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Lester
Efebo Wilkinson, author of the award-winning play, Bitter
Cassava.
“The
play highlights many aspects of life, such as the notions
of revenge, love,
superstition, placing particular emphasis on family life
and how often children suffer from adult indiscretion.”
—Louis
McWilliams, lecturer at the
University of the West Indies
THE
Department of Creative and Festival Arts at UWI, St Augustine,
is staging Bitter Cassava for two weekends next month and
April. This award-winning play is the winner of the Prime
Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition prize for
Playwriting in 1979; and the 1984 award in the same category
at the National Drama Festival.
The theatrical production is scheduled for March 28–30,
and April 4–6, at the Learning Resource Centre (LRC),
UWI, St Augustine.
Written in 1979 by Lester Efebo Wilkinson, Bitter Cassava
is a well-crafted full-length play with music and dance.
It was first produced in November 1979 for the Folk Theatre
Festival component of the Prime Minister’s Best Village
Trophy Competition.
History was made in 1984, as Bitter Cassava was the opening
play for the Drama Festival. It was the first time that
a Best Village play was presented as part of the Festival
fare.
The play won several awards that year including awards for
playwriting, acting and choreography and went on to appear,
in August of 1984, at the International Amateur Theatre
Festival held in Los Angles, USA, in honour of the Olympics.
Louis McWilliams, director of the production and lecturer
at the University of the West Indies, boasts that he has
admired Efebo Wilkinson’s work since 1980.
He states that Bitter Cassava has potent messages in the
plot, one of them being a very popular adage “what
you sow is what you reap.” According to McWilliams,
“the play highlights many aspects of life, such as
the notions of revenge, love, superstition, placing particular
emphasis on family life and how often children suffer from
adult indiscretion.”
A release last week stated that further information can
be obtained from the CCFA office. Phone: 663-2222; or 662-2002
ext 3791/3792; or via e-mail: Marissa.Brooks@sta.uwi.edu
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