Up the Garden Path & The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God Read online

  Also by Lisa Codrington

  Cast Iron

  For my auntie and my mom. A play for each one.

  Contents

  Also by Lisa Codrington

  Up the Garden Path

  Special Thanks

  Production History

  Text Notes

  Dialect Notes

  Characters

  Time and Place

  Part 1: Barbados

  Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Scene 5

  Scene 6

  Scene 7

  Scene 8

  Part 2: Niagara Region

  Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Scene 5

  Scene 6

  Scene 7

  Scene 8

  Scene 9

  Scene 10

  Scene 11

  Part 3: Niagara Region & Barbados

  Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Scene 5

  Scene 6

  Scene 7

  The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God

  Special Thanks

  Production History

  Notes

  Setting and Style

  Running Time

  Text

  Performance

  Characters

  Preface

  Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Scene 5

  Postface

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Up the Garden Path

  For those who are far from home or searching for home.

  Special Thanks

  I would like to thank Philip Akin for his support, honesty and direction of Up the Garden Path and Mel Hague for her generosity, openness and enthusiasm throughout the development process.

  I would also like to thank the many people and places that supported the research, development and first production of this play. In particular, Beryl Bain, Marjorie Chan, Eric Coates, Eileen Codrington, Hughlene Codrington, David Fancy, Dan Laroche, Adam Perry, Kerry Preibisch, Rangel Ramos, Chris Ramsaroop, Peter Twist, the Blyth Festival, Cahoots Theatre Projects, Obsidian Theatre and the 2012–2013 playwrights unit and the Caribbean migrant farm workers in the Niagara Region who were generous enough to speak with me while I did research for this play.

  I would also like to thank actors Peter Bailey, Ayinde Blake, Simon Bracken, Raven Dauda, Arlene Duncan, Sochi Fried, Virgilia Griffith, Marci T. House, Marcia Johnson, Abena Malika, Alex McCooeye, Araya Mengesha, Derek Moran, Cara Ricketts, Sabryn Rock, Ronnie Rowe Jr., Marcel Stewart and Sophia Walker for participating in the development workshops and readings of Up the Garden Path.

  Production History

  Up the Garden Path was first produced by Obsidian Theatre at Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto, from March 23 to April 10, 2016, with the following cast and creative team:

  Alma: Arlene Duncan

  Amelia: Raven Dauda

  Edmund: Ronnie Rowe Jr.

  Isaac: Alex McCooeye

  Laura: Sochi Fried

  Richard: Marcel Stewart

  Rosa: Virgilia Griffith

  Director: Philip Akin

  Dramaturg: Mel Hague

  Set and Costume Design: Anna Treusch

  Lighting Design: Steve Lucas

  Sound Design: Verne Good

  Projection Design: Cameron Davis

  Stage Manager: Meredith Henry

  Production Manager: Patrick Lavender

  Head of Props: David Hoekstra

  Head of Wardrobe: Ming Wong

  Assistant Director: Saccha Dennis

  Apprentice Stage Manager: Sara Allison

  Apprentice Set Designer: Geneal St. Clair

  Up the Garden Path was developed through Cahoots Theatre’s 2013–2014 Hot House Creators Unit, Obsidian Theatre’s 2014 and 2015 Development Series and Obsidian Theatre’s 2012–2013 Playwrights Unit.

  I would also like to acknowledge the support of the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

  Text Notes

  forward slashes (/) indicate overlapping text or stage directions

  text from George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan is used in this play and is indicated through the use of italicized dialogue

  text in small caps doesn’t necessarily mean shout, but it could; mostly it just means emphasize in the way you see fit

  character lines without text indicates an unspoken response

  Dialect Notes

  the characters from Barbados speak Bajan, the characters from Canada speak Canadian and the ghost speaks like someone who hasn’t spoken to anyone in over a hundred years

  Characters

  Alma (late forties / early fifties)

  Edmund’s mother, Amelia’s sister and Sticky’s widow. She ain’t lef’ de house since Hurricane Janet hit.

