AN INTENSE DRAMA BUT NEEDS SOME FURTHER EDITS

By Trisha Cusack ⭐⭐⭐ | Press Invite

Martina Laird’s debut play Driftwood is a multi-layered drama that tries to be many things at once. On one hand it is a familial drama, exploring deep themes of belonging and maternal love. On the other, it is a political commentary on the dying days of colonialism in Trinidad in 1956, reflected in the tensions between the Black and white characters’ roles and actions.

The play is located entirely within ALMA, a gentlemen’s club in Port of Spain. Run by the tough Miss Pearl (Ellen Thomas), she and her daughter Ruby (Cat White) go about their lives rather differently. Pearl is the stereotypical, ever suffering and emotionally harsh mother who breaks her back to earn her living. Every day she must walk around town in painful shoes to collect money for her boss, English gentleman Mansion (Roger Ringrose). Ruby, however, makes do relying on her looks to swindle tourists. It is clear they do not have a good relationship, with Ruby’s “nastiness” directed most towards her mother.

Enter handsome stranger Diamond, who turns out not to be so much a stranger as Pearl’s son who she gave up decades earlier. He says he has come to find his mother and find his family, but is that all?

It is from here that the plot becomes unwieldy. We have Succession-style attempts at backstabbing with Diamond and Ruby’s shady dealings with US Marine, Tom, in order to “prove” to Mansion that they deserve to own ALMA when he leaves to return to England. Pearl still refuses to give Diamond the time of day or a reason why she gave him up. And in a rather rogue plotline, Ruby and Diamond begin an incestuous relationship despite knowingly being brother and sister, evoking some uncomfortable reactions from the audience, myself included.

As the show progresses over two and a half hours, plus an interval, you begin to wonder where this all is going and how it will end. Unsurprisingly, it does not end happily ever after for our dysfunctional family.

Muddled plot aside, the writing and dialogue is strong, with an interesting use of Trinidad Picong. The cast too delivers convincing performances, with Seldom’s character as the source of comedy being well timed and appreciated by the audience.

Overall, Laird’s Driftwood, while certainly intense, would benefit from further editing in order to narrow down some of the plot lines that felt repetitive. Nevertheless, it is a decent debut with ample potential.

Driftwood is running at Kiln Theatre until Saturday 4 July.

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Photo Credit: Marc Brenner