From
SMILE ORANGE
by Trevor Rhone
Smile Orange by Trevor Rhone was first performed in London at the Tricycle Theatre in co-production with Talawa Theatre Company on 21 July 1983, directed by Rufus Collins with the following cast; Slyvester Williams, T Bone, Malcolm Fredericks, Anton Phillips and Cassie McFarlene.
In 1992, Smile Orange was performed again in London, directed by Trevor Rhone, to audiences at the Nia Centre in Manchester and at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, with a new set of groundbreaking black actors, including Dona Croll, Robert McKewley, Raul Newney, Eamonn Walker and David Webber. Since then the play has been produced in Brooklyn and in Africa, performed in Swahili. Smile Orange has also been adapted for film.
Trevor Rhone’s Smile Orange is a satire with an underlying serious commentary on the tourism industry in Jamaica, specifically focusing on the exploitation of both the Jamaican hotel staff and tourists. The play centres on lead character Ringo Smith, a Jamaican hustler and waiter at the Mocho Beach Hotel. Ringo has mastered the way to mould into the perfect subservient Jamaican for the white guests at the hotel for financial and employment gain. With other staff members at the Hotel Beach resorting to prostitution and manipulation, Rhone comments on humanity in the tourism business, questioning the lengths both tourists and Jamaicans will go to for money, sex and a good time.
About the Playwright
The legendary, award-winning playwright, actor, director and producer Trevor Rhone, was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 24 March 1940 and died of a heart attack on 15 September 2009. Trevor Rhone, is most famous for writing the stage play Smile Orange and the screenplay The Harder They Come (co-scripted with Perry Henzell in 1972). He is remembered by his three children, Traci, Trevor-David and Jonathan, wife Camella and grandchild Sofia. Trevor Rhone gained a scholarship to study drama at Rose Bruford College in Kent during the 1960s. After graduating with a drama degree, Rhone returned to Jamaica. In 1967, Rhone founded the Theatre ’77 group in Jamaica, dedicated to producing local new writing in Jamaica. In the same year, Rhone and Yvonne Brewster co-founded the groundbreaking Barn Theatre (which had a capacity of 150 seats), which housed the work created by Theatre ’77. Smile Orange premiered in Jamaica at the Barn Theatre in 1971. Since then Trevor Rhone’s stage plays have been produced internationally and he has also adapted many plays for the screen.
Other plays by Trevor Rhone include Two Can Play, Schools Out and Old Story Time.
Summary (Extract)
RINGO has manipulated his boss to employ unqualified pool attendants who cannot swim to work at the hotel. Meanwhile, he has also mastered a plan to rip-off the hotel guests by encouraging them to gamble their money at a crab race competition. Ringo’s back-handed actions finally catch up with him when a drunk guest loses all of his money at the crab race competition and dies in the Mocho Beach hotel’s swimming pool. With the police investigation taking place at the hotel, Ringo thinks of another plan to avoid facing any repercussions.
No matter. I jump in. I risk mi life. I risk my life to save di tourist. You hear how people was congratulating me, how me brave. You listen to what di tourists were saying? Di fact dat a man had to jump in and save me too, no big thing. If me never get a cramp me would save everybody. You is di only two dat know me can’t swim, so all you have to do is spread it roun’ di hotel dat ‘Ringo risk him life to save di tourist an’ pool attendant’. Two twos you hear it over di radio. Next thing you know you see it in di newspaper. Is a great selling card. Next time dem giving out medal for bravery my name will be on di list. As far as di world is concerned, ‘Ringo is a hero’. What I say – ‘Hero’. All when di Manager come back and hear di story, is promotion dat, you know. Head Waiter, then Dining-Room Captain. When me get into dem high positon, I ju’ bring you up wid me. Eh, sweet boy? You can see yuhself as a waiter?
[BUSBOY: Yes, Sar.]
So all you have to do is keep yuh mouth shut ’bout what really happen and shout out ‘Ringo Risk him life to save di people’. People believe anything you tell dem, you know. After me get di promotion, you know, Joe, any little racket you want to run, me nuh jus’ turn me eye? What you say? A talking sense?
[BUSBOY: It sound all right, but what about di Assistant Manger? They going to have a big investigation into what happen.]
Dat is true. Even if him find out di truth, what him going to do? Him can’t do nutten. Him reputation at stake. Is him employ di boys. When it get down to din nitty-gritty is each man for himself. Everybody is protecting him own things. If is not money, is power. Is two things I sorry ’bout, though. One, dat di white man dead – him wasn’t a bad guy – and two, dat di other brother never drown too. (Laughs.) So, young boy, when anybody ask you what happen today, what you going to say?