On Tuesday May 3rd and Wednesday May 4th, Omeros came home to Saint Lucia. The dramatised version of Walcott’s major, 325 page, book-length poem of the same name (1990), was presented by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The venue was the National Cultural Centre. The two-actor masterpiece, and make no mistake, we watched a masterpiece of poetry and drama, featured St. Lucia’s Joseph Marcell and actress Joan Iyiola.
I say Omeros came home since the powerful descriptive-lyrical-narrative poetry of Sir Derek, set in Gros Islet, with iconic fishermen and villagers at the centre of the drama, resonated in St. Lucia, with St. Lucian audiences, in a way that is probably not possible in London or New York or other metropolitan centres. I would love to see this play put on in Gros Islet, in the open air, free of charge, to the public. It would have a liberating reception that would be unique. And I think that Walcott would feel a deep satisfaction that those of his home people for whom he writes recognised and received his work and portrayal of their lives, with a joy and satisfaction beyond real or imagined boundaries of class and education.
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