35 Trevor Rhone: Old Story Time and Smile Orange

Dr. Shrabani Basu

Introduction

This Chapter will explore the major works of West Indian playwright Trevor D. Rhone with the focus on two of his plays, Old Story Time and School’s Out. You would be looking at a brief account of Rhone life and work. Then, we would concentrate on some of the plays, exploring first their plots and then the different themes and concerns that revolve around it. After that, we would be having a look at the principal themes and characteristics of Rhone’s works. This module would also contain occasional interesting facts about the playwright and the plays, with some self-assessment questions to test your understanding of the play.

1. Life of Trevor D. Rhone

Trevor Rhone (1940-2009) is a Jamaican playwright, screenwriter, actor, and director. He is famous for his screenplay for the 1972 crime film “The Harder They Come” and for plays like Smile Orange (1971), School’s Out (1975) and Old Story Time (1979). He studied in London at the Rose Bruford Training College of Speech and Drama and then returned to Jamaica in the mid-1960s. He helped to found the Barn Theatre in Kingston, where he staged his productions. During this time, he earned his living by teaching in various schools, which later provided the grounding for his play School’s Out. He started his plays during this time  to engage the interest of his students in a dramatic form which they are familiar with.

In 1969, he wrote The Gadget on the relationship between a peasant mother and an educated son. The play can be considered to be similar to Old Story Time. In 1980, Rhone received a major Jamaican civilian honor when he was made a Commander of the Order of Distinction.

Did You Know?

• He began his theatre career as a teacher after a three-year stint at Rose Bruford College, an English drama school, where he studied in the early 1960s on scholarship.
• His prolific work includes the films The Harder They Come (1972), co-author; Smile Orange (1974), based on his play of the same name; Top Rankin′; Milk and Honey (1988), and One Love (2003), a Cannes Film Festival favorite.

1. Old Story Time 

Plot Overview

The central theme in Old Story Time is the familial conflict developing between single mother Miss Aggy and her son Len and the final solution of this in the last scene of act II. The figure of Miss Aggy is especially interesting in this respect, due to the fact that her internalization of racist stereotypes fuels the conflict immensely. The story is narrated in the African classical story telling tradition by an elderly colored man called Pa Ben. The story is about a single mother Miss Aggy who brings up and educates her son Len, but cannot come out of her deep ‘negrophobia’. To her, “anything black nuh good.” She mistrusts anybody who is dark skinned, though she is one of that ethnicity. She wishes her son to marry a relatively fair skinned girl Margaret, and is deeply disappointed when he does not. She is abusive of her daughter in law Lois, who is dark skinned and blindly believes George, a swindler, because he is brown skinned. Later it is disclosed that Margaret was cruel to Len at school and that George Macfarlane is dishonest. Len educates his mother in the ways of accepting her own color and to accept the modern belief system together with her  old customs and beliefs.

Characters

Miss Aggy is shown to be a powerful single parent but almost hopelessly tied up in her old school beliefs and stereotyping. She aspires for a better life for her son, but deplored any greater comfort which her son may provide her with. In spite of all her strength, she is deeply subservient to anything white. She does not recognize the dishonesty of George and to her the ideal goodness is that of the “nice brown girl” Margaret. This hatred towards black people and, in extension, towards herself, is emphasized even further when Pa Ben in his role as storyteller explains her behavior to the audience: “You have to understand Miss Aggy. She wouldn’t even have a black chicken in her yard. One chop, off with the head”. She is distrustful and abusive of her daughter in law, Lois, who she thinks, has captured Len’s love by witchcraft or obeah. Even at the end, she is humbled in her mistake and calls herself a “foolish old woman” before hugging Lois and Len. She frees herself from her prejudices and goes beyond them in search of love, strength and confidence.

Pa Ben is a foil to Miss Aggy. He is the quintessential story teller, who deplores the color bias of Miss Aggy. He is the all seeing third person, who can judge things objectively. Though, he associates Africa with primitive savagery and England with progree and deliverance, his concerns are more rationalized. He protests against Miss Aggy’s behavior towards her son and his wife but is ready to forgive and forget when Miss Aggy starts acknowledging him after a long time. He senses the reason behind Len’s dislike for George and Margaret is enclosing some past incident. He is the instrument of peace and the crucial structural instrument. He creates the suspense and the disclosure.

