Chapters (14)
Still, despite the fact that Alyson has turned into Alvita – and then been split many times over into all her husbands and friends – the text is, for the most part, a direct transposition of the Wife of Bath’s prologue and tale. Here and there I have made judgement calls, substituting contemporary references for ones I thought too obscure to be meaningful to contemporary audiences. For example, the Pardoner, the Summoner and the Friar – all of whom make brief appearances in the Wife of Bath’s prologue – have been transformed, respectively, into their modern vocational equivalents: a charity chugger, a bailiff, and the minister of a local megachurch. I have also taken a few liberties with the structure. All of Chaucer’s tales are framed and bookended by the opening General Prologue and the final Retraction; the same is true here, but I have radically paraphrased – and mercifully shortened – both. The greatest change, perhaps, is in the tale itself, which has been switched from Arthurian England to eighteenth-century Jamaica. Try as I might, I couldn’t imagine Alvita using King Arthur as a point of reference. These transformations aside, I’m proud to call the Wife of Bath and the Wife of Willesden half-sisters. I’ve so enjoyed my time with both of these wild women. I’d like to claim Alvita is the more feisty of the two, but the truth is you’ll find all her feistiness in the original. That said, she certainly is more Kilburn and more Jamaica. She nah easy and she talk her mind.
Dramatis Personae
In order of appearance
ALVITA, THE WIFE OF WILLESDEN A Jamaican-born British woman in her mid-fifties
AUTHOR A brown woman in a headwrap
PUBLICAN POLLY The woman who runs the Colin Campbell pub
AUNTIE P Alvita’s churchgoing aunt
PASTOR JEGEDE A Nigerian minister at a North London megachurch
KELLY Alvita’s very shy niece
HUSBAND NO. 1, IAN An older, white Englishman
HUSBAND NO. 2, DARREN A young, good-looking bwoy
HUSBAND NO. 3, WINSTON A Rastaman
HUSBAND NO. 4, ELRIDGE A well-to-do gentleman in his fifties, of Caribbean heritage
HUSBAND NO. 5, RYAN A Scottish student doing his Masters
GOD
ST PAUL
BLACK JESUS
ZAIRE Alvita’s best friend
COLIN A charity chugger in his early twenties
SOPHIE Colin’s fiancée
NELSON MANDELA
ASMA Local rebel wife
SOCRATES
ERIPHYLE A bad wife of legend
ARRIUS A vengeful husband of legend
BARTOSZ A local bailiff
STAGEHAND 1 A child
STAGEHAND 2 A child
QUEEN NANNY Our Maroon hero of Old Jamaica
YOUNG MAROON A soldier in Queen Nanny’s army
OLD WIFE An Obeah woman of advanced years
The same actors play:
Author, Kelly, Zaire, Eriphyle and Queen Nanny
Publican Polly, God and Sophie
Auntie P and Old Wife
Pastor Jegede and Husband Elridge
Husband Ian, St Paul, Socrates, Arrius and Bartosz
Husband Darren, Colin and Young Maroon
Husband Winston, Black Jesus and Nelson Mandela
Incidental characters and choruses are
played by members of the cast.
