“Amen Corner" - 'Hallelujah! to 'Amen Corner''

Bertina Macaulay who plays the role of Sister Margaret in the gospel musical 'Amen Corner', playing at Centrestage, is seen here with actor Hugh Douse. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER

WITH JAMAICA'S numerous churches, on the right day, at the right hour one could successfully argue that it is a very religious country. Yet, issues relating to the Church are not often tackled in the island's theatrical output. As such, productions such as James Baldwin's Amen Corner are a rare occurrence, especially in commercial theatre.

The question of faith is at the heart of Amen Corner and it is surrounded by issues of hypocrisy, church politics, gender, love and loyalty. The play is set in an unnamed Pentecostal church in rural Jamaica.

BROAD, HEAVY-HANDED COMEDY

Directed by Trevor Nairne, the production is being staged by Jambiz International and has been adapted by Patrick Brown, Keisha Brissett and Natalee Cole. The flagship Jambiz production is their annual Christmas production which generally plays to broad, heavy-handed comedy. However when summer comes, the company offers work that plays less with comedy and heads more for drama, and Amen Corner slips into this category.

Amen Corner surrounds the experiences of the leader of the church, Sister Margaret (Bertina Macaulay). Maggie takes the holier-than-thou attitude to an extreme, she wields it like a whip and as a pastor has the power to enforce her attitude and condemn all who go against it. However, her own life is about to collide with this attitude as events threaten to rob her of both her family and faith.

INTERESTING IMAGE

The production presents an interesting image of Sister Margaret as a woman of faith, but it pays little attention to Margaret as a woman and reaching that balance would have allowed for a significantly more effective portrayal of Sister Margaret's ordeal.

Macaulay delivers a strong performance and sends Sister Margaret forth like a rod. This allowed for a rather dramatic and sometimes stirring performance, however it also robbed Sister Margaret of her full human potential especially with Macaulay's overuse of her very dramatic eyes.

In truth the entire production betrays Sister Margaret's full humanity. Amen Corner in part explores the impact of the secular world on the Christian one, and Sister Margaret clearly believes the two cannot collide. However, her own life highlights that the two are inseparable.

Unfortunately, even by the end of the production we cannot fully understand why Sister Margaret is the woman she is. Furthermore the play puts the ideas of having a man and having God in opposition, in such a way that even having a husband is suggested as sinful.

Even while Amen Corner attempts to suggest that being human means being able to balance matters of the heart and matters of the soul, the play's structure validates that one cannot have both, especially not if one has a flock to tend to.

Much of the production is actually spent in church, where the play begins and Amen Corner manages to give an entertaining and engaging portrayal of life in the Jamaican church. Yet, on Thursday evening, the performance dragged and tended to stumble in the first act, but as its dramatic potential increased in the second act it proffers interesting emotional fare, enough to quiet even some hecklers.

Thursday's performance also featured Andrew Clarke who alternates with Christopher Martin, Hugh Douse (alternates with Earle Brown), Nadene Henney, Courtney Sappleton, Chris Hutchinson and Faith Gordon.

Performances were quite decent, but the musical element was hampered by the theatre's sound capacity as the voices were generally not strong enough to compete with the recorded music that accompanied them. Additionally, the production could have use stronger choreography and direction to enhance the musical performance, rather than having the performers singing as though they are in a concert.