Pocomanía and London Calling

Two plays from one of Jamaica’s most important feminists and dramatists. This first publication of Una Marson’s insightful and engaging dramatic work is long overdue. Pocomania is among the most important Caribbean plays ever written. First staged at the dawn of the region’s stride toward nationalism and independence, it heralded a new era of Jamaican and Caribbean drama, one unafraid of taking a serious look at the people, the culture, and the language. The play was the first to seriously deal with Jamaican Creole and the Jamaican religious form of Pocomania. Though London Calling features citizens from a fictional country, the play explores the all too real anxieties surrounding race, class, identity and migration in early twentieth century London. These plays grapple with class, race, gender, language and culture as they explore the tensions at the nexus of prejudice and the performance of blackness. Read more