Sol River – Plays 2 [White Witch of Rose Hall + Last Admittance of Man + Making Waves + Walk Against Fear]

Title: Sol River - Plays 2 [White Witch of Rose Hall + Last Admittance of Man + Making Waves + Walk Against Fear]
Author: River, Sol
Price: $39.95

The White Witch of Rose Hall, one of Jamaica's most famous stories, explores the horror associated with both voodoo and slavery.

In The Last Admitance of Man, Jesus has sought permission from God to enable his disciples to see the future.

In Making Waves, a West Indian Pentecostal Minister is stationed in a rural Welsh parish.

Walk Against Fear, is a radio drama that tells the story of the first African American to attend the university of Mississippi.
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The White Witch is a legendary story of a haunting in Jamaica:
The story states that the White Witch was Annie Palmer, who was born in England to an English mother and Irish father. She spent most of her life, however, in Haiti. After her parents died of yellow fever she was adopted by her nanny who regularly practiced voodoo and taught her witchcraft. She later moved to Jamaica, where she was married to John Palmer in 1820. John was the owner of Rose Hall Plantation, east of Montego Bay. Annie's husband (and two subsequent husbands as well) died suspiciously, and it is speculated that Annie herself brought about their demise. Annie became known as a mistress of voodoo, using it to terrorize the plantation, and taking male slaves into her bed at night and often murdering them. Annie supposedly murdered her lovers because she was bored of them. The legend has her being murdered in her bed during the slave uprisings of the 1830s by one of her slave lovers named Takoo, who also practiced voodoo and became one of Annie's lovers. Annie was said to be killed by Takoo because she was in love with the husband of Takoo's granddaughter. When Annie found she could not have him, she conjured a voodoo curse on Takoo's granddaughter who died a week later. When Takoo found this out, he killed Annie. Takoo ran into the forest to hide after murdering Annie, but was quickly caught by an overseer (another of Annie's lovers) and killed. It is said that a family who owned the property after the Palmers had a housekeeper who was \"pushed\" by Annie off of Annie's favourite balcony, subsequently breaking her neck and dying.


AUTHOR (from Wikipedia)
Sol B River is a British writer, director, producer and actor best known for his theater productions, born October 2 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England and of (Jamaican) parentage,. He was introduced as Writer in Residence (94-96) to the West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds by Artistic Director Jude Kelly[1] after writing Moor Masterpieces as his first commissioned production. He immediately became one of the most important and enigmatic theatrical voices in Britain, his work being noted as having power and authority by Time Out magazine while The Guardian compared his production of To Rhatid to writing like Samuel Beckett on amphetamines.

In 1996 he received rave reviews for his first London production To Rhatid, directed by Yvonne Brewster and performed by Angela Wynter, produced by Talawa Theater at the Young Vic Studio Theater.

In 1998 he wrote the famous Jamaican story The White Witch of Rose Hall and the world premiere was produced in Jamaica as part of the University of the West Indies 50th anniversary at the Philip Sherlock Centre and directed by Brian Heap. The play had failed to receive a production in Britain.

In 1998 River Plays 1 which includes Moor Masterpieces, To Rhatid and Unbroken, was published by Oberon Books, London as part of their Modern Playwrights series thus becoming the first living black writer to be published by Oberon.

A further collection of Sol's work was published as River Plays 2 by Oberon Books in 2000.

His work also includes Unbroken 1998 commissioned by Phoenix Dance Theatre and choreographed by Thea Barnes a piece which saw dancers perform to spoken word. 48/98 commissioned by Talawa Theatre Company for the Zebra Crossing 2 season was performed at The Lyric Studio 1998 directed by Ben Thomas was the recipient of the Barclays Extra Performance Award.

In 1998 Sol directed Brace Yourself, a dance documentary on RJC for Channel 4. His work during the 90s caused Jane Edwards at Time Out magazine to say River's power and authority makes one eager to see what he's going to do next and for Lyn Gardner of The Guardian to say, \"River writes like Beckett on amphetamines\". Pride Magazine called him \"The thinking woman's crumpet\" and voted him number 8 in their special edition of the sexiest black men in Britain while also calling him \"probably the most exciting young black writer of the Nineties.\"

In 1999 he directed the award winning short film The Bitterest Pill starring Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox.

In 2001 he directed the documentary Glass Ceiling for Channel Four, featuring Treva Etienne, Clarke Peters, Ricco Ross, Rodney Charles and Kolton Lee Baz Bamigboye of the Daily Mail called it 'An extraordinary documentary.

Sol has also made various acting appearances which includes Get up Stand Up to ITV Yorkshire's Emmerdale Farm.

For BBC Radio 4 Sol has written Making Waves (2000), Walk Against Fear (2000) with James Meredith and Drive On (2002).

In 2003 Sol wrote and was Associate Director for Two Tracks & Text Me, West Yorkshire Playhouse. Some suggested[who?] that the reviews for Two Tracks and Text Me which was a massive televisual piece of theatre were not too kind, but they included reviews such as the one by Zenobia Tiley of BBC Online who said it was \"One of the most thought provoking performances Ive ever seen. Modern, moving and mighty\", while Lynne Walker of The Independent wrote \"Such delight to be had in River's clever and original way with words - it had me on the edge of my seat\". The production of Two Tracks and Text Me also was said to have had the most lighting cues in the history of West Yorkshire Playhouse productions. River is said to have wanted to take a break from writing at the end of the production.

In 2005-6 Sol became Associate Director at the Contact Theatre in Manchester. From 2003-8 Sol became the Royal Literary Fund Fellow and Advisory Fellow at Chester College, Arden College, Manchester, Trinity and All Saints College Leeds, and York St John University.

Publisher: Oberon Books Ltd
Publication date: 01/01/2004
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781840022667
Publishing status: Last copy archived