'Figa it Out' gives a good message

Marcia Rowe, Gleaner Writer

Try and figure this out. Who would have a prayer and a praise and worship preceding their 'drama production'? You are correct, a group of Christians. However, in this case there were two groups, The Wycliffe Youth Network (WYnet) and Unscripted Theatre Company. On Friday, at the Swallowfield Chapel in Kingston, the two groups came together and presented Figa it Out, A Drama Production.

While there were technical deficiencies, there were some brilliant performances. The cleverly written lines were timely delivered to generate laughter and suspense.

The play was nonrealistic in its style with a very real central story.

Set in a room, defined by a table and five chairs at Paul's house, the story of the main plot begins with the arrival of four friends, Natalia, Sheldon, Danique and Steven. All are Christians and seemed to have just completed undergraduate programmes at a university. Somehow, they start a discussion on what God's plan for them was. To find the answer, they resort to the Bible, starting at the beginning with the creation story.

But in a clever twist, rather than having them read the story, it is re-enacted.

The creation story, produced some witty comments from Sheldon and some emotional responses from Danique, vibrant preaching from Paul and sheer amusement from Natalia.

With songs and dub poetry, the five took the conversation on a lively path until Steve, the voice of reason, explains that he believes that God wants him to be a missionary. Paul then unleashes his anger on his friends, ending with an inspirational song. Eventually, as expected, all ends well.

Throughout the production, familiar phrases such as "cross it" and "can't recall" were nicely intertwined in the dialogue to create much humour.

Thought-provoking

The line, "We were not placed in a particular family by coincidence" gave food for thought.

Kris-Ann Bennett as Natalia, Dean Smith as Paul, Johan Hedrington as Sheldon, Allison Facey as Danique and Marcel as Steven were superb in their delivery of lines in song and dialogue.

The five were evenly committed to their roles. It was clear that they not only understood their characters, but also enjoyed playing their parts.

Figa it Out is also a production on the go - for performances at various church venues. Therefore, the emphasis was on the message and not on the technical areas such as blocking, lights, and set, which were the weakest part of the production.

The chapel's semicircular-shaped stage remained uninteresting, as the main set was a table, covered with a blue table cloth. It was placed stage right, while stage left was reserved for the colourful supportive scenes. And there was little coordination with the lights operator, resulting in untidy transitions from one scene to another. Perhaps the absence of the name or names of director/s in the credit list may also explain some of the movements of the characters, especially in the monologues.

Alas, it was not only the characters in the main plot that had things to figure out, the audience had their fair share of figuring out to do. There was the figuring out of the relevance of the subscenes to the story and the message of the production, as well as the purposes of the pieces used as preamble and postscript, albeit they were well executed and beautifully costumed.

Figa it Out was also a call to action. Therefore, it was only natural that it segued into an altar call.