The Harder They Come at The Playhouse theatre

The harder they come ..the play based on the film based on the true story of Jamaica’s original bad bwoy Vincent ' Ivan hoe 'Marin 'rhygin the two- gun killer born in Linstead St Catherine the show opened with a nine night seen for Ivan hoe martin (nine nigth is a Jamaican term to celebrate those that have crossed over.)

I thought this was very good because in the original film which i have seen many times as a child growing up, did not have this twist.

From start to finish this play had me and my wife enthralled it was so exciting , because as I said before i have seen the original film many times and saw jimmy cliff perform in Jamaica many years ago.

What grab me about this play is that it is so like the original and then not so like the original in other words it is original in its own why which is a plus!

The songs bought back memories from the past dem old time riddim deh

Mek yu rock.!

What i have to mention is just before the show started , i was turning off my phone , when Chris Tummings who plays ‘Ray Pierre’ come over to me acting out his character and said ‘i don’t want to hear no ring ring in here tonight’ then walked off..i thought that was well funny and i said to my wife ‘ i bet dat im bawl mi out later eena de play’

Anyway mek mi move on with what did gwaan

From the start i was very impressed with the cast they made you feel welcome and feel part of the show.

The changes from scene to scene were excellent and went well,

The old times songs made you sing along and brought back memories of younger days.

Rolan bell was excellent. And when he sang ,to me him did sound more jimmy cliff than jimmy cliff! Excellent acting excellent voice and stage presence, this yute going to go far..trus mi!

Victor Romero Evans played an excellent preacher(exactly how some of the world preachers today act)

Marcus Powell what amazing actor he performed an excellent the record producer Hilton. Marcus learnt his part well, totally immersed himself in the part, excellent ..

In one part of the play audience participation came in and I decided to bawl out an answer to Chris Tummings character, and then Chris rounded back on me by saying(this was all within the character) ‘we nuh wyaan nuh broad nose bobo dread fi stress wi plan’ and i tell you i just sink eena mi chair as everyone started to laugh and look around at me including my wife!! Can you imagine! But that was a cool move by Chris still..

Other fantastic performances came from Marlon king’s character ‘pedro’

Susan lawson-reynolds ‘pinky’

Joy m Macks’s ‘miss daisy’(Ivan’s mother)

Karlene Wray’s ‘precious’

Joanna Francis's 'elsa'

Seeing as this is meant to be a Jamaican play, my only criticisms was that a few of the other characters could have worked on their ‘Jamaican accent a little better…..because at times you could hear the difference..

I have to big up the band that played the live vibes..what a wicked band

Sah!!1 well tuff( i wish i had them to back me in my live reggae show’s, they were excellent..every one of them class musicians to the core!..

After the show i met each and everyone of the cast and i have to say that they are the nicest set of people that one could hope to meet.

In closing , all in all i had a great night as i am sure all who also attended did as well.

This is an excellent production and deserves big tings! I would like to see this play in Jamaica as i am sure my people back home in Jamaica would really love this! And after that the next move would be for the production company to take the play to the USA…this play deserves success for all the hard work that the producers, actors. Singers and players of instrument have put in…

Mek sure oonu go seet seen!

Regards

Zacheous Jackson(singer/songwriter of conscious message roots reggae music)