Bleeding from its edges like a wound; the straw you hold,
Whether it is religion, fame, or hope, the kiss, the dying action,
Made by a huge mimer in an empty hall—
All these are the rich agony of living.
We wait, with accident our mercy, and truth is pain;
And pain, like joy, is sensual; so to feel happy, Vastey,
Is nothing; it is to chew half
Of our globe and spit truth out in morsels,
Those bitter truths that choke the craw of hopes.
I have no regret, and happiness?
Well, end the sermon.
The drums have stopped.
They are here.
The light, strengthen the light,
I will not die in the dark.
VASTEY
It is almost morning.
Tomorrow has no comfort; we must wage war against the dark
In all of us, and make our chaos light.
Regret, King, time …
(CHRISTOPHE laughs loudly, VASTEY signals quiet.)
CHRISTOPHE
Regret, and your knees knocking?
(His laughter dies.)
That silence. Why have they stopped? They are here.
I can hear them, Vastey.
(His gun is drawn.)
VASTEY (Tense, whispering)
But you cannot tell where—
CHRISTOPHE (Bewildered and angry)
Yes, yes, I can tell …
VASTEY
How near are they?
(A resounding crash, like glass, then silence.)
What was that now?
CHRISTOPHE
The Hall of Mirrors.
If I could move …
(He forces himself half upright facing the direction of the noise. VASTEY, behind him, retreats slowly, until he is out of sight. CHRISTOPHE, unaware that he is alone, is speaking half to himself.)
Do not regret, Vastey.
But why do they stop playing? You say it will soon be morning …
Why do they stop? Vastey?
(He turns around.)
Vastey …
(He sinks in the chair, beaten, but alert, muttering, watching the skull and the incense in the foreground.)
I am not without pity, but pity comes tardily, and fits
Raggedly around my crimes. Besides, I think,
In honesty, I am rather sorrier
For myself than all those things I did.
I cannot ripen compunction by rosaries
Or pray to Damballa, or broken gods.
(A scream. VASTEY is taken. CHRISTOPHE hardly listens.)
History, breaking the stalk she grew herself,
Kills us like flies, wings torn, held up to light,
Burning biographies like rubbish.
(He addresses the skull.)
Skull, when your smile wore flesh around its teeth,
Time like a pulse was knocking in the eyelid,
The worm was mining in the bone for metal.
What shall I leave?
I am alone … this anonymous skull?
What shall I?… A half-charred name?
No. A king’s memory, or oblivion.
(The drums rise, and he struggles to his feet, shouting to be heard.)
Tell Pétion I leave him this dark monarchy,
The graves of children, and years of silence …
(His voice breaks with laughter and despair.)
And after that …
Oblivion and silence.
(The drums reach their pitch, and when they stop suddenly, he shudders at the silence and puts the pistol slowly to his head as … the curtain falls.)
DRUMS AND COLOURS
Drums and Colours was produced in the Botanical Gardens, Port of Spain, Trinidad, on April 25, 1958. It was commissioned to mark the opening of the first West Indies Federation. The play was directed by Noel Vaz and Dagmar Butt. Costumes were designed by Motley. Lighting by John Robertson.