  Amelia (late thirties / early forties)

  Edmund’s auntie and Alma’s sister. She beau Alton lef’ and gone tuh England before Hurricane Janet hit. She ain’t hear from Alton since.

  Edmund (early twenties)

  Alma and Sticky’s son, Amelia’s nephew and Rosa’s half-­brother. All he remember ’bout Hurricane Janet is dat he daddy get hit on he head wit’ a soursop and dead.

  Rosa (late teens)

  Edmund’s half-­sister and Sticky’s outside child he have wit’ a Jamaican woman name Cutie. She ain’t remember one damn t’ing ’bout Hurricane Janet ’cause she was too small.

  Richard (dead)

  A ghost kinda based on the real live (well, dead now) Richard Pierpoint, but this is not a documentary so I made a bunch of stuff up. Plus, people don’t know a lot about his life and, I imagine, even less about his ghost life (if he even had one). So, for me he’s a coloured soldier who fought for the British in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. He’s sick of being a ghost so spends most of his time trying to die by bird-­banger cannon. Every time the cannon sounds he enacts a death scene that is totally serious and not annoyingly long. It is an obsessive-­compulsion.

  Isaac (early twenties)

  A farmer (or viticulturist if you want to get fancy) and Laura’s older brother. He knows a lot about the War of 1812 and is named after Isaac Brock.

  Laura (late teens)

  An aspiring actor and Isaac’s kid sister. Laura is named after Laura Secord but she’d rather be named after Joan of Arc. She’s not at all interested in the War of 1812.

  Time and Place

  Barbados and the Niagara Region, harvest time and hurricane season, late 1960s.

  Part 1

  Barbados

  Scene 1

  Monday afternoon.

  Inside alma’s broken-­down board house.

  De sun got de place hot.

  rosa stands in the doorway with her sewing things in one hand and her grip in the other.

  alma watches rosa, amelia watches alma and edmund eats turnover.

  alma: Suh wait, yuh just drop she body in de boat and watch it guh ’long?

  rosa:

 
; alma: Dat ain’t nuh way tuh treat yuh ma-­ma.

  (to edmund) Yuh would treat me so, Edie?

  edmund: (full mouth) I would bury yuh in de back.

  amelia: Yuh know yuh got tuh lift a shovel tuh do dat.

  rosa: She want tuh be put tuh rest at home.

  alma: Why? What Jamaica got dat Barbados ain’t?

  amelia: Waterfalls, mountaintops.

  alma: Dem better bury she pun de mountaintop, ’cause by de time she reach, she gine smell stink.

  amelia: Alma.

  alma: Why yuh t’ink dis place does smell so? T’anks tuh Hurr’cane Janet, my husband Sticky stand in dis here house fuh two weeks — ­

  amelia: Two days.

  alma: — ­before we able tuh put he in tuh de ground. All dese years and I can still smell he stink.

  amelia: Ain’t smell no worse dan when he was alive.

  alma: Shoulda see all de licorice mongoose circlin’ de place, tryin’ tuh eat up what lef’ of my Sticky — Dem is have mongoose in Jamaica?

  rosa: I ain’t know.

  alma: Wha’ happen, you mummy ain’t never tek yuh?

  rosa: No.

  alma: All right den, guh ’long now.

  rosa: I spend alla de money I got shippin’ she body.

  alma: Shoulda gone wit’ she in de boat.

  amelia: Alma.

  alma: You and yuh mummy ain’t suh big. De two a wunna coulda fit in de box. / Woulda have tuh put a kerchief tuh yuh nose suh yuh ain’t have tuh smell she stink, / but at least yuh woulda get one last trip wit’ yuh ma-­ma before dem stick she in tuh de ground — ­

  amelia: Alma.

  alma.

  alma!

  alma: (to amelia) I just tryin’ tuh t’ink of a way tuh get de girl home.

  rosa: Barbados is my home.

  alma: Den why I hear yuh gone and sell up alla yuh land?

