Theatre: Masterfully mordant

THIS superb revival of Mustapha Matura’s Play Mas leaves you wondering why it has taken over 40 years for it to find its way back on to a British stage.

Paulette Randall’s simmering production certainly makes it worth the wait.

Matura’s finely crafted two-acter is a deeply felt work that delivers a historical and social documentation of Trinidad’s turbulent pre and postcolonial history. The action of both acts is played out during Carnival, the major event of the island’s calendar, when many of its population “‘play mas” — masquerade — in the streets of Port of Spain.

On both occasions the celebrations turn sour as we observe Samuel’s progression, or more accurately regression, from tailor’s assistant to brutal puppet police chief.

Played with transformative brio by Seun Shote, his erratic attempts to try to wrestle some authority for himself have comic but disastrous consequences.

Samuel’s archetypal US puppetmaster Chuck Reynolds (Rob Heanley), would perhaps benefit from some greater depth of characterisation, but this is a minor flaw in what is otherwise an enlightening text which brims with humour and dramatic tension.

The first scene, in which Samuel and his “coolie” boss Ramjohn, whose veiled frustration is brilliantly conveyed by Johann Myers, quarrel over suit-making and US cinema, is particularly hilarious.

Yet it also manages to demonstrate how racial hierarchies created under colonialism manifest themselves in everyday life.
The inherent theatricality of the carnival lends itself perfectly to the stage and Randall’s in-the-round production takes every opportunity to bring the colourful vitality of this raucous celebration to the fore.

The play’s a designer’s dream and Libby Watson’s costumes perfectly capture the flamboyance of the revelry, while Mark Jonathan’s perceptive lighting enhances the fluctuating pace of the dialogue to throughout.

Dedicated to the postcolonial thinker Frantz Fanon for “his struggle to understand and overcome black misery,” this is a play which educates and entertains in equal measure, sustained by Randall’s electric direction.

Don’t miss.

Runs until April 11, box office: orangetreetheatre.co.uk