Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

The play “To Light,” being presented on July 15 by production company the.art.IS, in association with ParentingTT promises to deliver a new experience to the theatre landscape of T&T. Founder Brendon O’Brien describes the production as participatory theatre, where the audience decides what the ending of the play will be.

He said the play is about a family going through a very difficult six month period and how their inability to communicate with each other affects their relationships. Marlon, the eldest son, also has real difficulty communicating with his friends about how the drama at home is affecting him. O’Brien said he wanted to write about family and friendships, two topics that are not explored in local theatre landscape. “There’s so many dynamic experiences that Trinbagonian people, especially young people, go through. Just to navigate family and high school is a kind of preparation for the rigors of real life and we don’t have enough conversations about it.”
O’Brien said he was inspired to write the play after seeing the characters in scripts received from ParentingTT. “It’s really interesting to get four young men in the same space that aren’t talking about sex or money or drugs or guns. These are four really endearing, kind of quirky but mostly sincere, considerate young men sharing a space together, each with their own separate problems and it is through their friendship that they learn ways to cope with family, and it’s also through family that they learn to cope with each others’ family relations and how to maintain a strong and honest and meaningful friendship.” The play features a cast of familiar and new faces to theatre, including Errol Fabien, Kyle Richardson, Joshua Moodoo, Jarod Baptiste, Chaquille Charles, Aliyah Charles and Cydelle Crosby.
O’Brien said his company was exploring new ways to make theatre, and “in a world that is so participatory, with social media changing how we have conversations about the art that we consume and constantly wanting to impart our own will on the art that we consume, I thought participatory theatre was the next logical step. I like the idea of theatre that’s immersive in those sorts of ways and I’ll continue to experiment with that. It’s also an experiment about how much participation audiences are prepared to give and how they’re prepared to give it.” He said three separate endings have been written for the play, and the final ending will be chosen by the audience through the use of cards and a voting system after the first half. The play is geared towards secondary school students and parents, who may not all have the same access to social media, but they will be given the opportunity to participate in the theatre as they’re watching it.
O’Brien said ParentingTT loved the idea because they want also to empower parents to actively participate in building the concepts around 21st century Caribbean and Trinidadian parenting.
“It’s a play about family, it’s a play about friendship, it’s a play about communication, which is a very interesting challenge because what happens a lot with friends and family is we talk around the things that we’re going through and not to it and through it, so that’s what this play tries to do.”
There are two shows on July 15. The 4 pm show is for students and tickets cost $100. Tickets for the 7 pm show cost $200. For more information call 283-3791 or find the.art.IS on Facebook.

Originally published in the T&T Guardian on July 10, 2016