The cast was as follows:
CHORUS—Leonard St. Hill
EMMANUEL MANO—Errol Jones
POMPEY—James King
YETTE—Jean Herbert
RAM—Freddie Kissoon
GENERAL YU—Mills Olivier
LAS CASAS—Reginald Carter
BOBADILLA—Errol Protain
QUADRADO—Michael Wickers
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS—Hugh Butt
FERNANDO—Robert Head
BARTOLOME—Peter Pitts
GARCÍA—Conrad Gonzalez
YOUNG PACO—Charles Blakeman
BROKER—Vernon Gomez
BROKER’S NEPHEW—George Prichett
PACO—Easton Lee
JEW—Peter Ireson
MERCHANT—Henri Perrin
SPANISH WOMEN—Yolande Achong, Pat Cansfield, Gene Miles, Mavis Roodal
FIRST SPANISH SAILOR—Abraham Chami
SECOND SPANISH SAILOR—Asaad Sabeeney
MALE SLAVE—William Webb
FEMALE SLAVE—Eunice Bruno
AFRICAN KING—Horace Burgess
PACO AS AN OLD MAN—Ronald Williams
YOUNG RALEIGH—Peter Donnegan
HUMPHREY GILBERT—Arthur Webb
SIR WALTER RALEIGH—Anthony Selman
LAURENCE KEYMIS—William Stevenson
DE BERRIO—Sydney Hill
RALEIGH’S SON—Peter Minshall
ENGLISH SAILORS—Robert Head, George Prichett
BARBADIAN WINE STEWARD—Horace James
PRIEST—Errol Protain
EXECUTIONER—Joe Hatem
GENERAL LECLERC—Tom Burley
PAULINE LECLERC—Rhona Angel
GENERAL DE ROUVRAY—Pip Angel
MADAME DE ROUVRAY—Nancy Richards
ARMAND CALIXTE-BREDA—Ronald Llanos
ANTON CALIXTE—Desmond Rostant
TOUSSAINT L’OVERTURE—Neville Hall
LIEUTENANT FOUJADE—Peter Ireson
BOUKMANN—Jeff Henry
DESSALINES—Errol Hill
CHRISTOPHE—Lloyd Stanford
HAITIAN SOLDIER—Geoffrey Biddeau
DEACON SALE—A. L. Jolly
AARON—Winston Gay
ELIJAH—Bertrand Henry
BRITISH SERGEANT—Victor Hogg
GEORGE WILLIAM GORDON—Errol Protain
CAPTAIN—James Draper
CALICO—Peter Pitts
Author’s Note
In one or two instances, for purposes of thematic cohesion, I have rearranged dates and incidents, but the general pattern of discovery, conquest, exploitation, rebellion, and constitutional advancement has been followed. The play, fully performed, runs well over three hours; however, the scenes are so arranged that interested producers can excise shorter, self-contained plays from the main work, for example, the story of Paco, the El Dorado theme in the Raleigh scenes, the betrayal of Toussaint, the relationship with M. Calixte-Breda (in which the young Anton becomes the central figure), and the escapades of Pompey. I have made a few alterations and several cuts from the acting script.
D.W.
Trinidad, 1960
CAST OF PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
CHORUS, a Carnival figure
EMMANUEL MANO, a masquerader, leader of a Carnival band
POMPEY, a masquerader in Mano’s band
YETTE, a masquerader in Mano’s band
RAM, a masquerader in Mano’s band
GENERAL YU, a masquerader in Mano’s band
LAS CASAS, a Spanish cleric
BOBADILLA, governor of Santo Domingo
QUADRADO, a conquistador
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
FERNANDO, a Spanish sailor
BARTOLOME, a Spanish sailor
GARCÍA, a Spanish sailor
YOUNG PACO, an Indian boy
PACO, an Indian
A JEW, emigrant to the New World
A SLAVE
A FEMALE SLAVE
YOUNG RALEIGH
YOUNG GILBERT
SIR
WALTER RALEIGH, English adventurer
SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT, English adventurer
LAURENCE KEYMIS, officer of Raleigh’s expedition
DE BERRIO, Spanish governor of Trinidad
WINE STEWARD, a Barbadian house slave
GENERAL LECLERC, French commander in Haiti
PAULINE LECLERC, his wife
GENERAL DE ROUVRAY, a French general
CALIXTE-BREDA, a plantation owner
ANTON CALIXTE, his illegitimate son
TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE, Calixte-Breda’s coachman, then liberator of Haiti
BOUKMANN, a slave
HENRI CHRISTOPHE, a Haitian general
JEAN JACQUES DESSALINES, a Haitian general
DEACON SALE, a Jamaican cleric
GEORGE WILLIAM GORDON, a Jamaican
Also, SPANISH WOMEN, SLAVES, SAILORS, SOLDIERS
PROLOGUE
The stage is set with a centrepiece of regimental and African drums, with the flags of Britain, France, Spain, and Holland. In the background, a central balcony with steps leading up to it from either side of the stage. A distant bugle and drum roll, then faint sounds of carnival music. The lights come up.
