Theatrical Geographies of Resistance: Ida Revolt inna Jonkonnu Stylee (1985) and Muffet Inna All a Wi (1985)
摘要
The plays Sistren produced in the mid-1980s—Ida Revolt inna Jonkonnu Stylee (1985) and Muffet Inna All a Wi (1985)—prompted audiences to think about place differently, both in terms of the geographical location in which the plays were staged, as well as the official histories attached to place. The stages for these productions shape-shifted to suit different topographies, making use of outdoor spaces that were usually not associated with drama. Some of these spaces had strong connections with Jamaica’s colonial history or were located in the so-called mother country itself. The plays specifically linked Jamaica’s colonial past with its neocolonial present, particularly in terms of the dominance of North America in the Caribbean region’s affairs. Sistren’s dramas focused on the imposition of neo/colonial values on Jamaican land and culture, from the island’s initial colonisation by the Spanish to the present time. Furthermore, the plays deliberately engaged with the common African ancestry of the majority of Jamaicans to demonstrate how this genealogy could bring about a decolonial connection with place. Most importantly, Sistren’s plays explore the bodies of Jamaican people engaging with the local environment. Through the body’s moving, doing, and becoming, space is liberated from the control of others, and theatrical performance is a powerful medium through which this type of transformation can occur. This chapter explores Sistren’s alliances with other popular theatre companies in both the Caribbean region and in Canada—first, by examining the creation of the play Ida Revolt inna Jonkonnu Stylee (1985) and second, through a discussion of the touring of the play Muffet Inna All a Wi (1985, two versions). Ida Revolt inna Jonkonnu Stylee operated as a Blackspace in which covert forms of cultural resistance, such as carnival and Jonkonnu, were used to satirise the Seaga-led JLP administration and its complicity with US economic, political and cultural imperialism in the Caribbean region. The development of Ida Revolt inna Jonkonnu Stylee was heavily influenced by the creative practices of the Cuban theatre group Cabildo Teatro de Santiago. Muffet Inna All a Wi, meanwhile, was toured in Jamaica, Canada, the UK, and The Netherlands to make local and international audiences aware of the exploitation of working-class women in Jamaica’s Free Trade Zones.