Fifteen years ago when Jamaican Karl O’Brian Williams began drafting what would become the play, Not About Eve, it “was to be about a woman who wanted to choose another route to happiness and prosperity other than marriage and the traditional family set-up.”
Over time, the mood of his writing changed and it became his most personal work to date. Not About Eve, which debuted in Kingston, Jamaica in 2006, returns on May 26 at the New Vibe Lounge in Long Island, New York.
Its production is all-Jamaican. David Heron is director, with Fleurette Harris as Agatha “Mama” Rochester, Marsha-Ann Hay as her daughter Katherine and Gabrielle C. Archer as Kimberly, Mama’s grand-daughter.
The 44-year-old Williams grew up in Kingston and lives in New York. He says the initial concept for Not About Eve morphed into a moving piece inspired by close relatives.
“It is heavily influenced by my mother and grandmother and in particular how they mourned the loss of their husbands. There was a quiet and painful dignity to it all that fascinated me, and I had so many questions but would not dare ask, so I invented what I did not know and the rest I just started listening to all the women in life more keenly: how they spoke about career, men, other women, family and just growing up girl, in Jamaica,” he explained.
Not About Eve won Jamaica’s Actor Boy Award for Best New Jamaican Play.in 2007. In 2012, it premiered Off Broadway at Roy Arias Studio Theater in New York and played the National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina one year later.
Though Not About Eve recalls his Jamaican childhood, Williams said its theme has broad appeal.
“The language makes it Jamaican, but it’s a universal story. It’s about women, family, loss, maintaining and breaking traditions/cycles. No matter where you’re from you know one or all three of those women,” he said.
Williams’ other plays include Welcome To America, which played Howard University’s Cramton Auditorium in late 2017. Reply Reply All Forward
You must log in to post a comment.