By IPS Correspondents
KINGSTON, Sep 2 2003 (IPS)

With their country’s economy showing little sign of growth in the past decade, many Jamaicans are taking desperate measures to migrate to the United States, a situation that playwright Patrick Brown pokes fun at in his latest production, ‘Oliver…Large Abroad’.

The play opened here Aug. 21 for a three-week run at the Centerstage Theatre. In mid September, the four-member cast heads for Grenada and the United States, where ‘Oliver…Large Abroad’ is scheduled to play in six states and Washington, DC.

It stars Oliver Samuels, Jamaica’s most popular comedian, in a variety of roles. In each, he is attempting to get to the United States at any cost. According to Brown, the play is an accurate depiction of what the average Jamaican will do to get to the "land of opportunity".

"It’s really poking fun at the spirit of migration and the vices Jamaicans employ for a so-called better way of life," said Brown in an interview.

The "vices" Brown describes are familiar to Jamaicans, and Samuels revels in each. In one skit, his character marries a U.S. citizen in order to get the coveted "green card", but his cover is blown at the wedding reception when his uncle lets a little too much of his past out of the bag while toasting the couple.

In another, he is a struggling singer, who, during a television interview, showers the U.S. consulate with praise, hoping officials there will grant him a visa when he turns up for his interview.

Ruth HoShing, Marguerite Newland and Glen Campbell, veterans of the Jamaican stage, complement Samuels in evolving roles. Theatre critic, Mervyn Morris, writing in the daily ‘Jamaica Observer’ newspaper, gave "Oliver…Large Abroad" the thumbs-up, saying it is "evidently designed for export".

The play will travel to major U.S. cities, such as Miami, Atlanta, Chicago and New York, areas with large Jamaican and Caribbean populations, many of whose members can attest to the hassle of picking up a U.S. visa. ‘Oliver…Large Abroad’ is an extension of an episode of the ‘Oliver at Large’ television comedy that aired on the defunct Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation in the late 1980s.

The play opened one month after another comedy with a similar theme, ‘Single Entry’, bowed in Kingston and played to strong audiences.

‘Single Entry’ examines the lives of two working class Jamaican women who are hell-bent on going to New York City to visit a relative; they hope to obtain even a single entry visa and once they enter the country, to never return.

Jamaicans’ obsession with U.S. residence can be traced to the 1940s, when many people, mostly from rural parishes, went to Florida for a farm work programme.

It intensified in the 1970s, when many Jamaicans ran off during visits, to escape violence and food shortages most blamed on the policies of the socialist government of then prime minister Michael Manley.

A sluggish economy, particularly in the last five years, has forced thousands of Jamaicans to pursue migration. The lines at the American Embassy in Kingston are consistently long and in July, the consulate said that it had issued 10,000 visitors’ visas since the start of 2003.

According to statistics published in the daily ‘Gleaner’ newspaper, a large number of those who go missing while overseas become involved in the illegal drug trade. Of the 21,770 persons deported from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom in the past 12 years, 10,777 were sent home for drug-related offences.

‘Oliver…Large Abroad’ is the fifth play in six years by Brown to feature the chunky Samuels, who has been Jamaican theatre’s biggest star since the late 1970s. Each of the duo’s collaborations have been box office hits: 1998’s ‘Oliver and Pinocchio’ and ‘Breadfruit Kingdom’, which opened the following year, each ran for several months.

The six-week overseas tour of ‘Oliver…Large Abroad’ is the partners’ biggest undertaking to date, one they hope will end with them laughing all the way to the bank.

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