  rosa: I just need a place tuh stay until I mek back some money — ­

  alma: Dis here is look like an almshouse tuh you?

  rosa: I ain’t got nuh place tuh go — ­

  alma: T’ree up in here is already tuh much.

  amelia: It ain’ gine be t’ree fuh tuh much longer.

  alma: If yuh t’ink I want she sleepin’ side a me when Edie gone, yuh lie!

  rosa: (to edmund) Where yuh goin’?

  edmund: Uh — ­

  alma: (to rosa) no / place — ­

  amelia: (to rosa) Tuh Canada tuh pick fruit.

  alma: It just a interview. He ain’t get de job / yet — ­

  amelia: He better get dat blasted / job.

  alma: If he get it, he get it; if he ain’t, he ain’t!

  amelia sucks her teeth.

  rosa: He got a suit?

  alma: Since when yuh is need a suit tuh pick fruit?

  rosa: Fuh de interview. I just mek one fuh Sylvan Scott and dem send he overseas quick so.

  amelia: Fuh true?

  rosa: I could mek one fuh Edmund.

  alma: No t’anks, I ain’t want no suit-­sewin’ woman stitchin’ anyt’ing fuh my son. Dat is de job of a tailor.

  amelia: Where we gine get money tuh pay a tailor?

  alma: We ain’t need one. De boy already got a suit.

  edmund: I / do?

  amelia: He do?

  alma: How yuh mean?

  (to edmund) You got yuh yuh yuh . . . you daddy suit nuh.

  edmund: Oh.

  amelia: Sticky obzockie ole suit ain’t gine fit he.

  rosa: I could mek Edmund a new suit.

  rosa pulls a piece of fabric out of her bag.

  Look, I got dis pinstripe dat — ­

  amelia: Oh, I like dat! Yuh like it, Edmund?

  edmund: Uh — ­

  alma: Edie ain’t need no new suit. All Sticky one need is a little touch-­up.

  rosa: I can do alterations.

  alma: No t’anks.

  amelia: Yuh forget she mudder is de one who mek de damn t’ing in de first place!

  alma: Why yuh t’ink I alterin’ it.

  amelia: You?!

  amelia dies wit’ de laugh.

  alma: She mummy put nuff nuff wort’lessness in dat suit when she mek it fuh my Sticky, suh if anyone gine alter it, it gine be me, (to rosa) ’cause I ain’t want my son wrap up in none a dat shite, yuh hear.

  rosa: I just want tuh help my brudder.

  alma: Wha’ yuh want is a place tuh rest yuh big head. But I ain’t want yuh here. suh go. guh ’long and go!

  amelia: Yuh can’t just put she out; she is Sticky — ­

  alma: outside chile. And yuh know where outside chile does belong?

  (to rosa) out-­side.

  (to amelia) And if yuh ain’t like dat, guh ’long wit’ she den. I tired a hearin’ yuh call my name.

  amelia goes to the bedroom.

  edmund: Auntie?

  alma: Don’t pay she no mind, Edie. She t’ink she real smart. Let she go and see where she malicious lick-­mout’ get she.

  (calling out) Guh ’long den, ’Melia; go and get de girl tuh mek yuh one a she mummy hungry close-­neck sideways monkey-­lookin’ dress tuh live in — ­

  amelia returns with Sticky’s ginormous suit.

  amelia: (to alma) Yuh really t’ink yuh can mek dis fat foot t’ing fit dat boney foot boy?

  rosa: Wow.

  amelia: Now you know we need Edmund tuh — ­

  alma: i know.

  amelia: Well den stop playin’ de fool and let she stay and help wit’ de suit . . . (in confidence) and maybe when she finish she could mek we a new set a curtains — I see Jennifer got some nice ones up in she — ­

  alma grabs the suit from amelia. She looks it over and then holds it out to rosa.

  alma: Here.

  rosa:

  alma: Wha’ yuh big eyes lookin’ at? If yuh gine help, help.

  rosa takes the suit and gets down to work.

