Nadean Rawlins will appear in the University Players' adaptation of Aimé Césaire's 'A Tempest'. - Winston Sill/ Freelance Photographer

The University Players, the resident theatre company of the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts at the University of the West Indies, Mona, will be staging an English translation of Aimé Césaire's play A Tempest (Une tempéte) from May 15-25.

This production proves to be timely since it will serve as both a memorial as well as a celebration of the life and work of Césaire, who died on April 17 this year at the age of 94 in his native Martinique.

A Tempest is being staged as part of the Mona campus celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the University of the West Indies, of which Aimé Césaire was made an honorary graduate in 1974.

Césaire's recasting of Shakespeare's play The Tempest demonstrates his personal commitment to fighting both racism and colonialism. As the writer Timothy Scheie states: "Productions of Shakespeare's The Tempest, have often dwelt on its colonial overtones, but in A Tempest, Césaire, a Martiniquais who himself lived under (neo) colonial rule, explicitly sets the action in terms of the struggle between a colonising European master and the colonised indigenous slaves."

All-star Jamaican cast

Christopher McFarlane will add to an all-star cast for the staging of 'A Tempest'. - Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer

Scheie goes on:

"Clearly adapting and not merely translating Shakespeare's text, Césaire adds to the list of dramatis personae a few brief but significant specifications of racial identity: Caliban is black, Ariel is mulatto and both are Prospero's slaves. Indeed, the master/slave dynamic dominates the text ..."

The University Players' production of A Tempest features an all-star Jamaican cast reflecting both Césaire's prescribed cross-race casting, as well as the additional cross-gendering of some of the roles as well.

Featured performers include Rooney Chambers, Nadean Rawlins, Chris McFarlane, Nadia Khan, Melward Morris, Jean-Paul Menou, O'Neil Peart, Noelle Kerr and Canute Fagan, plus an all-star supporting cast, almost all of whom have appeared in previous University Players' productions.

The opening performance of A Tempest will be presented at the Philip Sherlock Centre, UWI, on Thursday, May 15, at 8 p.m. It continues for a total of eight performances, until May 25, playing Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m.

Noelle Kerr in a scene from 'Di fallen Angel and The Devil's Concubine'. Kerr will also have a turn in 'A Tempest'. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer