IT’S quite a thrill to get the chance to chat to one of the world’s greatest poets.
That’s what I did last week when I got to speak to Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott about his forthcoming directorial debut in the UK with a performance of his play, Pantomime.
The Professor of Poetry at Essex University has flown over from St Lucia to oversee the performances, although as part of his post at the Wivenhoe Park campus, he will undertake a series of workshops and talks.
He says: “This is my second year of coming over to work at Essex University and I have to say I’m very much enjoying it.
“I was introduced to the university by Marina Warner, who I have known for years.
“I do about two weeks of classes with the students and it’s always very interesting for me finding out what they are thinking.”
As well as the workshops, this year Professor Walcott, who is now in his 80s, has decided to direct his play.
Pantomime, which will star David Tarkenter and Trinidadian actor Wendell Manwarren, was originally written in the late Seventies.
A satirical reinterpretation of the Robinson Crusoe story, it investigates a whole range of issues from colonialism to the creative process through the relationship between former English song-and-dance man Harry Trewe and his servant Jackson Phillip.
Set in Tobago in the wake of the Caribbean republic’s establishment, Pantomime sees English hotel manager Trewe desperately try to come up with new ways of keeping his guests entertained at his slapdash resort.
His big idea is “Robinson Crusoe: The Pantomime!”, but this fails to impress his Tobagan waiter and throws their relationship into a crisis which extends far beyond the pantomime at hand.
Professor Walcott says: “There are a number of reasons for doing it. For a start I have a couple of brilliant actors to work with and also this theatre is perfect for it.
“I’m excited about it. I haven’t directed this play before so that is a good reason as well.”
Professor Maria Cristina Fumagalli and Penny Woollard, who are producing Pantomime, adds: “We are thrilled he will be here at our Colchester campus to direct the play.
“He has chosen to revive a play first performed in the late 1970s which remains incredibly timely.”
Professor Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the TS Eliot Prize in 2011, will also be reading and discussing his poetry with Glyn Maxwell, himself an award-winning poet and lecturer at the university, at the Lakeside Theatre from 3pm tomorrow.
Pantomime is at the Lakeside Theatre from Thursday, May 3, to Saturday, May 5, 7.30pm. Tickets are free to all events and can be booked at www.essex.ac.uk/artson5 or by calling 01206 873288.
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