Lois and Len are educated, enlightened and try to bring their mother out of her prejudices. They accept their role as a postcolonial hybrid subject. Len acknowledges his mother’s sacrifices for his education and is hurt when she refuses his offers of help and comfort. Lois’ portrayal is a mixture of the stereotype of the black girl who is able to cross the colour barrier and gain employment in an exclusive institution and that of the modern woman intent on breaking the traditional mould in which she has been placed. She is strong and progressive and much more aware than the other female characters. As a breaker of the mould, Lois does not accept the place which society has outlined for her. She is a catalyst for change and one in whom psychological strength resides. She is assumed to be not inhibited by society’s attitudes to male/female relationships as she makes sacrifices and works to assist Len through school. It is she who helps to give en a sense of himself; he becomes more sure of himself and his roots owing to his association with her. Lois is offended when Miss Aggy abuses her by calling her a dog but is ready to forgive when she is humbled. She was kind to Len in their childhood and helps him convince his mother of the reality. Lois and Len speak perfect English, while Miss Aggy and Pa Ben speak the creole.

George McFarlane and Margaret are the classic negative characters. They are both fairer than the other characters of the play. George assisted by Margaret, had been cruel to Len in School and has also humiliated Lois in the past. He has attempted to swindle Miss Aggy and blackmail her son.

Pearl, on the other hand, is the embodiment of the woman as victim, the stereotype of the breeder. Pearl, through a cycle of pregnancies, conforms to the maintenance of the old order – the symbol of woman in her role of bearing children. She is the picture of misery, the exploited woman, who does not have any sense of self. The young girl full of life and potential becomes a victim who is condemned by fate to remaining in the village. She enjoys a friendship with Len which is marred by Miss Aggy’s prejudice but also by her own inferiority complex. Her pregnancies confine her and represent so little of the full humanity of her personality and identity. In this way she is denied any possibility for development.

Did You Know?

• The first production of “Old Story Time” was in September 13, 1984 in Theatre Royal

• The cast was:

  • Mona Hammond: Mama

  • JudithHepburn: Margaret

  • Okon Jones: George

1. School’sOut

Stage Direction

The play revolves around a church school and the efforts of a new teacher Russ Dacres to improve its conditions. The principal stage prop is a malfunctioning and overflowing lavatory door dominating the stage. Staff members continually complain about the stench and the fact that nothing has been done to remedy the situation. Joe while playing “Monday morning blues” in his guitar sprays air freshner towards the door. In the beginning of Act II, there is a permanent and hopeless “Out of Order” sign posted on the lavatory door almost portraying the general condition of the school and the education system. The existence of the absentee headmaster of the school is visually signified through an imposing but never opened door saying “Down Right.” Nobody is ever seen coming in or out of the door but sometimes the characters and the audience can hear sounds of caning from beyond that door.

Plot Overview

The plot develops with Russ Dacres’ conscientious attempts to improve the conditions of the school he newly joins. He is shocked by the condition of the school and the general air of sloppiness and irresponsibility among the staffs. The sanitary conditions of the school disgust him from the very first.

In the first scene of Act I, he knocks the Headmaster’s door but nobody answers that. The only lady teacher of the school Mica McAdam helps him to find his way around the school. A little later the senior most teacher Mr. Joseph (Joe) is found playing guitar and has a comic episode with the well meaning but under-qualified and half-educated teacher Hopal Hendry. The other teachers Rosco Callender and Pat Campbell enter complaining about the stench of the bathroom. They talk about the conditions of the school rather callously and are later joined by the Chalpain of the school who makes lecherous advances towards Mica. As most of the teachers leave to join the assembly presided over by the Chaplain, Rosco plays a prank on Mica and Hnedry, pretending to throw a mouse at Mica. Mica becomes hysterical and attacks Rosco trying to stab him with a compass. The other teachers head back to the staffroom and stop her. Mica faints and the Chaplain attempts to molest her but fails as she wakes up. The staffs leave for their classes with the Chaplain declaring that it is after all a “good place to work.”

