The Fyzabad Connection Theatre Company, the multiple award-winning organisation founded by Zeno Constance, the critically acclaimed playwright and dramatist, presents Omega’s Ritual, directed by Deborah Lee Matthews, at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts on Friday 10th November, 2023 in celebration of Constance’s fiftieth (50th) year in the arts and culture of the Caribbean.
The Ritual, the play on which Omega’s Ritual is based, is Zeno’s best-known work. Written in 1978 using the techniques for which he is now well known, this play has influenced the creation of Omega’s Ritual which features a switch in perspective: where The Ritual features 5 teenagers in a classroom, Omega’s Ritual highlights their mothers who meet on Zoom for a 9AM PTA Meeting. The script is the same; the switch in perspective is an exercise in eliciting dialogue which surrounds womens’ lived experiences, using the play’s central thesis of “All ah we is Omega” as its starting point.
Directed by Deborah Lee Matthews, a long-standing member of the FCTC, the performance is experimental, featuring a hybrid of virtual playback and in-person performance. Though The Ritual is considered to be a treatise into understanding the plight of young girls stereotyped because they attend a Senior Comprehensive School, Omega’s Ritual gives adult women a chance to use the play as a catalyst to reflect upon their lives and then give voice to the play’s protagonist, Omega, giving a chance to speak in her own words with her adult and youth sensibilities for the very first time.
The cast has been in rehearsal since May of 2023 there are members of the cast who have never met each other in person. This lends to another aspect of the performance, where what “space” means in Caribbean culture is explored: can community online (in the spirit of what we know as the “yard” in the Caribbean) exist/grow/hold the same properties as being together in person?
Omega’s Ritual is born out of Zeno’s penchant for experimentation, magical realism and pushing the envelope on conversations which are topical to contemporary Caribbean life, and is a perfect way to celebrate his 50 years in theatre, and the love and respect for his work world wide.
The show is at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA) on November 10th at 8.00pm. The show is free, but tickets must be secured for entry. The public is invited to collect tickets (limit of 2 per person) at the SAPA Box office from Monday 30th October to the night of the show. Alternatively, persons and groups may send an email to omegas.ritual@gmail.com to reserve tickets which can be collected at the SAPA Box office on the night of the show before proceeding to the venue’s entrance.
CAST OF OMEGA RITUAL
CREW
Stage Management: The show is stage managed by Jill Sampson.
Lighting Design: Gabriel Toussaint
Front of House: Kabira Floyd, Keren Prime, Prunella Mungroo
