by KENMORE BYNOE
?A tremendous performance by Marsha Greenidge provided soulful insights into many of the social issues of Barbados when Lighthouse Foundation put on the play Girl On Fire.
?Playing the lead role of Cici, a lady of the night, Greenidge deservingly earned the title of the lady of the night for both Saturday and Sunday at Major Noot Hall, Combermere School, as she displayed great skills in portraying the practiced traits of a prostitute plying her trade.
The horror of wiping and powdering her “work station” in front of the audience, the flowing cuss words, the fluidity of horizontal gyrations as well as the sprawl-out posture when sitting all made Cici a success.
However, the emotional battle of embarking on a life of prostitution after retaliating to child abuse . . . to be incarcerated while her abuser remained unpunished . . . the ill-advised falling in love with one of her clients . . . as well as coming to grips with the brutal murder of her “homegirl” Peaches . . . to the fairytale ending of deciding to change her lifestyle after she is found to be three months pregnant . . . saw Cici carrying the audience through a gamut of feelings.
Writer Marielle Onyeche’s and director Simon Alleyne’s biggest coup in exposing the various strata of prostitution was when Cici and Peaches clashed on the same spot with self-termed entrepreneur Rasheeda (Dawn Grosvenor-Davis) and her lackey Amanda (Chantal Graham). The escort ladies won the clash with their parting shot that they make thousands while clients never see or touch the merchandise. On the other hand, Cici and Peaches had goods that were like “reruns” – tired of being seen by everyone.
However, while Rasheeda continually boasts of being an entrepreneur providing a service, Amanda’s most poignant statement is when she later admits that “them whore did right, we are whores just like them.”
Ironically, Rasheeda was a highly educated woman in a deadend job where she sought to enlist “workers” from in the office. One such victim was the mousey Shanice (Andrina Alleyne-Pile) who, wanted to make more money to provide for her son and wanted to reduce her work hours to be with her son.
Shanice would later find out that selling one’s soul to the Devil is not a one-off offer and comes with the price of losing her son to the father, as well as winning the scorn and derision of family while being ordered by Rasheeda to go even deeper into the quagmire.
If Rasheeda and Cici have similarities it is that they provide a service to clients whose many partners ignored the physical and emotional desires of their mates. Unfortunately, that service carries a heavy burden for the women. While Shanice realizes ill-gotten fortune can be empty, Rasheeda boldly states that she can buy back her integrity.
The Guyanese prostitute Peaches is beaten and killed after she refuses to provide “bareback” service to a client who believes that his $200 is a fortune which should entitle him to what he wants. Cici has to brave the comments at the public health office from the other patients and she finds a less than sympathetic doctor in Sharon Grant.
?The doctor’s condescending query about Cici’s knowledge and use of condoms is skillfully answered with Cici demonstrating a remarkable skill with condoms.
The snobbery of the doctor is brought to a screeching halt when Cici sees a picture of the doctor’s husband and on parting tells the doctor of the great functionality of the four poster bed in their home.
The trio from Dancin’ Africa maintained the eroticism particularly in the club scenes. However, Cici’s declaration that she could not face the horror of bringing a child into the life which she leads was too easily dismissed when in a fairytale manner she discards her physical trappings of a prostitute to declare that she was no longer Cici but was now Keisha Sealy.
The play is a must see and the HIV/AIDS Commission should stage a couple more weekend runs.