The second scene is rather short, where Pat verbally abuses Callender and the Chaplain to Rosco while the Chaplain warns Rosco to be assertive and brutal with the students. The third scene is also rather short, where Russ brings a tape recorder and a first-aid box to the school. Rosco insinuates that the students will steal them but steals the tape recorder himself with some other things from the first aid box. He makes a sling from the elastic bands of the box and shoots a fly accidentally shooting the headmaster offstage. In this scene he, however, notices that Russ is attracted towards Mica. In the fourth short scene of the act, the staffs talk about the class magazines abusing one and all of them and even dismissing the one that was good. We notice a tension between Pat and Mica. Scene v brings out the tension among the staffs and their general reluctance to do their duty. When Russ suggests them to keep discipline in the canteen, everybody but Mica, denies. Pat orders Mica to go with him and he leaves the staffroom.

Act II, scene I, starts with the sounds of the Chaplain trying to flush in the bathroom. It is lunch hour and the other teachers order Hendry to get them lunch from the canteen. Hendry leaves to run the errands while the teachers mock the Chaplain and his hypocritical ideas about chastity and virtue by telling bawdy jokes. Hendry returns angrily saying that Russ has locked down the canteen to control indiscipline among the students. The teachers are angry with him and Pat provokes Hendry to tell an exaggerated tale of this matter to the Headmaster.

In scene ii, we see the other staffs, Rosco and Pat in particular, spoiling Russ’ efforts to clean the staffroom and discipline the students. The Chaplain half heartedly supports him, but backs out when he is asked to help with a fund for underprivileged students. Hendry is confronted by Russ for his incompetence and lack of knowledge. Russ confronts Rosco for shrugging his responsibilities, who dismisses it out of hand questioning Russ’ authority to do it.

In scene iii, the final showdown starts with Hendry and the Chaplain antagonizing Russ. The Chaplain accuses Russ of starting the welfare fund without his permission. Pat protests this and says that Russ had asked for the Chaplain’s permission but he had not wanted to help. There is a general disapproval in the way Russ treats Hendry and condemns his lack of knowledge or teaching skills. There are rumors about a Russ getting a student pregnant and having illicit relationships with another boy. Hendry and the Chaplain sustain the rumor and ask for a disciplinary meeting when they see some crude drawing about Russ’ accusations on the blackboard. Hendry and the Chaplain violently speak against Russ and vote for his removal from the staff. Pat hints that Mica and Russ are having an affair and that Russ is being unfaithful to Mica. Surprisingly Rosco opens supports Russ, while Joe tacitly lends support. Russ explains that he was helping two students in distress. The girl was raped by her aunt’s boyfriend and is thrown out of her home. Russ helped her to have an abortion and to find lodgings. Mica refuses to believe it. Russ decides to resign. Joe and Rosco reminisces about the many things that Russ had changed and how the bathroom is finally clean, but will not be so anymore. Mica meekly follows Pat out and Hendry triumphantly declares that he will ask a classmate to apply for the position that Russ has vacated.

Characters

Russ Dacres’ name is an imperfect anagram of “Crusader”, by which name Joe mocks him. He is an eager member of the staff but his zealous, self-righteous efforts disturb the complacency of those already in power. He protests again indiscipline, incompetence, unsanitary condition of the school and the general standards of the education system. He can be considered somewhat insensitive towards Hendry and rather tactless in his dealings with the other members of the staff. He is kind and conscientious as he sets up a welfare fund. He also helps a student, who gets pregnant by rape, to get lodging and an abortion.

Rosco Callender is one of the most complicated characters in Rhone’s works. He is intelligent but waggish. Throughout the play he is seen doing his best to sabotage Russ’ efforts and stealing things. To mock Russ, he tapes two rulers together in the shape of a cross and places it on Russ’ seat. The cross as if will ward of the evil spirit of the crusader Russ. He is irresponsible and laid back in his duty towards the school. He has a caustic wit which he uses indiscriminately to enrage his colleagues. He looks through Pat’s callousness, Hendry’s ignorance and the Chaplain’s hypocrisy. But when the colleagues get together for the character assassination of Russ, he vocally supports him and mourns his resignation.

Mr. Joseph or Joe is the senior most staff of the school and is always seen brooding in the staffroom. He is conservative and nostalgic of the previous standards of education in the school. He also mourns for the old order of things: “Folks knew who they were, Mr. Dacres; they knew their place, they were happier for it” (116). He condemns Hendry’s incompetence but does not condemn him as a person blaming the system instead. In the end, Joe shows his disapproval to Hendry when he calls him brother, saying that he will never be Hendry’s brother. He is mostly silent, seen strumming “Monday Morning Blues” in his guitar and making certain rare but insightful observations.

