Oliver Samuels, “The Caribbean’s King of Comedy,” drew nearly 400 people to the Jamaica Performing Arts Center for an Easter Sunday production of Jamaican dramatist Easton Lee’s “The Rope and The Cross.”
It was the first time that director David Heron collaborated with Samuels of Saint Mary, Jamaica.
“The Rope and The Cross,” set in both rural Jamaica and ancient Jerusalem, was first performed in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, for the country’s national hero Michael Manley, the island nation’s fourth prime minister, in 1979.
The drama presents the events leading up to Christ’s crucifixion through a Jamaican lens with Samuels narrating the story.
Shevrado Oliver, Jerry Benzwick, Dianne Dixon, Fleurette Harris, Hector Lincoln, Rudolph Shaw, Gabrielle Archer, Laura Salem Harding, Michelle London, Jelani Reid, and Zay Harding, of CBS’s “Hawaii Five-O,” rounded out the cast.
Dignitaries and celebrities in attendance included Ariel Bowen, officer in charge of the Jamaican Consulate in New York; Broadway actor Jerome Preston Bates; award-winning costume designer Raxann Chin; playwright Karl O’Brian Williams; TV and film star Mitzi Pratt; author and hair stylist Marian Haye; and off-Broadway playwright Christin Cato.
The Jamaica Tourist Board, Mesidor PLLC, Results Promo and Marketing, IMC Media and The Door Restaurant in South Jamaica, were sponsors of the event.
All royalties paid to Lee’s family will be donated to rebuilding the St. Barnabas Anglican Church, which was damaged by Hurricane Melissa last year, in St. Elizabeth. The Lee family is also setting up a GoFundMe.