literary
« Previous EntriesThe Powerful and the Good
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011[This review of Wan Smolbag Theatre's new play, Zero Balans was written for the Vanuatu Daily Post.] Zero Balans, the new play from Wan Smolbag Theatre, seems to argue that you can be powerful and you can be good, but you can’t be both at once. This political morality tale recounts the story of Ezekiel. [...]
Doctor Me? Doctor You!
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010The BBC should sponsor a fanvid contest, in which the most implausible people play the Doctor. In the interests of actually being able to finish in a reasonable amount of time, contestants should create only the pre-credit opening scene.
An American Dreamer
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010The world is not gentle to the innocent, but no matter how it battered him, Tim Drefahl never let it win. Vanuatu offered solace for a while and, on an island ringed by an azure lagoon, there are people who will never forget his duty, his devotion, his love.
The World, Alas
Sunday, October 18th, 2009The world, alas, is far too rushed to ever tell the truth.
Parts of a Rumour
Sunday, July 19th, 20091 this is only evidence the rattling that betrays a flock of sparrows in the branches of a barren shrub gathered and pressing the stems like a small cold wind the rattling that betrays a cat in a dry rose bush collected like parts of a rumour 2 there are no petals on a wet [...]
Bislama Bons Mots
Sunday, May 31st, 2009In Bislama’s most common usage, the laughing, chaffing repartee that punctuates our daily exchanges, it’s good-natured, inventive and cheeky, strikingly similar to the bawdy discourse in a Dublin pub on any given Friday.
My point – and I do have one – is that visitors ignore the nuance and linguistic flair inherent in Vanuatu discourse at their peril. No one can truly say they understand Bislama until they’ve grasped its vividly metaphorical, highly contextual fluidity and made it their own.
The Devil at our Shoulder
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009Anybody who’s opened a newspaper in the last few years will recognise the characters and events portrayed in 40 Dei, Wan Smolbag Theatre’s latest stage production. Smolbag’s greatest gift to us is its ability to show us our own world. The play is populated by the same reprobates, righteous hypocrites, prostitutes, politicians and just plain folks as we find in any neighbourhood in Port Vila.
We all walk with the Devil at our shoulder. Without surrendering to dogmatic, moralistic finger-wagging, 40 Dei confronts us with the knowledge that the most insidious enemy to Vanuatu society lies within it, not without. Until we recognise that there are no easy answers to the complex afflictions of a society in transition, until we accept that prostitutes, prisoners and penitents alike are all our family, until we recognise our own weakness in the face of venality and ambition, we will never completely be whole.
In the words of the immortal Walt Kelly, “We have met the enemy and it is us.”
Winter
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009I wrote a slightly different version of this for my friend Tracy when Chris died, years ago now. It’s a mild variation on a villanelle, a song form first used in 16th Century France. It’s simple, sentimental and true.
It should really be sung, acapella, with a slowly moving melody reminiscent of Cathedrals, by Jump Little Children.
I found myself searching for something to say when Tracy wrote to tell me that a mutual friend had died, unexpectedly and far, far too soon. This is what came out.
It’s for John, and for all of those who knew Shannon.
A Plausible Man
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008Outside the hotel the city was black, reflective. In the lobby, a Miles Davis number quietly contemplated heroin. The whole town was in fugue. Rain before and snow to come; nothing now but cloud and calm.
Aidan stepped out smartly as the Jetta rolled up.
Tales of the North Atlantic
Friday, October 17th, 2008[Originally published in the Vanuatu Daily Post’s Weekender Edition.] Tawi blong mi; I write to you from the enthralling, magical island of Manhattan. This jewel of the North Atlantic is a marvelous place. It is visited by all the races of the world. They are drawn by its legendary abundance and wealth. Here, one can [...]
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