Spencer, Salazar bring back Trini Sweet…Too Bad on March 4, 5

Ever wonder what the interviewers for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line went through while interviewing some of our more colourful Trini characters? What do you think the women who played mas in heels were thinking? Ever seen a bandit too lazy to pick up money that fell in the road?

These ideas and others were brilliantly showcased during Penelope Spencer and Cecilia Salazar’s comedy show Trini Sweet…Too Bad, which will return to the Central Bank Auditorium on March 4 and 5.

The actresses were joined on stage for the first stagings of the show on February 25 and 26 by Rodell “Ro'dey" Cumberbatch, Arnold “Pinny” Goindhan, and upcoming actors Nicholas Subero, Benita Wilson, Carlinea Holder and Joshua Phillip.

One skit portrayed two women (Spencer and Salazar) playing mas in heels, their antics in trying to get photographed, and their regrets, delivered in the veteran actresses’ unmistakable style.

In another, a Royal Caribbean interviewer (Salazar) is confronted with two Trini personalities: an elderly woman (Spencer) who insists she can do anything she puts her mind to, and doesn’t react well to being told she’s too old to be employed; and a young woman (Cumberbatch) who insists on taking calls during interviews and tells the interviewer she could do her job, taking over her desk and her glasses at one point.

The piece de resistance was the second portion of the show, where the Midnight Robber (Goindhan) and the Pierrot Grenade (Cumberbatch) struggle for control of a political party in Tobago in order to take control of Carnival. The audience was in stitches as the two wrangled over taking care of the baby doll (Salazar) and her baby Roxborough, while the Dame Lorraine (Spencer) and the Bookman (Phillip) grumbled over the lack of leadership from both characters. Eventually things come to a head when the two stickfight for control of the party. The Paper Doll (Holder) did a splendid job of updating the audience as the performance progressed. The inclusion of the Tobago speech band art form enabled each character to have a say in the storytelling.

Preparation for the show began weeks before Carnival, but it was clear that current events provided lots of fodder for Spencer’s comedic writing talent.