By Jenn Mondoux
“Warning Shots Will Be Fired During This Performance.”
This was the message that greeted eager theatre goers at the opening night of Wipe That Smile, the latest offering by Toronto’s We Are One Theatre.
Set in the fictional confines of Trenchtown, Wipe That Smile casts an introspective eye on the problems of the contemporary Jamaican ghetto. The main character, Phanso (played by Jamaican soap opera star Ronald Goshop) has been unemployed for months and grudgingly looks after his children while his common-law wife Putus works as a maid. Unable to find a job and desperate for respect, Phanso turns to drug trafficking. This move not only tears apart his relationship with Putus, but ends in the drug related death of his son and of his father, Dread.
But if these problems seem stereotypical, Phanso’s Rasta father—played by Jamaican superstar Oliver Samuels—is there to break down the barriers and offer alternatives.
“In particular, the message sent by Wipe That Smile is that education is the key way out of social problems, as emphasized by the character of Dread,” said Marvin Ishmael, the director of Wipe that Smile and the founder of We Are One Theatre.
Ishmael, who graduated from Ryerson’s Theatre School in 1980, directs a star studded cast, Besides Oliver Samuels and Ronald Goshop, the play also features Torontonian Edgar George (who plays the smooth talking Prettywalks) and Denise Jones as Putus. The role comes naturally to Jones, who originiated the part in Jamaica’s 1978 premiere.
But despite the seriousness of the issues, Wipe That Smile is also very funny, The author behind this combination is Jamaican playwright Kay Osborne.
Osborne wrote the original script for Wipe That Smile 17 years ago, but reworked some of the language last year to give it a more “North American” feel. Although the play is set in Jamaica, Osborne says that it has something for everyone.
“My objective was to simply describe what I see as a universal issue,” said Osborne, who will be coming from Chicago to see the play next week.
“I think that the audience can connect regardless of the city that they live in.”
But for Ishmael, Wipe That Smile has a greater relevance.
“The play might portray the Jamaican ghetto but it also has a lot of relevance for some of the neighbourhoods in Toronto where black men face the same pressures as Phanso,” said Ishmael.
For Osborne, We Are One Theatre—which actively promotes the work of Caribbean, Third World and new ethnic artists—was crucial in getting these ideas across.
“The point is that writers like myself has supporters that search us out and say ‘yes, we want to do this.’
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