It's no secret that Jamaica has had many challenges throughout its history relating to race and class. In the play "Dog" by the late Dennis Scott, there is a symbolic representation of the resulting violence in the 1970s. According to Kwame Dawes:
The effectiveness of Scott's symbolic play lies in the manner in which he parallels the social conditions of the Jamaican society at the time of his writing the piece. In the late 70s and early 80s hundreds of Jamaicans were dying each year as a result of political and "criminal" violence. The criminal activity was moving further and further away from the ghetto areas of the city and spreading into the suburban foothills where the middle-class Jamaican lived. Crime, while being sponsored in many ways by politicians, was assuming the face of class warfare for the criminals were invariably poor blacks, and the victims who were attacked in the foothills were lighter skinned middle and upper class Jamaicans. Of course, more working class people were killed by political violence than were middle and upper class Jamaicans, but the national panic did not set in until the ruling class felt in some way threatened. (From "Politics and Violence in Dennis Scott's Dog: A Study in Political Pessimism" by Kwame Dawes)
In the play we have humans at war with packs of dogs, both groups fearful and bent on the destruction of the other. This social commentary on the divisions in Jamaica is an interesting one and is recommended viewing.
The play is being mounted at the Edna Manley College with direction provided by Trevor Nairne (see poster above for more details). If you see it, please post a comment and tell us what you think.
The effectiveness of Scott's symbolic play lies in the manner in which he parallels the social conditions of the Jamaican society at the time of his writing the piece. In the late 70s and early 80s hundreds of Jamaicans were dying each year as a result of political and "criminal" violence. The criminal activity was moving further and further away from the ghetto areas of the city and spreading into the suburban foothills where the middle-class Jamaican lived. Crime, while being sponsored in many ways by politicians, was assuming the face of class warfare for the criminals were invariably poor blacks, and the victims who were attacked in the foothills were lighter skinned middle and upper class Jamaicans. Of course, more working class people were killed by political violence than were middle and upper class Jamaicans, but the national panic did not set in until the ruling class felt in some way threatened. (From "Politics and Violence in Dennis Scott's Dog: A Study in Political Pessimism" by Kwame Dawes)
In the play we have humans at war with packs of dogs, both groups fearful and bent on the destruction of the other. This social commentary on the divisions in Jamaica is an interesting one and is recommended viewing.
The play is being mounted at the Edna Manley College with direction provided by Trevor Nairne (see poster above for more details). If you see it, please post a comment and tell us what you think.
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