The Chaplain, Mr. Steele, is a hypocritical pervert who throws lecherous glances at Mica and attempts to molest her when she faints in fright over Rosco’s prank with the mouse. He speaks of virtue and chastity, yet makes lascivious remarks about the female staff and students. He initially supports Russ, but maligns him and conspires with Hendry to malign him. He makes pompous comments about his high social and political influence but uses none to help others.

Hopal Hendry started as an ignorant and incompetent, but conscientious member of the staff, who turns against Russ when confronted over his general incompetence. He starts the “shu-shu”, i.e. the character assassination of Russ and triumphs when Russ leaves the school. He is shown to be meek and mild in the first few scenes of the play, and gradually shows his spite under the Chaplain’s and Pat’s provocation.

Pat Campbell is proud and pompous but dislikes exerting himself for the students who he considers beneath him. He has a relationship with Mica and gets jealous of Russ when Mica shows preference for him. He spitefully provokes Hendry to give an exaggerated report to the Headmaster against Russ. He questions Russ’ authority when he attempts to discipline the lax working habits of the staff.

Mica McAdam is attractive but with a fickle emotional loyalty. She is interested in Russ and thereby in his methods of improving the conditions in the school. But she does not have any personality of her own and cannot think on her own. She switches her loyalty readily from Pat to Russ and to Pat again depending upon the situation. This lack of emotional scruple has to do with the values of the middleclass woman who, though crossing the educational, is yet to surmount class-color considerations and be positive and comfortable with her identity. Mica dramatizes the effect of the socio-historical experiences which have shaped each of us. The influence of class, mannerisms, color considerations and race on Mica’s lifestyle is stark and resonant. Mica’s behavior suggests her belief that she is in communion with Pat Campbell. She expresses similar indignation at the unhygienic sanitation of the school and its operations, assuming the site as a base for personal relationships as well as educational one. But she later has to face that this commonality of purpose in respect of school matters does not extend to the personal relationship with Pat. When confronted with apparent infidelity she is forced to realize the need to evaluate her relationships and examine the issue of identity. This highlights her insecurity and problems in seeking a self-identity.

The Headmaster is always present through his constant absence on stage. His office door is always closed, but one can hear the telltale sounds of brutal caning which apparently thrills the Chaplain. He is constantly mentioned fearfully and reverently by the teachers. We also hear of rumors about his political appointment and nepotism. There are also some whispered rumors about his sexual exploitation of students.

Did You Know?

• School’s Out was first performed in Theatre Royal in an unknown date under the direction of Dan Lloyd.

Major Themes in Rhone’sWorks

Voice Against Racism

Rhone’s works were noted for their in depth analysis of racial, social, and political tensions in Jamaica. The figure of Miss Aggy is especially interesting in this respect, due to the fact that her internalization of racist stereotypes fuels the conflict immensely. Internalized racism can be seen as one of the effects of “the miserable schizophrenia of the colonised’s identity” (Loomba 124). According to Fanon, the reason for this schizophrenic state of mind of the colonized is that “for the black subject . . . the white other serves to define everything that is desirable, everything that the self desires” (Loomba 123-24), which leads to racial self- hatred of the black subject, who is designated as inferior and perceives himself as powerless in the colonial situation.

…How much time A must tell you, don’t mix up with the little dutty black gal dem in the district? How much time A must tell you, anything black nuh good… for life is hard when you black…A have a nice girl pick out for you. Miss Margaret… a nice brown girl with tall hair down her back…

By referring to Lois as “dog,” Miss Aggy in fact replicates the racist claim that people of African descent were not only inferior, but in fact subhuman.

In School’s Out, Rhone portrays the dysfunctional condition of the academic condition in Jamaica. It is believed to be a product from his personal experience in school teaching. Rhone shows the incompetence of the teachers, the lax academic standards, general indiscipline and criminal behavior from the students as a result of extreme poverty and lack of social benefits. He also talks about nepotism in education system which prunes away competent teachers for ignorant and incompetent ones. There is also a condemnation of the clergymen through the unflattering portrayal of the Chaplain, Reverend Steele.

