The University Players’ widely acclaimed production of Polly Teale’s play After Mrs. Rochester will be re-staged for an additional four performances only, Thursday, November 16 through Sunday November 19, by special arrangement with Nick Hern Books Ltd., UK. The production, directed by UWI Staff Tutor in Drama, Brian Heap, played to highly enthusiastic, capacity audiences in October when it was first staged at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, UWI, Mona.
This production of After Mrs. Rochester, described by Mary Hanna in the Sunday Gleaner as ‘a wild ride….a wonderful dramatic piece….challenging and satisfying’, explores the life of the Dominican writer Jean Rhys. In an exhilarating and imaginative tour de force, writer Polly Teale cleverly juxtaposes fact and fiction, in order to better understand Rhys’s fascination with Jane Eyre, and more particularly with Bertha Mason, the first Mrs Rochester, the Jamaican Creole ‘mad woman in the attic’. Placing Bertha on stage through out as Jean’s alter ego, this remarkable dramatization gives full vent to Rhys’s obsession, which was to prove the catalyst for Wide Sargasso Sea, ‘one of the works of genius of the 20th century’.
The play features performances by Hilary Nicholson, Maylynne Walton, Nadia Khan, Nadean Rawlins, Rooney Chambers, Veronica Salter, Karl Williams, Carla Moore, Jean-Paul Menou, Cecile Strudwick Green, Noelle Kerr and Denara Karamath. Performances will be Thursday to Saturday November 16-18 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday November 19 at 6:00 p.m. Tickets are available from the office of the Philip Sherlock Centre between 9am and 4pm on weekdays or at the theatre on the day of the performance priced $800 and $500 for students with ID. Patrons are advised to book in advance, in order to avoid disappointment, since the demand for tickets for these final performances is likely to be high.