Daughter of late historian: Bring more of Michael Anthony's work to stage

Sandra Anthony, daughter of the late historian and author Michael Anthony, wants to see more of his stories come to life on the stage.

The Year in San Fernando, a semi-autobiographical account of ten years of his life after leaving the rural district of Mayaro, is one such piece she hopes will be dramatised next.

Sandra said the Year in San Fernando, written in 1965, was very meaningful to Anthony, hence the reason for advocating for its stage adaptation.

Her statement followed Iere Theatre Production recent staging of one of the author’s all-time classics, Green Days by the River, which was previously made into a film.

Set in a rural village, it tells the tale of a teenage love triangle, betrayal and entrapment, all interwoven in the coming of age of an ambitious youth. Shell, played by Bakari Akowe, caught up in a life of poverty, sickness, and after the death of his father and confidant, must assume his responsibility as the man of house.

In homage to Anthony, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell presented an award to Sandra, on behalf of Iere, in acknowledgement of her father’s body of work.

In an interview with the Newsday, an emotional Sandra, who watched the play at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA) on June 10, was impressed with the way Iere’s playwright, creative and artistic director Victor Edwards moved the story from the page to the stage.

“The actors did a compelling job. I liked the music,” she said.

Under the musical directorship of Joey Rivers, Edwards stuck to the tunes cited by the author, such as Tennessee Waltz and Peanut Vendor, but used other genres, integrating these selections with a cohort of young dancers, under the choreography of Beverly Hinds, to support the different themes explored.

The posthumous award, was not anticipated just ten months after her father’s death, and Sandra was moved by the gesture.

“This award, honouring my father’s literary contribution, was not something I was expecting to be done so fast and so professionally. It was an honour and a very emotional moment for me.

"It is something I know my father would have appreciated, seeing his work done by a local playwright. After all, he was a hardcore Trinidadian who never saw himself being anywhere else, especially at the end of his life.

“I really wished both he and my mother were here. I wish the rest of my family were also able to attend the play.”

She said the Pa Lammy character played Omare Asson in Green Days, depicted the story of Anthony’s own father, who went to the Port of Spain General Hospital, but never returned home, dying from heart failure.

Having paid tribute to the late renowned author Samuel Selvon in commemoration of his 100th birthday in May 2023, Edwards said he thought he had come to the end of honouring people after they died.

“Michael Anthony was still alive when we started working on this project of moving from the page to the stage. In the process of the work, we got this heartbreaking news that Anthony died. I (had) thought for a change we would honour one of our icons while they were still alive.”

His death did not deter Iere from its vision, however.

Asked about the possibility of a stage adaptation for the Year in San Fernando, Edwards said he has not looked at it from a dramatic point of view.

“It is not beyond me, but it would have to find its own place.

“There is so much local work we have lined up for Iere Theatre to do. Should we consider doing that, it may have to be a couple of years down the road, because there is a backlog of local work of other people we really want to get out there.”

Iere is in the process of writing a script for the story of Boysie Singh, mass murderer, gambler and gangster who was hanged in 1956.

It is also involved in negotiations with the widow of VS Naipaul to adapt his Miguel Street, a collection of stories about the life and struggles of working-class people in a Port of Spain neighbourhood.

Edwards chose Green Days by the River to honour Anthony, as one of the literature texts he used for several years, as a teacher.

“When I saw it made into a film, I saw another version to it.”

Prof Emeritus Kenneth Ramchand, who vetted the script and saw the final production, felt it was one of Edwards’s best works to date, he told Newsday in an interview.

“Victor Edwards’s masterly compression amplifies the novel. His script prompts the actors to enjoy themselves and to see themselves in different bewildering phases of the journey back and forth between innocence and experience.

“The play stirs the novel’s gamut of emotions – the joys and the terrors and unspoken fears of young and old (seen and heard in the first place in the actors’ subtle bodies and voices and in the ominous barking of Mr Gidharee’s dogs) arousing us and killing us softly as they pass in music through our flesh and into our consciousness, thanks to the sensitive and innovative live compositions of Joseph Joey Rivers and his musicians.

“This was not background music, it was the life blood of the script and of the play’s unobtrusive, brilliant and integral choreography.”

He said Iere has laboured to build an audience for theatre across the geographical cardinal points and has long existed as a hands-on school of drama for all ages.

“One of its special missions is that Iere strives to enhance the natural link between our literature and the stage, and this production is a shining example of how this project works.

“Looking at the cast and crew on the stage at the end, you felt this was a loving family of all ages, colours, shapes and sizes, this was Trinidad or what Trinidad can be.”