Rhone, in creating Mica McAdam in School’s Out, created a stereotype exhibiting the behavior patterns that are recognizable, even endemic in society. Her behavior is compatible with the common perceptions of her time, where an educated woman of color would try to align herself with someone of a lighter hue, and of similar educational qualifications for purposes of advancement and social status. In Mica’s case, she passes over the educated group of her own colour and class to indicate intellectual equality with the white personality. Rhone points to the women’s obsession with finding solutions through white males. Mica is apparently caught between the two poles, switching her allegiance from Pat to Russ, with whom she later establishes a relationship. Her criterion like that of Miss Aggy’s is color. She moves between two men of different personalities, unable to make her own mind, association with each when it is expedient to do so. Her insecurity in accepting herself leads to the living between the two worlds. In her quest to fulfill her dream of salvation through the white male, Mica adopts certain kinds of behavior, setting certain shallow codes of conduct which regulates this hierarchalized choice of color. Instead of recognizing her blackness, she proceeds to turn it into accident. To overcome this accident, it requires acquisition of white approval. Whether in casual flirtation or serious affairs, the Micas in the Jamaican society are determined to select the least back of the men. The educated woman of color initiates her double equivocal character with their continuous preoccupation with attracting the attention of the white man.

Portrayal of the Jamaican Society

The plays of Trevor Rhone portray the journey of the Jamaican society through a short history after independence. They start from a time when racial discrimination was normative and accepted without protest. It also looks at the time when education started spreading cross- racially and the educated colored people were appointed in power position, thereby giving them a dissenting voice. But it also acknowledges the deep rooted prejudices amongst the obvious signs of progress and enlightenment.

The familial conflict between Miss Aggy and her son can be read as an allegory of the society of Jamaica, or the West Indies in general. Miss Aggy embodies (amongst others) the racist Eurocentric discourse of purity, which is portrayed as destructive to the family, and therefore, on another level, to Caribbean society. The acceptance of the hybridity of identities by Len and through him of his mother and the subsequent happiness in the life of the family is the ultimate call for the acceptance of the Caribbean’s hybrid nature. With the happy ending for the family, who is “all well” in the end of the play, Old Story Time can be read as calling for West Indian society to accept its postcolonial identity and to rid itself of racist discourses of purity that have, for hundreds of years, plagued the area. Throughout the play, we observe that the actions are always initiated by the men and women are the sites of the outcome. The experience of benevolence and an acceptance of the present come through Lois father to Lois, from Len to Miss Aggy and from Pa Ben’s narration to the audience. So inherently, the experience of hybridity remains predominantly a masculine experience which the women later receive and emulate.

Ambivalent Portrayal of Women Characters

Rhone’s portrayal of female characters can be categorized in three distinct types – firstly, there is the traditional housewife figure, the woman who is not fulfilled in her marriage yet is unable to evade the status quo; secondly, the younger version of this unstated wife-mother who unsuccessfully handles family and career in an attempt to attain a prosperous harmony and thirdly there is the urban career woman who supposedly is in a better position understanding herself and her ambitions in the changed social circumstances of a postcolonial hybrid society. However, this supposedly idealized third type is often portrayed negatively by Rhone. It is through the third type that Rhone is expected to depict the colored woman’s impulse towards independence and a creativity associated with her understanding of the need to make the very act of survival, an act of affirmation. But in the society of Rhone’s plays, there is sometimes implicit recognition of this figure, however, tinged with conventional prejudice.

Even in the treatment of characters like Carol in Sleeper (1972) and Gloria in Two Can Play there is a decided ambivalence. In Sleeper, Rhone juxtaposes the three stereotypes, positing the final one as a distinction to the conventional, confined female characters like Martha and Althea. Carol is depicted as vulnerable and in need of love and understanding from her partner. At the end we are forced to observe the way she looks at herself— incomplete and only partially fulfilled. Gloria in Two Can Play apparently exudes self- confidence and participating in a process of self-discovery. She, it seems, is the representative of the postcolonial woman who match the redefinitions of the evolving society. But there is an essential problem with her view of social realities. She considers migration as a partial salvation to the dilemmas of survival in her country. But she also comes to accept that her priority lies in the self-discovery and realization which salvages her marriage. Rhone’s attitude to his female characters in this respect is not clear and is marked by ambivalence. On the one hand, it seems as if he is merely perpetuating his conforming stereotypes like Martha and Althea and on the other, he appears to be merely an objective reporter. But a close scrutiny of the plays in the postcolonial context proves that his concern with his women character in certainly preoccupied whereas his men almost always appear to experience the realities of the socie

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