Veteran Jamaican comedian and stage actor Oliver Adolphus Samuels and his fellow cast members, producers and directors arrived on the territory’s shores today November 20, 2015 for tomorrow’s November 21, 2015 one and only staging of Divorce Papers, a stage show written by Basil Dawkins. Photo: VINO

“The story is about a family of four, son, daughter, mother father, but there are other children. They have been married for 34 years and during the marriage there is a little indiscretion on the part of the father and the mother discovers it and for 24 years she has been nagging about the indiscretion and asking for a divorce,” he said. He explained that the husband, played by himself, finally served her the divorce papers and “after that it is all crazy, it is all madness!” Photo: VINO

The flyer for the show to be held on Saturday November 21, 2015. Photo: Provided

The play is to be held at Sir Rupert Briercliffe Hall in Road Town and showtime is from 8:00 pm. It is directed by Douglas Prout and stars Samuels, Barbara McCalla, Maylynne Lowe, Dennis Titus, Teddy Price, Ruth Ho Shing who will be alternating with another actor.

Arriving at the Road Town Ferry Dock today from St Thomas USVI, Samuels, no stranger to the Virgin Islands, said the ride to Tortola was a good one.

“The ride from St Thomas was just lovely, lovely, lovely,” he said. “We are performing her first and then in St Thomas,” he said upon arrival at the dock.

A story of life & love

Speaking about the production to be staged tomorrow evening, Samuels said the show is a story about life and love and everything in between.

“The story is about a family of four, son, daughter, mother father, but there are other children. They have been married for 34 years and during the marriage there is a little indiscretion on the part of the father and the mother discovers it and for 24 years she has been nagging about the indiscretion and asking for a divorce,” he said.

He explained that the husband, played by himself, finally served her the divorce papers and “after that it is all crazy, it is all madness!”

According to the lead actor, the character of the wife never recovers from the fact that the husband serves her the divorce papers.

“We have Maylynne Lowe playing the second wife and that might be giving it away but not altogether and we have Ruth Ho Shing playing my wife,” he said, referring to himself as the character of the husband. “Then we have Dennis Titus who plays a young lover and myself as the husband,” he said.

Divorce Papers a hit!

Samuels said that while the show is a fairly new one, written only in 2014, there have been over 100 performances in Jamaica alone and numerous others around the world.

“We started performance on December 14, 2014 in Jamaica and we had 153 performances in Jamaica and then we started travelling, starting out in Toronto, Canada. We had four shows in Toronto then we went to New York, in Brooklyn, Bronx, Long Island and we’ve had shows in Washington DC, Atlanta where we had to turn back about 200 people, New Jersey and Connecticut. We did Florida State in about six or seven venues. We have done Antigua here in the Caribbean and we are going to St Martin in early December,” Samuels said.

Asked about how the show fared at the many venues over the different countries, he said that it was a huge hit. “Box office sales were off the chain. In Jamaica them seh ‘shell’. All I can say is that I am very, very blessed in the sense that I have great actors and actresses working with me and I have great writers and this one is really, really a tremendous success. But it is also comparable to other successes,” said Samuels.

Asked what he expected from the VI crowd tomorrow night, he responded, “Well you know this is my hometown. This is one of my homes. I expect full house…I expect total, total enjoyment and I am absolutely sure that the reaction and the reception are going to be similar to what I am accustomed to.”

Samuels jovially added that patrons in the VI have ‘spoiled’ him with their welcoming reception at his past performances.

Tickets are $20 for early bird, $25 regular, $30 at the door and $15 for children 12 and under.