Written by Ricardo Samuels and produced by RR and RS Productions, Bail Out is a burlesque rendering of what happened behind the scenes in the months before the financial collapse and subsequent government bailout of a fictional local insurance and investment company.
The comedic play, which showed at Queen's Hall, February 22-24, parodied a number of the key players in the Caribbean's biggest financial blow-up within several years, including the much-maligned chairman of the board, a philandering director and the corporate secretary.
The plot is straightforward: these three members of the board are not only siphoning funds away from the company's shareholders into their own private accounts and business concerns, they're also playing several rounds of musical beds. The entire production happens in the lobby of the company's offices, and this set decision works well to hold the story together and keep the story moving swiftly. Throw in an angry fianc�e who's being cheated on, an eccentric private investigator and one ever-vigilant spiritual adviser, and you should get a rollicking barrel of laughs. Right?
Not quite. The cast is strong; the reputations of veteran performers like Debra Boucaud Mason, Richard Ragoobarsingh and Glenn Davis get people into seats at any production. And both the pros and the amateurs mostly do an excellent job of injecting true comedy into the thing.
But the script partially shortchanged both the performers and the audience; it fell back too strongly onto stereotypical characterisation, and glaringly obvious double entendre and clich�s instead of stronger, more purposeful dialogue. At one point it began to feel like Carnival had come back, because everyone began to deadpan lines from 2013 soca hits.
Boucaud Mason gets the role of the flamboyant and theatrical Mother Bernice down pat; her costuming is carefully constructed and easily the most outstanding in the production–probably because it's constantly being contrasted with solemn suits.
Ria Ali and Clifford Learmond are interesting in their roles as corporate secretary and company director. Ali has one really standout line and her stage presence is strong. If she was meant to come across as a stone-cold bitch with no remorse, she delivered. Learmond does a decent job of the privileged, monied old boy who's cheating on his fianc�e with the corporate secretary and everybody else he can get his hands on. But the character is tired; it would have been refreshing to see a new comical twist to this character's story or dialogue to keep the audience riveted during his scenes.
Holes that need shoring up
Davis plays the role of the managing director Clarence Dudley with some sensitivity and strength; in the second half, he has a scene with the new CEO (played by newcomer Deryck Kistow) where he seems three dimensional: conflicted by personal shame about the fact that he's running into the ground the company his uncle built but in too deep to turn back now.
The one really interesting character is Richard Ragoobarsingh's Julian Fifi, a private investigator that the CEO hires to investigate both his cheating wife and suspicious company procedures. Ragoobarsingh controls his scenes deftly, hamming up Fifi's eccentricities to the hilt. He's physically conspicuous in his fedora, shirt jack and loud colour combinations; he has a habit of announcing his entrances and exits and of pompously speaking about himself in the third person.
The script does do a good job of keeping a concise, easily followed plot. But there are holes that need shoring up. The most glaring mistake was made in the overdone inclusion of the sexual escapades. Nothing is really resolved or explored, and at the climax, the sexual layers of the plot seem almost superfluous. There are no gasps of shock from the audience at the play's double climax of the sexual intrigue and the fiscal fraud; it's more of an "Eh heh?" moment, and real catharsis eludes us.
A deeper examination of the ironies embedded within the fictional yet true-to-life scenarios would have also benefitted the play. This is political satire, and no one is saying it needs to be academic in its treatment of the issues. But playing for cheap laughs is played out; audiences should be treated to a laugh or two that both makes them splutter saliva onto the theatre-goer in front of them and makes them think twice about their own hypocrisies the next day.
Bail Out
RR and RS Productions.
Written by Ricardo Samuels and directed by Richard Ragoobarsingh.
Starring Richard Ragoobarsingh, Debra Boucaud Mason, Glenn Davis, Clifford Learmond, Leslie Anne Lavine, Ria Ali, Roger Dickie and Deryck Kistow.
Bail Out continued until last night at Napa South. For information on future stagings, call 338-6024 or 744-7581.
