Cat White in Driftwood [Marc Brenner]

SET in a gentlemen’s drinking club in Trinidad on the eve of political independence, actress Martina Laird’s debut play Driftwood simmers with intrigue, lust and passion.

It opens with Ruby (Cat White), a glamorous young woman overseeing a routine delivery of cheap rum to the club known as Alma. She is surprised to meet Diamond (Martins Imhangbe), who isn’t the man she usually deals with, but there’s an immediate chemistry between them.

Alma is run by Ruby’s mother Pearl (Ellen Thomas), yet remains the property of colonial English landowner Mansion (Roger Ringrose).

He is preparing to return to London and Pearl expects him to hand her the house, but Ruby has other plans. When Diamond reveals he is the son Pearl abandoned as a baby, the plot darkens.

Diamond is also planning a scam with Tom (Ziggy Heath), a corrupt US sailor who wants to use the house to store smuggled goods. As competing schemes and desires pile up, director Justin Audibert ratchets up the tension and heat.

Laird sometimes builds suspense too abruptly, and the ending is a little melodramatic, but she interweaves the domestic and the political to great effect – foreshadowing the corruption that would engulf Trinidad and Tobago after independence, fuelled by outside interests. There’s some terrific writing here with shades of Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams.

The cast is top-notch – I loved the use of patois and Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey’s set and costumes immerse us in the period. Driftwood lingers long after the final curtain.

Until July 4
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