June 7, 2002 – The Reichhold Center's Caribbean Repertory Theater Company kicks off its summer season Friday evening with a production of "For Better For Worse," which Reichhold director David Edgecombe describes as his "first recognized play."
He wrote it in 1973, when he was a college student, and set it in 1973, in his native Montserrat. It's a comedy, but also a commentary.
The main characters, Sandra and Derek, are a couple of university-educated young people "who are willing to challenge their society — in particular the value of marriage," Edgecombe says. But, he adds, "The play isn't about marriage, or about advocating one form of marriage over another. The subject of marriage is the vehicle through which hypocrisy is explored."
His description of the main protagonists makes them sound like a recognizable slice of life in many corners of the western world in the 1970s: "Sandra has completed university and is working as a teacher. Derek was part of the Caribbean students' riots at Sir George Williams University in Montreal during which a computer lab was burned … As a result, Derek was expelled and is now finishing school at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica."
The scenes take place in the living room of Sandra's parents home and on the back verandah of Derek's parents' place. Although their perspectives are poles apart, both her mother, who is fervently religious, and his father, who is a politician, are adamantly opposed to the ideas their children are espousing.
It's a play about "how difficult it is, particularly in small societies, to disregard mainstream values," Edgecombe says. "It pokes fun. It doesn't preach."
He is directing the production himself, and it's being staged in the Little Theater, located on the second floor of the CA Building on the airport side of the University of the Virgin Islands campus.
Sandra is being played by Jolanda Donadelle, who this weekend is not only making her out-of-school theater debut but also graduating from Charlotte Amalie High School.
In the role of Derek is George Silcott Jr., who graduated from CAHS two years ago and had already by then developed a following as an actor. Besides high school productions, he has appeared in Reichhold Youth Repertory Theater, UVI Little Theater and Caribbean Repertory Theater productions. Silcott was originally cast in a supporting role in "For Better For Worse," but two weeks away from opening night he was tapped to take over the male lead.
The other characters in the play are the couple's parents, two other young adults and a teen-age girl. Josephine Lindquist plays Sandra's mother and Seymour Davis portrays Derek's dad. The cast also includes Michael Kuich, Donna Renee Carter, Kevin Henry and Jahima Parsons.
For theater productions aimed at a more intimate audience than concerts and stage shows, Edgecombe in years past has tried seating attendees just in the covered section at the cavernous Reichhold Center and right on the stage. For his own play "Smile, Natives, Smile" two years ago, he set up an outdoor stage on the walkway between the covered and uncovered areas and seated everyone in the left-hand section of the bleachers.
But based on recent experience, he has decided that there's been a better alternative all along: across campus at the Little Theater, where the UVI speech and theater area produces two plays each year. "The Little Theater is the best theater in the territory for mounting plays," he says. "It's intimate, and because it has only a bit over a hundred seats, it makes it possible to have longer runs. This is important for both actors and writers. It also allows word of mouth to take effect and so help attendance."
Three or four weekends have been the norm for the plays he has staged there. "Last year. we ran 'School's Out' for three weekends and could easily gone on for another one or two," he says.
Edgecombe wrote "For Better For Worse" during his second year of college in Canada. "I don't remember what specifically caused me to write it, but it certainly comes from my observation of the world in which I grew up," he reflects. "I woke up early one morning, and the whole play was just pretty much in my head. I spent weekends and spare time writing it down."
It was a rekindling of a passion for what he calls "playmaking" that he had rejected four years earlier. "I started messing around with playmaking from about the time I was 8 years old," he says. "My first written play happened when I was 15, and I'm sure whatever I did before FBFW must have been awful. That's why FBFW is the first play I own-up to."
He owns up to having written 11 others since, with Virgin Islands audiences having been exposed to "Kirnon's Kingdom," "Making It," "Heaven," "Marilyn" and "Coming Home to Roost."
After two of the three preview nights last week, he said that "the cast is working out fine, and the audiences seem to be having a lot of fun. The feedback is most positive. There are still areas of the production that have to be worked on, but it should be in super shape when it opens on June 7."
FBFW performances are Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday throughout June and ending on July 1 — with one exception. There's no show this Sunday, because the leading lady will be otherwise occupied, collecting her diploma at the CAHS commencement exercises down the hill and across the road in the UVI Sports and Fitness Center.
Showtime is 8 p.m. nightly. General admission tickets are $15 and seating in the Little Theater is unreserved. Tickets are available at the Reichhold box office, UVI bookstore, both Modern Music shops, Parrot Fish Music and Crystal & Gifts Galore in St. Thomas; and at Connections on St. John. They also may be purchased by calling the box office at 693-1559 and using a charge card.
For students, "For Better For Worse" is the best deal in town this weekend and next. Thanks to a grant from the V.I. Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, a "youth ticket" is available at no cost with the purchase of a general admission ticket. However, the free tickets are available only for the performances this weekend and June 14-17, and must be obtained at the Reichhold box office.

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