In his Nobel Lecture before the Swedish Academy in Stockholm in December 1992, Derek Walcott mentioned one of the most remarkable traditional performances he had seen in Trinidad. He described the Ramleela in Felicity near Chaguanas in Central Trinidad with its amazing creativity and stressed that in beholding it he was witnessing faith, not art.
Ramleela, the most elaborate, demanding and the longest dramatic play in all the world, is designed, produced and performed, not by trained dramatists, actresses and actors, but by ordinary folk. Villagers and peasants organise themselves and come together in their villages to perform a play that is 40 hours long for ten days. They make all the costumes and props and set the stage on a wide football or cricket field. They spend months preparing and perform night after night in an example of the grandest theatrical spectacle that can be seen in the Caribbean. But as Walcott described it, all this spectacular art and effort is made possible because, for the performers, it is an act of faith.
