Rare footage! Derek Walcott himself as the Narrator in a production of “Moon Child (Ti Jean in Concert),” at the American Academy in Rome on April 4, 2011. Also wonderful: The silky Wendell Manwarren as the Planter and music by Ronald “Boo” Hinkson.
NARRATOR
Deep in the forest, thick,
where precious creatures are:
the dove, the emerald, electric
hummingbird, old as Noah,
is the wild man, Papa Bois.
A legendary creature
like Noah and the ark,
tree-like in every feature,
his face as rough as bark.
Like two coals his red eyes,
his hair like brown lianas,
his beard cotton, his hands nimble as butterflies.
PAPA BOIS
Good morning. You have no manners?
GROS-JEAN
Who is you?
PAPA BOIS
I heard a rustle in the grass
but first, you swear obedience,
then Papa Bois will let you pass,
at least for just this once.
GROS-JEAN
I don’t swear. I don’t curse.
NARRATOR
His shirt of dry banana fronds
kept rattling from the wind,
his brow, with two capricious horns,
had mischief on its mind;
his breath, its reek could stifle;
he kept, slung from his waist,
a rusty flintlock rifle
with his archaic taste,
the dog-head snake, the iron lance,
like pets coiled round his hands.
PAPA BOIS
For fifty years I have lived here,
just listen and I’ll tell you,
as horned and careful as the deer
I sniff the air and smell you.
I am, if you believe in me,
the prophet of protection,
the bush is my constituency;
I don’t need no election.
I have my signals and alarms
when hunters stalk my forest,
the angry trees will shake their arms
and birds will scream their loudest.
……………………………….[Birds scream.]
My cannon is my thunder,
the red ant is my nation,
their armies all come under
my daily domination.
The marching termites carry
their leaf-flags in battalions,
their dead the spiders bury
with beetles in alliance.
The hummingbird’s helicopter
drills nectar from the flowers
and nobody has ever stopped the
bat’s acrobatic powers.
I lose a little every day,
my forces, my militia,
but let them guard you on your way—
the good day I wish you.
what is your name, you say?
GROS-JEAN
[Growling.]
GROS-JEAN!
MISS MERLE
[Singing.]
PAPA BOIS, WHAT YOU COOK TODAY?
PAPA BOIS
[Singing.]
SWEET POTATO AND BOIS BANDÉ
M. CRAPAUD
PAPA BOIS, PAPA BOIS, WHAT YOU COOK TODAY?
PAPA BOIS
DASHEEN, TANIA, AND BOIS BANDÉ
I LOVE THESE GREEN BANANAS
MACAMBU AND SALTFISH
I’LL PUT YOU ON MY HEAVY MANNERS
IF YOU DEFY MY WISH
DON’T KICK THE LIFE FROM YOUR BROTHER
[A grunt.]
M. CRAPAUD
UNH!
PAPA BOIS
AND DO NOT STONE THE BIRD
MISS MERLE
[Shrieks.]
E.E.E.E.GAS!
M. CRICHETTE
“MEN MUST LOVE ONE ANOTHER”
PAPA BOIS
LET PAPA BOIS BE HEARD
THE LIZARD, THE AGOUTI
THE MOTH WITH EYES FOR WINGS
ARE ONE IN NATURE’S BEAUTY
HEAR WHAT THE BLACKBIRD SINGS
NARRATOR
The names that we are given
are who we will become:
“Satan” can’t live in heaven
and “hell” sounds like his home.
So there were names for each son:
big, medium, and small.
Gros-Jean, Mi-Jean, and Ti-Jean
will answer if you call.
Some tall men are called Shorty!
The nickname passes on.
Some big men over forty
will answer to GARÇON!
But Gros-Jean couldn’t take it
if you forgot his name.
What difference did it make if
black people looked the same?
The Planter called him Hubert,
Theophilius, Max, and Joe;
Not one of them was true, but
how could the Planter know?
To him they all resembled
each other on payday:
at three when they assembled
any name fit the face.
PAPA BOIS
You are a man of iron
or so, at least, you claim
and you roar like a lion
if men forget your name.
I only try to warn you,
beware the aftermath;
one thing you must remember,
you must control your wrath,
you must not lose your temper,
you’ll lose the strength you have.
Goodbye!
GROS-JEAN
Move! You blasted fool!
[Exits.]
Moon-Child is Derek Walcott’s latest play. The text was recently published by Farrar Straus and Giroux. It was read (here) at the American Academy in Rome on April 4, 2011, and also at the Lakeside Theatre at the University of Essex on April 30, 2011, with the poet and playwright Glyn Maxwell reading the role of the Narrator. The published text has lots of interesting differences (including epic journeys by two entire new characters and the passage above) from the text performed in April. Consider them together and see the playwright at work.
We at Little Star loved the play’s surreal, festal side, new to us in Walcott’s verse. We’d stage it like a dark revel or conjuration, with the narrative adumbrations murmured in the background.
For the American Academy reading: Music by Ronald “Boo” Hinkson and André Tanker; Derek Walcott as The Narrator; Giovanna Bozzolo as The Mother; Dean Atta as The Bolom; and Wendell Manwarren as The Planter. Artwork by Derek Walcott and Peter Walcott. The reading was accompanied by a lovely program with paintings and commentary by Karl Kirchwey, the poet and current Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy. Kirchwey’s poems and translations have appeared in Little Star #1 (2010) and Little Star #2 (2011).
Derek Walcott was born in St. Lucia (West Indies). He has written fourteen books of poetry (most recently, White Egrets), a book of essays, and many plays. He founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959 and the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre in 1981. He wrote the lyrics for Paul Simon’s musical The Capeman. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. His poems appeared in Little Star #1 (2010).
NEWS: Derek Walcott to deliver a keynote address, “A Part of the Continent from John Donne,” to open El Museo del Barrio’s exhibition and symposium Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, on October 11, 2012. The evening will also include a theatrical reading of Walcott’s landmark play, Dream on Monkey Mountain, by the Classical Theatre of Harlem with André de Shields reprising his role as Makak. More info here.