The next morning, policemen are investigating the café at which Rosa works.

Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. Prince: Mavis’ boyfriend and foil. Moon on a Rainbow Shawl is a 1957 play written by Trinidadian actor-playwright Errol John. Since its original production, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl has enjoyed many revivals internationally, first in New York in 1962, in Trinidad in 1988, and then in Australia, Kenya, Iceland, Eastern Europe and South America. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Later, while Ephraim is sleeping, Rosa, Ephraim’s lover, returns to the yard with their landowner and her employer, Old Mack. After kissing and her asking him if he would like to sleep with her, Ephraim rolls over and tells her to leave. It centres on a group of characters living close to the poverty line in a shared tenement yard in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Rosa goes and wakes Ephraim. Mavis: A prostitute who lives in the yard and whom Sophia detests. [4] Charlie, Sophia’s husband, comes home drunk. Charlie is arrested, and Rosa realises she is pregnant with Ephraim’s child. Ephraim is just returning from his work as a trolleybus conductor, and converses with Esther Adams, left home alone with her newborn brother. Ephraim, secretly envious of her youth and opportunity to make a better life for herself than he has, encourages her. ; Shivered – review", "Errol John; Voice of West Indian theatre; Obituary", "James Earl Jones, Nearly Content; It's Time, He Says, for Children - and For the 'Tragedy' of Paul Robeson", "Vinnette Carroll, Playwright And Director, Is Dead at 80", "Full List: Winners Announced of the 2013 Whatsonstage.com Awards", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moon_on_a_Rainbow_Shawl&oldid=981139353, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 1957 Observer Award for Best New Playwright, 1962 Obie for Distinguished Performance by an Actress, 1988 Time Out Award for Best Performance by an Actress, 2012 Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Play, This page was last edited on 30 September 2020, at 14:37. The next day, Charlie, fearful that Old Mack’s employee, Stephen, is going to be arrested for his crime, confides to Sophia that he robbed the café, and then went drinking. Meanwhile, Rosa, his love interest, is working at Old Mack’s café and rejecting the elder suitor’s advances. Esther’s mother, Sophia comes home. Set in Trinidad, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl centres on a group of characters contemplating migration or other ways of leaving their shared tenement yard.

Rosa reveals that she is pregnant with his child, which does not sway his decision to leave.

A group portrait of lives veering between dismay and hope, “ Moon on a Rainbow Shawl” is a neglected 1953 drama by African-Caribbean writer Errol John. Rosa, furious, leaves. Moon on a Rainbow Shawl invites audiences to understand why people left the Caribbean to come to England, and to also think more widely about migration and what motivates those to leave what is familiar. That evening, Rosa tries to seduce Ephraim, but he will not sleep with her. Set in Trinidad, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl centres on a group of characters contemplating migration or other ways of leaving their shared tenement yard. Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (1958) overview Moon on a Rainbow Shawl is a play by Trinidadian actor, playwright and director Errol John. In the play, Mavis and her boyfriend (later fiancé) Prince serve primarily as comic relief. Esther, a very intelligent and studious girl, discusses how her family cannot afford for her to go to high school. The cast was as follows: In 1988 the Almeida Theatre, London, revived the play, directed by Maya Angelou. Get kids back-to-school ready with Expedition: Learn. Old Mack: A 65-year-old, wealthy man. The task was to write a play set after the second world war. Esther’s mother, Sophia comes home. As Sophia suggests that they have Rosa speak to Old Mack and return the remaining money, Ephraim, overhearing the conversation, and demands that Sophia give him the money so he return it without Charlie being implicated. Later that afternoon, Esther returns to an empty home. Moon on a Rainbow shawl was written by a Trinidadian playwright and actor named Errol John. Set in Trinidad, the play explores the lives of three women - Sophia Adams, Rosa, and Mavis - through the prism of their requisite relationships. [3] She then asks Rosa if she has "told" Ephraim yet, to which she responds that she has not.

Long before the rainbow became the symbol of hope and coalition of a different sort, Trinidadian playwright Errol John scripted the play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. But it was set not in England but in Trinidad. He turns down a promotion at his job as a bus conductor and quits. Distraught, Esther blames her mother and runs off. Rosa discloses that she found Charlie’s hat at the café, so she knows that he robbed the café. Sophia, overhearing all this, interrupts him, and he leaves. Esther Adams: Sophia and Charlie Adams’ daughter. I n 1957 Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, by Errol John, a young Trinidadian, won an Observer drama contest. In Moon on a Rainbow Shawl Ephraim longs to leave the island and travel to England. "[11], "Arts (Theatre): Avoiding dreams of defeat / Review of 'Moon on a Rainbow Shawl' at the Almeida", "Moon on a Rainbow Shawl; Can We Talk about This? Old Mack forces himself on Rosa despite her protests and struggles.

