Ti Jean and His Brothers by Derek Walcott is one of the most celebrated plays in Caribbean drama. After many years as a foremost play around the region, written by a poet-playwright who was a Nobel Prize winner, this drama is now being performed in Guyana. It is a production of the National Drama Company directed by Al Creighton and Subraj Singh. Production manager is Tashandra Inniss.
The play is set for the National Cultural Centre with 3 matinee performances on April 3, 4 and 8 which start at 1 pm each day and an evening performance on Saturday, April 6. The play is one of the prescribed texts for CXC study and the matinees are being specially mounted for the benefit of secondary school students who are preparing for the CSEC exams this year.
Ti Jean and His Brothers is a post-colonial play that draws on many traditions, most prominent among them being Caribbean folklore and culture, Christianity, mythology, Greek theatre and the story-telling tradition. Among its post-colonial qualities are its allegorical pretensions. Significantly, Walcott used the formula of the fable – the folk-tale structure and West Indian mythology to dramatise the Caribbean experience of colonialism and the struggles leading to liberation and independence.
