The Cave Hill Theatre Workshop

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It was in 1993 that the Cave Hill Theatre Workshop (CHTW) was formed in order to promote and encourage high-quality theatre on Campus. Its founder members were all students in the newly established E240 Drama and Theatre Arts course taught in the Department of Literatures in English (as the department was called at the time). Since then, enthusiasm and support for the Workshop has spread rapidly beyond the Faculty of Humanities.

Robert Leyshon, Artistic Director of CHTW and Director of the new course, points out that the Cave Hill Theatre Workshop was founded

to create a focus and a forum in Barbados for a specific kind of theatre, theatre that stimulates rather than sedates, theatre that is passionate and imaginative, challenging and provocative; theatre that dares, and above all, theatre that is serious.

He goes on to explain:

Our most profound conviction is that serious need not mean tedious. On the contrary, there is nothing to match the thrill of watching a serious play performed by a cast of actors using all the resources of their bodies and voices.

Like the body, the intellect craves nourishment. And not only the intellect but the spirit too. That is what the Cave Hill Theatre Workshop believes serious theatre provides: sustenance for the soul, food for thought. And these vital ingredients have been the staples for their productions over the past four years.

From the outset this simple philosophy has been the focus of  the Cave Hill Theatre Workshop. In 1994 The Island by Athol Fugard and In God's Name devised by Dayo Okunlola were the inaugural productions of the Workshop. Though thematically and formally quite different, they were nonetheless companion pieces. Both were set in Africa (one in South Africa, the other in Nigeria); both were minimalist in-so-far as they dispensed with all theatrical artifice, placing their faith instead in the creative skills of the actors: and both were fiercely political, each play stressing the need for collaboration and resistance in the face of oppression, each play dealing with the struggle to convey that struggle, each play celebrating the transgressive and recuperative power of the imagination, of the story, of theatre.

The Island--set on Robben's Island--explored the politically tortured and traumatic psyche of two political prisoners John (played by Gawaine Ward) and Winston (played by Alan Newton known to us now as Nala). The almost totally bare set was both a prison cell and an island in the surrounding darkness. In the harsh glare of the lights there is nowhere for the actors to hide. They are mercilessly exposed and vulnerable. All they had was a handful of pitiful props, their imagination, and crucially, each other.

In God's Name, the oral culture of African societies is a crucial part of its storytelling form. To this end it can be said that the nature of performance and aesthetic judgment or criticism is more than democratic, since the audience are themselves part of the performance. Even then the standards of judging "storytelling" or "signifying" or picong, show that it all boils down to the same basic feature: that of communication with the audience using the means available to the performer or actor within the space occupied, be it at a wake, a market place, a bar, a rumshop, or in this case, a stage.

The characters Onyomi, Babtunde, Ahmed and Mama T--played by Dayo Okunlola, Paul Norville, P.H. Murphy and Eleanor Price--showed how the act of storytelling becomes a means of collective resistance as well as a celebration of victories, no matter how parochial, over an oppressive and corrupt military regime, economic austerity and religious fanaticism. The story becomes a means of subversion and a means of re-creating their daily existence. That these plays should be presented as part of the Faculty's first Humanities Festival whose theme was "PEOPLE POWER PROGRESS" was indeed no coincidence.

The following year, 1995, the theme for the Festival was SOUNDS OF FREEDOM. That year the Cave Hill Theatre Workshop staged Arthur Miller's adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy Of The People. The play told the story of an idealistic doctor, Stockmann, who discovered that the waters from which his native spa town, Kirsten Springs, drew its wealth were contaminated. When the citizens realised the financial implications, Stockmann came under increasing pressure to keep silent. An Enemy Of The People could have been regarded as a metaphor for any unpalatable truth that any given community did not want--or did (does) not dare to face.

It was easy to adapt this play to the West Indian context. At the time of its production the controversy surrounding Mount Stinkeroo was very topical. CHTW, however, managed to remain scrupulously faithful to the spirit of both Miller and Ibsen. To suit a contemporary Caribbean context they made some careful changes: of setting, style, even (and more controversially) of the gender of certain characters. But all of the plot and much of Miller's dialogue was left intact.

With a cast of thirty plus students, the Workshop paid homage to the very fragile environment exploring the theme of "truth". The large cast included Tony Thompson, Tina Millington, George Arthur Smith, Paul Norville, Melanie McCollin, Lisa Greaves, Michelle Springer, Helen Carnegie and Nala to name a few, some students and non-students of the University.

The following year, 1996, a new and exciting kind of production was staged by CHTW. One that was conceived, written, performed and produced entirely by students of the University. After Eden: Ecstasy Revisited. In keeping with the theme of the Humanities Festival, "BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES", After Eden: Ecstasy Revisited, written by Margaret Brito, Amanda Cumberbatch, Lisa Greaves and Michelle Springer, explored the different realities of female maturation in its many forms. The piece experimented with the structure of the traditional play by taking the form of a "choreopoem". (This, in brief, is a collage of poems linked by 'movement' [dance-like]transitions.) The production, directed by the multi-talented Sonia Williams, was the most controversial of all the pieces that the Cave Hill Theatre Workshop had embarked upon.  

One of the themes explored was the sensitive subject of female sexuality which (naturally) included the 'socially 'taboo sub-jects of lesbianism and masturbation.  Although some patrons left the auditorium in disgust, while others giggled in embarrassment during the twenty minute segment, we still considered the production a success. After all, we had accomplished our objectives, to provide theatre that stimulates rather than sedates.... , and what's more to provide, theatre that dares. This was crucial to the nature of the piece for it held the stereotypes of "femininity" under scrutiny in presenting the many faces of 'woman'. The players-Lisa Greaves, Dayo Kefentse, Gillian Corbin, Louise Jolie, Tina Millington, Michelle Springer and the lone male, Hanif Wharton worked well together to take the images of women beyond the boundaries.

During Humanities Festival 1997, CHTW staged Death And The Maiden by Chilean play-wright Ariel Dorfman. The Workshop was happy to have back on its team artistic Director Robert Leyshon who directed the production. Paulina Salas- played by Helen Carnegie had been subject to torture and rape under a previous Government's regime. One day, by chance, her husband Gerardo Escobar (played by Samud Ali) brought home a man she was sure was her torturer- even though she was blind-folded and only ever heard his voice. Faced with her husband's incredulity she took the situation into her own hands, held the man hostage, and demanded his confession. The award-winning actor Clairmonte Taitt played the mild-mannered doctor who may or may not have been guilty of those terrible crimes.

This production topped anything that had happened in "town" within recent times. It was not only the brilliance of the actors that shone. Both the set design and the lighting design were outstanding and they were all the rave among theatre buffs. In brief, the production was a sensation. The reviews glowing. The house for the three-night-run was fuller than ever before. It was evident, even to the skeptics, that CHTW had created, developed and sustained a niche of excellence in Barbadian drama.

REVIEWS OF PAST PERFORMANCE