Enter YETTE, RAM, YU, POMPEY, running, led by MANO.
They rummage among set properties and dress.
MANO
Ram, Pompey, Yette, Yu, like I hear them coming.
I got a plan, boys, we going change round the carnival.
They bound to pass this alley, like I hear them approaching.
Position yourself, we going ambush this road march!
(Enter CARNIVAL MASKERS: dancing.)
MANO
Arawaks, Ashanti, Conquistadors!
Give them the bugle, Pomps!
We changing the march now to “War and Rebellion”!
(POMPEY blows bugle: quiet. The CROWD objects. Shouts.)
VOICE
Ain’t that Pompey the shoemaker?
POMPEY
Is Pompey the warrior starting from today,
And I want all you listen to what I go’ say.
(Climbing on a barrel.)
This confusion going change to a serious play!
(Shouts, etc.)
YETTE
If anyone contradict what General Pompey said,
A bullet from this musket, Pomps, go ahead.
POMPEY (Singing.)
Now you men of every creed and class,
We know you is brothers when you playing Mass,
White dance with black, black with Indian,
But long time, it was Rebellion.
No matter what you colour now is steel and drums,
We jumping together with open arms,
But if you listen now, you going see
The painful birth of democracy.
For in them days it was …
CROWD (Singing and dancing.)
Bend the angle on them is to blow them down, is to blow them down.
Bend the angle on them is to blow them down, is to blow them down,
When the bayonet charge is the rod of correction,
Shout it everyone: when the bayonet charge
Is the rod of correction, till rebellion!
MANO
All you get the idea, so le’ we get organise now.
Now, some Spanish soldiers in a phalanx on the right,
So hoist up them halberds in a mass of steel spikes.
We picking three, four heroes, all in history, look a test
Disguise as Columbus, in the front pardner. Yes, I see
Walter Raleigh, up this side friend …
(COLUMBUS and RALEIGH leave the crowd.)
POMPEY
Where this man Mano acquire such knowledge?
MANO
No Horatio Nelson? He ain’t in Mass this year? Well, we going take what we get. Toussaint L’Ouverture and his Haitian rebellion. In front, brother. No Morgan? No Rodney? Ah, I see George William Gordon. Now I want a test who could spout the Queen English.
(GORDON and TOUSSAINT join COLUMBUS and RALEIGH.)
Come up here, pardner. Yes, you.
(A tall WARRIOR appears from crowd.)
Now I want two masks, tragedy and comedy.
(Two MASKERS hand over masks to the warrior, which he fixes to a staff.)
As the figure of time and the sea, I giving you these two masks, and speak the best you could, poetry and all. And everybody going act, every blest soul going act the history of this nation. And now, friends and actors, as the sun been on his road march all day cooling his crack sole in the basin of the sea, we starting from sunset, through night to the dawn of this nation. Clear the stage. Darkness, music, and quiet. Right!
(All go off. Drum roll and bugle.)
CHORUS
Before our actors praise his triumph, Time
Shows his twin faces, farce and tragedy;
Before they march with drums and colours by
He sends me, his mace bearer, Memory.
To show the lives of four litigious men,
The rise and ebb of cause and circumstance.
For your delight, I raise them up again,
Not for your judgement, but remembrance.
And now that I revolve his tragic eyes
Upon this stage, I’ll show you his device.
This barren height towards which the steps ascend
Is that fixed point round which some issue wheeled.
There our four heroes meet their common end,
There in harsh light, each age must be revealed.
(Steps down.)
Below them, on this level of the stage,
The spokes of normal action turn their course,
(Enter SPANISH SAILORS.)
Just as these sailors, fished from a drowned age,
Were simple men, obscure, anonymous.
