Photos by Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer
LEFT: Agent Fitz (Munair Zacca, left) and writer Perceval Porter (Karl Williams) have an emotional consultation in 'Dinner With Eleanor'.
RIGHT: Myrtle (left, Afola Shade) comforts Cynthia (Marguerite Newland) in 'The Last Bloom'.

Carolyn Johnson, Gleaner Writer

Contrary to its name Cracking Up, staged last weekend at the Philip Sherlock Centre for Creative Arts, UWI, Mona campus, was not all jokes.

While the two one-act plays, The Last Bloom and Dinner with Eleanor, both written by Amba Chevannes, had funny moments, they were a serious look on life, relationships and acceptance, both of self and the past. Last Sunday, the actors in both plays delivered stunning performances, with the dramatic use of lighting and music serving to enhance the effect.

The first play, The Last Bloom, directed by Michael Daley, is about two women who are roommates at what seems to be a nursing home. As they spend their days in their room, unable to go outdoors except for the infrequent walks organised by the home, the women are forced to deal with their past and each other. This is difficult, as the two completely different personalities have many years and memories (real or imagined) haunting them.

Cantankerous

Myrtle, played by Afola Shade, is a miserable, cantankerous and crass old woman who walks with a limp. She is the person no one wants to live with - and with good reason. Her roommate is Cynthia (Marguerite Newland). From all appearances, Cynthia is a graceful woman from good breeding, but plagued by a disease that causes memory loss. Some of Cynthia's memories, however, have been voluntarily lost.

As the two women coexist, their interaction forces them to face past and present demons, as the room is too small and time too short for them to hide.

artist's curse

In Dinner with Eleanor, directed by Eugene Williams, the audience met a 'washed up' novelist Perceval Porter (Karl Williams), who faces the artist's curse. He is brilliant yet misunderstood. He is, however, on the brink of releasing a masterpiece, his first in years and the one, which according to his agent Fitz (Munair Zacca), will silence all the critics. Fitz, who is always babbling, is silenced for a few seconds when he sees a noose hanging conspicuously outside Porter's window. However to Porter, it is simply motivation, presenting a deadline for the completion of his book.

Still Fitz is more concerned about Eleanor, a character that does not fit into the prospective masterpiece, than he is about Porter's intention to commit suicide. But what Fitz fails to understand is that Eleanor's story is that of his client. As Porter types his manuscript, Eleanor's story plays out onstage and the two become one story.

The final staging of Cracking Up is this evening at 6 p.m. at the Philip Sherlock Centre, UWI, Mona campus.