He owns the shacks that the Adams’, Ephraim, Rosa, and Mavis live in, as well as the café where Rosa works. He is not particularly fond of her profession, and proposes to her during the course of the play in an attempt to stop her from seeing Americans as clients and as an apology for striking her.

At this time Americans military personnel had set bases their due to the Lend-Lease Act of 1941. Moon on a Rainbow Shawl is a play by Trinidadian actor, playwright and director Errol John. Described as "ground-breaking"[1] and "a breakthrough in Britain for black writing," the play has been produced and revived worldwide since its premiere at London's Royal Court Theatre.[2]. Ambition is a central driving force in the play. Ephraim is just returning from his work as a trolleybus conductor, and converses with Esther Adams, left home alone with her newborn brother. John wrote the play after becoming disillusioned by the lack of good roles for Black actors in Britain. Due to this and the police’s questioning, she fears that they will arrest Charlie. The café is broken into and we learn it was Charlie, a financially unstable father who lives in the yard, desperate to provide for his wife Sophia and his daughter Esther. Creative writing ideas and activities that draw on the histories, people and objects featured on Windrush Stories, Please consider the environment before printing, All text is © British Library and is available under Creative Commons Attribution Licence except where otherwise stated, The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr: sketches and original artwork, Sean's Red Bike by Petronella Breinburg, illustrated by Errol Lloyd, Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights, The fight for women’s rights is unfinished business, Get 3 for 2 on all British Library Fiction, All Discovering Literature: 20th century works, Why you need to protect your intellectual property, First performed 4 December 1958 (Royal Court Theatre, London), Windrush Stories teaching pack (primary students): Creative writing activities, Windrush Stories teaching pack (secondary students): Creative writing activities, Galleries, Reading Rooms, Shop and Catering Opening Times Vary. Lynette Goddard examines the play’s setting, offstage spaces and the contrasting ambitions and perspectives of men and women. Set in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the play opens on a hot, late evening in the yard of two dilapidated buildings. Moon on a Rainbow Shawl has a traditional three-act, two scene structure. His play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, about a man’s struggle to escape an impoverished Port of Spain slum, was produced first in London in 1958 and then revised for a production in New York City in 1962. It centres on a group of characters living close to the poverty line in a shared tenement yard in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Postwar migration to Britain from Africa and the Caribbean led to the development of black British theatre in the 1950s. Young, bright and motivated, Esther represents a possibly positive future for Trinidad. Further analysis of Moon on a Rainbow Shawl can be found in Lynette Goddard’s Errol John’s Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (Routledge, 2017) and the National Theatre’s Background Pack. The title of the play suggests an oxymoron – the moon representing dreams and the rainbow shawl a metaphor for life in Trinidad – that hints at the conflict between the reality of the characters’ situation and the struggle to attain their dreams. Lynette Goddard examines the play’s setting, offstage spaces and the contrasting ambitions and perspectives of men and women. Sophia Adams: A spirited although physically and emotionally exhausted woman, who is wife to Charlie and mother to Esther and her newborn boy. Rosa informs Sophia that Old Mack said "the matter was out of his hands",[6] and that she has given up on Ephraim—despite knowing that he is the father because she has slept with no one else. The play ends with Esther’s return, warmly calling for her mother. The answer, quite simply, is racism.

Ephraim abandons Rosa, determined to go to England, leaving her and the other women – Sophia and Esther – to navigate uncertain futures.

From fighting for equality to negotiating the legacies of slavery and colonialism, Harry Goulbourne considers the significance of Windrush and how Caribbeans who came to Britain in the post-war period have contributed to building a post-imperial society, which is still in formation today. Rosa: A young woman who was orphaned and subsequently raised by Nuns. The contained one-set style, and Ephraim’s anger, bear similarity to the kitchen-sink, ‘angry young man’ dramas which also appeared in post-war Britain by playwrights such as John Osborne and Alan Sillitoe. [9][10] March 2012 saw a revival at the National Theatre about which The Observer′s Kate Kellaway wrote: "Michael Buffong's entertaining production is tender and true. Natasha Bonnelame introduces several of the most important black playwrights of the period, including Errol John and Wole Soyinka and describes the contexts in which their plays were staged.