  Scene 2

  Tuesday morning.

  alma’s broken-­down board house.

  De sun shinin’ bright, but it ain’t got de place suh hot yet.

  edmund stands uncomfortably in the half-­altered suit. He eats turnover while rosa tries not to juk he wit’ straight pins. alma and amelia hover.

  edmund: We have some land in de back and / I tend tuh — ­

  amelia: No no no. “We have some land in de back and I tend tuh it!”

  edmund: We have some land in de back / and I tend — ­

  amelia: We have some land in de back and I tend tuh it!

  edmund: We have some land in de back and I tend tuh it!

  Pause.

  amelia: Just keep practisin’ and yuh be fine.

  alma: Fine what! If de boy can’t even talk ’bout tendin’ land, how de hell he gine get de damn seeds plant when he overseas?

  edmund: (quietly) We have some land / in de back and I tend tuh it.

  amelia: He ain’t gotta plant; he just gotta pick de fruit when it ripe.

  alma: Yuh gotta plant tuh have somet’ing tuh pick.

  amelia: I tell yuh, it gine be done plant by de time he reach de place.

  alma: How you know?

  edmund: (a little louder) we have some land / in de back and I tend tuh it.

  amelia: I done quarrellin’, ’cause you ain’t know a damn t’ing ’bout food but how tuh eat it.

  alma: Why should I hurt my hand if Edie-­muh-­sweetie / can just go up de street tuh Ms. Clarke’s shop an — ­

  amelia sucks her teeth.

  amelia: Yuh should stop callin’ he dat.

  alma: Why?

  amelia: It mek he soft.

  edmund: (even louder) we have some / land in de back and I tend tuh it.
>
  alma: (to amelia) How was I supposed tuh mek he hard all on my own?

  amelia: Yuh shoulda gone wit’ de Forde guy; he did like you bad.

  alma: He have a funny eye.

  amelia: Wha’ yuh got tuh look at he suh hard fuh? A man is a man! Yuh lucky yuh get one — ­

  edmund: (full blast) we have some land in de back and i tend tuh it!

  amelia: Lawrd Gawd, yuh tryin’ tuh give we heart attack!

  edmund: Sorry, Auntie.

  rosa: Stand still. I nearly juk yuh.

  amelia: Yuh carry on like dat at yuh interview and yuh can forget about overseas — ­dem will tek yuh straight tuh de madhouse!

  alma: Let de boy practise nuh!

  amelia: I am tryin’ tuh help he — ­

  alma: Well lower down yuh voice den. Wit’ de way you is carry on, it no wonder yuh ain’t never get nuh man.

  (to edmund) Go on, Edie.

  edmund: (quietly) Land land, we have sooome / laaaand . . .

  amelia: Yuh forget Alton who live up top de hill?

  alma: Who?

  amelia: My man dat guh ’long tuh England.

  alma: Oh, Alton dat lef’ yuh tail.

  amelia: (to rosa) He was tuh send fuh muh but — ­

  alma: (to rosa) Up till now she ain’t never hear from de man.

  edmund: (quietly) Weeee haaaaave / some — ­

  amelia: (to rosa) It dat pale-­face postman. He vex ’cause I turn he down. / Suh what he gone and do? Strip up alla Alton letters! / I gine confront he tomorrow. / And den I gine write tuh Alton and mek my way tuh England.

  edmund: (quietly) We we weeee haaaave . . .

  (quietly) We have some . . .

  (quietly) some some, we have . . .

  alma dies wit’ de laugh.

  amelia: (to rosa) T’ink you could mek me a dress fuh de trip?

  rosa: Yes.

  amelia: Good. If it fit nice yuh can mek my weddin’ dress.

  edmund: (quietly) Land, / la la la la . . .

  alma: (to amelia) Yuh gine invite de queen tuh de weddin’ too?

  amelia: I ain’t want she turn-­up face and small small nose at my special day.

  alma: Yuh get hang fuh dat, yuh hear.

  amelia: We is an independent nation now. I can say what I want.