MAMMA DECEMBA

New Perspectives Theatre Company

and Banana Boat Productions

present

Mamma Decemba

by Nigel D. Moffatt

directed by Shirley Parkinson-Wright

with Lincoln Brown, Sharon Hope*, Shirley Parkinson-Wright

* appearing courtesy Actors Equity Association

Production Designer       Assistant Director           Stage Manager

Meganne George               Merlina Rich                       Sher Xavier

November 12 – 22, 2008

Wednesday – Saturday, 7:30pm

Winner of the Samuel Beckett Award in 1985 (sponsored by the Royal Court Theatre and Channel 4), Mamma Decemba is a bitter-sweet play about an older Jamaican woman living in England who finds herself widowed, jobless, and deserted by her children. Her attempts to cope involving hauntingly honest, sometimes humorous and often painful reflections on her past, raising larger questions for all of us about the nature of life-long relationships. 

“an aching slice of a life runs aground” London Guardian

“Nigel Moffatt's play must be welcomed for bringing to the English stage…the character of Mamma Decemba. For how often can one see, in the English theatre, any member of England's black community portrayed in such shrewd, affectionate detail; a fully rounded personality, not just a symbol for a political, social or racial statement, but herself.” Ann FitzGerald, The Stage

NIGEL MOFFATT (Playwright) began his writing career with poetry and songs which he performed in clubs in the West Midlands, where he still lives. He recorded PEACE LOVE & HARMONY with Paul Weller on his Respond Record label. He has been writer-in-residence at the National Theatre Studio where RHAPSODY ‘N BLACK ‘N WHITE & TONY were performed, then became writer-in-residence at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester, where he wrote Prime Time, which was also performed there. Nigel spent two years as writer-in-residence at Shrewsbury Prison, winning the Butler Trust Prison Service Award 1997 for outstanding contribution to quality of prison care. Film and Television scripts include commissions from the BBC, Channel 4 and the British Film Institute. In 2005 Mr. Moffatt created and directed the Black Writers In Walsall Project (bringing the best black writers in the country to Walsall to stimulate black writing) and has received multiple grants from Arts Council England for a variety of writing projects.

                                                                                                                                          SHARON HOPE as Mamma Decemba