And where the stage achieves its widest arc
The violence of large action shall take place,
Each sphere within the other leaves its mark,
As one man’s dying represents the race.
So turn with me, far as your thought will reach,
By this drum’s pulse, through the dissolving foam.
(Enter to drumbeats, PRIESTS and a choir of AMERINDIAN ACOLYTES.)
Time, 1499. A crowded beach.
Columbus leaves on his third voyage home,
Behind him, Governor Bobadilla, whom Isabella, Queen
Of this Castilian colony, has decreed
To charge the old admiral with mismanagement.
By his heart’s side, Las Casas, the grey friar.
Santo Domingo, while the sun’s lamp descends,
Our actions start, the conqueror cracks the whip
A desolate conch sounds from the waiting ship
These ghosts Time raised are given back their speech.
(Exit.)
Scene 1
Santo Domingo. 1499. COLUMBUS sent home in disgrace. COLUMBUS; FRANCISCO DE BOBADILLA, governor; LAS CASAS, bishop of the Indies; INDIANS, SAILORS, SOLDIERS, QUADRADO, officer of the watch.
LAS CASAS
This is the ship that takes you back to Spain.
Our bodies are ribbed vessels, Admiral,
And being fitted thus, shipwreck is certain
Unless Christ is our pilot.
BOBADILLA
As governor of the province of Santo Domingo,
I accept in the names of our two sovereigns
The resignation of your recent office.
Your Excellency, despite the jurisdiction of our princes,
Saw fit to contradict their majesties’ edicts
Against these Indians who are their native subjects,
Against these add, this province’s indiscipline,
The mounting, step by step, to your great arrogance
And the mishandling of this Christian conquest.
For this, and all the rest, as public remonstrance,
I have seen it fit to send you home in irons.
(SOLDIERS chain COLUMBUS.)
LAS CASAS
Kneel, for the blessing of the perpetual Church.
Keep in your days that memorable seal
Of christopher, who bore Christ to the west,
And let this hand that fights for the Indians’ cause
Rest heaven’s blessing on your foam-white hair.
Jesus et Maria sit nobis in via. God go with you.
(Exit with ACOLYTES.)
QUADRADO
Vamos, marineros. Set the ropes free.
Vamos, vamos, the sun is losing light.
(SAILORS hauling. A sail unfurls.)
SAILORS
O Dio! Ayuta noy! O que some! Servi soy!
O voleamo! Ben servir O la fede! Mantenir!
(Drumbeat; exit BOBADILLA, SOLDIERS, CROWD.)
(On deck.)
QUADRADO
Excellency, my captain says the chains need not be used.
COLUMBUS
I’ll wear these irons till we fold sail in Spain.
Now lead me to my quarters, my good officer.
QUADRADO (To SOLDIER)
You, take the admiral to the captain’s quarters.
(COLUMBUS climbs steps. Exit; a rope ladder let down from above. Two sailors, FERNANDO and BARTOLOME, enter.)
FERNANDO
A gentle dusk to thee, Quadrado.
BARTOLOME
You took us out of the port most commendably.
Wilt thou have a biscuit, it appears wholesome,
But worms are mining in it, it should suit
Thy opinion of the times.
FERNANDO (Laughing.)
He’s a poor scholar, Lieutenant,
This world is like an orange, not a biscuit.
QUADRADO
I have forbidden the use of wine till it is issued,
That is well known to you. Give me the wineskin.
GARCÍA
I paid for it.
(Hands it over.)
QUADRADO
Some get so drunk they have a sense of justice.
(Throws away wineskin.)
When is your watch, Bartolome?
BARTOLOME
With these two Christians. The cemetery patrol.
QUADRADO
See you observe it. Come set the shrouds.
GARCÍA
I hate the bloody authority of that officer.
There’s not half a skinful of a man’s blood in him.
Didn’t he use to drink with us before?
FERNANDO
Come set the shroud, you’re a sailor, a drunk one.
The Haitian Trilogy: Plays: Henri Christophe, Drums and Colours, and The Haytian Earth Page 7