Heaven

By David Edgecombe

Heaven is a discothque frequented by thrill seekers. On this Saturday night Wayne Cabey, a high school boy, has come to win the dance competition featured by the disco. He needs the price money to pay for his school leaving examinations and has persuaded his gorgeous friend, Cynthia Corbett, to be his dance partner and help him win. But two far more powerful men, Sam Drummonds and Tony Thompson (with his wife Dilys) are also in Heaven with their own plans for Cynthia. The young dance couple must work their way through a night of temptations, machinations and passions that are an integral part of their world.

Howard A. Fergus, in his review of the play says: Heaven, employed as a key metaphor by the author, reflects the ambiguities, tensions and uncertainties of real lifeIt is the heaven metaphor which lifts an otherwise interesting man-woman love-tangle story into the highly engaging realm of good art.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781463440909

David Edgecombe

David Edgecombe is one of the Caribbean's leading playwrights. He began writing plays as a schoolboy and his work has been produced across the Caribbean, Canada and Africa. On leaving high school he founded the Montserrat Theatre Group (MTG) and later became its artistic director. In Canada he worked for several years with the Black Theatre Workshop of Montreal directing a number of award winning productions and staging several of his early plays. During this period he was commissioned to write a play based on the works of the celebrated novelist Austin Clarke, for Canadas participation in the Second World Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in Nigeria. He titled the play Strong Currents. The BBC broadcast another of his plays, Kirnons Kingdom, worldwide. As Director of the Reichhold Center for the Arts, University of the Virgin Islands, Edgecombe started such programs as the Reichhold Caribbean Repertory Company and the Youth Moviemaking Workshop to provide expanded opportunities for artists and technicians working in the Caribbean. He is currently part of a developing network dedicated to promoting the works of artists, especially Caribbean artists. The network contends in the literary arts particularly, Caribbean artists have not had success commensurate with their talents, despite the three Caribbean artists who have already won Nobel prizes for their work an amazing achievement by any measure.

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© 2011 by David Edgecombe. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 08/03/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4634-4091-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-4090-9 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011913168

Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

Foreword

ACT ONE

ACT TWO

For

Rosalyn

Foreword

When David Edgecombe first approached me about directing his play Heaven, I immediately responded with an enthusiastic Yes and opted to premiere it as a part of the University of the Virgin Islands 1991 season. For some time I had considered David one of the most promising playwrights in the Caribbean. I felt that it would be an honor and only fitting that UVI would include his play in the university’s season offerings.

The UVI production of Heaven opened at the UVI Little Theater on April 19, 1991 and was taken on tour shortly after to St. Martin, Antigua and Montserrat. It played everywhere to appreciative audiences. But perhaps more significantly, seeing the play enacted before a live audience was the penultimate step in my collaboration with the author that began several months before.

Each night, David and I would watch the performance, gauging audience reactions; noting what seemed to work and what didn’t; assessing where greater clarity was need or what passages aught to be cut altogether. Shortly after the tour we sat together for several hours going over the production in detail, especially the writing, to determine how best to improve the play. It was a process we both agreed served the play well.

The heaven of this allegory is revealed as a discothèque located on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. To reap the rewards of Heaven a young couple named Cynthia and Wayne must win a dance contest being sponsored by the nightspot. They both meet with many temptations in a milieu that reflects some of the major social problems in the Caribbean. Good eventually triumphs over evil with the dance partners winding up in a relationship much deeper than mere friendship.

Incidentally, as the old saying goes, Life often reflects art.

The actor who played Wayne in the UVI premiere production of Heaven wound up marrying the young lady who played Cynthia. He was often heard to remark that it was a marriage made in Heaven.

The young couple also played the lead roles in Heaven the following summer when the Reichhold Center for the Arts presented it as part of its summer program.

David Edgecombe was born on Montserrat and began writing plays as a schoolboy. He was the founder and president of the Montserrat Theatre Group and later its artistic director. He also worked at Radio Antilles as Director of Educational Programming and as editor of the Montserrat Reporter.

Mr. Edgecombe later joined the faculty of the University of the Virgin Islands and taught in the Humanities Division (St. Croix campus) before moving to the position of Director of the Reichhold Center for the Arts on St. Thomas. He is currently on leave from UVI, working at the Office of the Governor as Special Assistant to the Governor for External Affairs.

Heaven is considered one of Edgecombe’s best plays to date. I am pleased the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has placed it on the syllabus for secondary school students in the English speaking Commonwealth Caribbean.

Dennis E. Parker

Professor (Emeritus) of Speech and Theater

University of the Virgin Islands

Heaven was first performed by the University of the Virgin Islands Theater at the Little Theatre, St. Thomas on April 19, 1991. It then went on tour to St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua and Montserrat. The play was designed and directed by Dennis Parker with the following cast:

Following the tour Heaven was re-written and re-staged on August 30, 1991, at the Reichhold Center for the Arts, St. Thomas, with the following cast:

This version of the play, which appears here with further small changes, was directed by the author and designed by Dennis Parker.

Characters

WAYNE, a schoolboy, about 17

CYNTHIA, a civil servant, 18 or 19

SAM, a businessman in his 60s

TONY, a lawyer, early 40s

DILYS, Tony’ wife, 35

Setting

The annex, back yard or back patio of a discotheque called Heaven. Two round tables—one stage left, the other stage right—each with two chairs. A door leading to Heaven, up left. A door to a bathroom, right of center. Another ‘exit’, down left, leading to an open field or park (which does not have to be shown).

The whole play takes place here, one Saturday night.

ACT ONE

As the lights come up, Wayne and Cynthia are rehearsing a dance without music. They go through the sequence with Wayne counting out the steps.

WAYNE

Great! That’s it! You got it! Alright, next section now. Follow me.

[He shows her some steps. She tries to follow but fails.]

CYNTHIA

Man, this is too hard.

WAYNE

Easy.