American West and London.

Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959, which has produced his plays (and others) since that time, and remained active with its Board of Directors until his death. He also founded Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University in 1981. In 2004, Walcott was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award, and had retired from teaching poetry and drama in the Creative Writing Department at Boston University by 2007. He continued to give readings and lectures throughout the world after retiring. He divided his time between his home in the Caribbean and New York City.

Reviews

[rayhanah]

free me from stupid school assigned reads 😒

[Carmijn Gerritsen]

I quite enjoyed this strikingly ridiculous play that tackles ongoing problems of imperialism in Britain. The way they played around with reality and fiction throughout the play was really interesting and reflects the inner workings of their experiences. All in all, really thought-provoking while still being incredibly strange.

[Noa Swennen]

Did not like it at all...

[Phillip]

I had read Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountain awhile back, and it was alright, but this play I really enjoyed. The play takes place in an off-season guest house on Tobago, owned by the British Harry Trewe and staffed by Jackson Phillip. Trewe was a musical hall performer and is trying to build a panto act to draw guests, basing it on a racially reversed Robinson Crusoe. He recruits his reluctant employee, Jackson, but when Jackson actually starts digging into the implications of colonial dominance, history, race relations, and especially the implications of an African Crusoe colonizing and enforcing his culture on a white Christian Friday, Trewe pulls back and abandons the idea. Jackson presents some of the best articulations I've seen of the (post)colonial condition.
https://youtu.be/jgI2YZWheqY

[Parker C. Haley]

Considering it as a Pantomime, maybe a 4.0. Enjoyment and enrichment of it certainly ensues whenever you know Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

[Hannah Beros]

This is a very fun (and funny) play with a deeper message of loneliness, master-slave dynamics, and ignorance. Watching it alongside reading it definitely helped me get immersed.

[˚₊‧꒰ა beatriz ໒꒱ ‧₊˚]

Confused

[gabby]

3.5!

[ece ✿]

Imitating Robinson Crusoe with a reversal of roles, and a quick therapy session. It's not bad, but I just wasn't that interested while studying in the class.

[Lucas]

First I laughed
but then I serioused

[RAM]

I liked the idea behind it, but I must admit at times it felt that it was dragging on for too long

[GONZA]

As I don't know so much about colonialism and so on I found this piece only funny and not hilarious - as some critics said- but I will keep on studying.

Considerata la mia ignoranza sul colonialismo, devo ammettere che ho trovato questa piece soltanto divertente e non "da morire dal ridere", come l'hanno definita alcuni critici, ma prometto che continueró a studiare.

[dan]

I did like it, though I would have really liked to read it with more knowledge. However, I am not as sure as to have loved the ending.