Thursday, 30 August 2012

Rodney Campbell in -'A Song For You' - a sexual comedy


Beverly (Trudy Campbell, left), the go-go dancer, chats with Marquis (Rodney Campbell), the upcoming musician, and his wife Sheila (Mitzie Pratt), in a scene from Pablo Hoilett and Anthony Wisdom's play 'A Song For You', playing at the Pantry Playhouse, Dumfries Road, New Kingston. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
A QUICK glance through the programme of A Song For You reveals the prevailing theme of this play, currently running at The Pantry Playhouse. At the bottom of the first page it reads, 'Persons interested in sex toys please contact catgirl55@hotmail.com".
A Song For You is not about sex toys though, it positions itself as a 'romantic comedy'. It would more accurately be described as a 'sexual comedy' because more than half of the play is spent talking about sex or engaged in sexual play, but romance is really nowhere to be seen.
So, the adult content label is to be taken seriously, as a mother who had to try to cover her young son's eyes quickly found out.
Written by Anthony Wisdom and directed by Pablo Hoilett, A Song For You is a four-hander featuring Rodney Campbell (Marquis), Mitzie Pratt (Sheila), Christopher Taylor (Ramon) and Trudy Campbell (Beverly). The play is something of aDancehall Queen from the other side of the fence.
On Saturday night, after starting approximately half-an-hour late, the production turned out to be reasonably amusing though it appeals more to those who like their comedy light. Indeed, the script has greater comedic potential than Saturday's performance suggested, as more than a few punch lines were badly delivered by the cast.
CHARACTERS UNI-DIMENSIONAL
Furthermore, the characters are uni-dimensional and that is the most disappointing thing about A Song For You - its depictions of Marquis and Sheila. Marquis is too typical of our impressions of the Jamaican man to be interesting.
He is a musician on the cusp of greatness, which means he has to spend long stretches of time away from his wife. Campbell turns in a decent performance and greatly adds to the comic element of the production. Yet his attempts at rendering Marquis' performance style as comedy are rather ludicrous, regrettable moments, and the first one, which opens the play, has no real bearing on the play.
Sheila, on the other hand, well-played by Mitzie Pratt, is feeling lonely and dejected due to her husband's long absences and as a result takes up with the demented Cuban Ramon. Interestingly, though Sheila spends much more time on stage, the play gives a better view of Marquis as he gets to explain how he feels about her and women while Sheila's stance is never clear.
Disturbingly, the play seems to think it is giving a progressive view of women, and it could almost be mistaken for doing so, as Sheila wishes to explore the dancehall world. Yet her wish to explore has nothing to do with sexual liberation. Furthermore, Marquis never truly attempts to understand her view point and worse yet, the writer does not allow her to fully articulate it. As such, she seems dissatisfied but quickly settles for domesticity, though Marquis does not commit to spending more time with her.
Beverly and Ramon are largely in the production as distractions. Beverly, as a go-go dancer, brings sex along with her, while Ramon presents some comic relief. Both characters are flat stereotypical renditions.
A Song For You required for locations which are particularly taxing on the Pantry stage and Michael Lorde's set design almost managed to pull it off. However, there was not sufficient allowance for distinction from one setting to the next so that the main setting, the living room, constantly interfered with the others.
Of course, if one is only looking for some light, sex-related jokes then this could be the play for you.
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Rodney Campbell: Biography

Rodney Campbell: Biography

Rodney Campbell: BIO

Born in Kingston, Rodney Campbell grew up between Havendale, Barbican and Constant Spring Gardens until age 18. Shortly after, he took on the life of an adult or should I say 'rolling stone'. Campbell attended St. George's College and Jamaica College and later went on to do a stint at the University of the West Indies (UWI), where he started the Degree programme in Mass Communications with Radio as his production technique, but did not complete it. However, being a persistent individual, he completed the Diploma Course instead; "Let's face it, I had years and years of experience under my belt in Media and found CARIMAC to be....I was just going through the motions for the paper," says Campbell.

The 35-year-old began his foray in Media when he submitted an article to the now defunct Jamaica Record newspaper. "Primarily, I was a writer in school, I used to do a lot of poetry (which I still do) and stories. While I was in second form, my English teacher, Ms. Stafford, suggested that I enter a piece in a competition. I came second in the competition, but couldn't collect the prize because the competition was for sixth formers. However, I got little assignments here and there, something like a stringer to go along with the daily news or a bigger reporter would say, 'yuh waan do this? Get a story and come nuh.'

OFFICIAL STORY

Eventually, I wrote an article and submitted it to the Jamaica Record and at that point, Vincent Tulloch (now deceased) called me and said he read the piece and asked if I was interested in going around, yuh nuh... My first official newsworthy story was a story that I travelled to Great Pond in Ocho Rios and covered. It was the opening of a basic school. I took my little camera and took a picture of the school and the balloons and wrote a story and it was published. It was the greatest thing in the world, though it was not my first piece that was being published, it really felt like my first 'real' piece. And one thing led to another... I've done everything in media except technical production."

The 'Ram', who was born on April 18, has three children: 14- and eight-year-old sons and a four-year-old daughter, but says he's, luckily, not married.

According to Campbell, if he had been married already, he would not have been ready. "I would have been divorced, separated or miserable or all three. Marriage is such a wonderful thing that you should only be able to get married when the woman you want to cheat with is your wife. When you look at your wife and say 'I would give my wife bun with this woman', she is the number two woman for the same number one woman."

When not involved in Journalism, Campbell relaxes by listening to 'oldies', writing poems and fishing with his children. His favourite pet is a dog because he believes dogs are loyal and honest. On the other hand, he detests cats because he thinks they are hypocrites.