Wan Smol Bag

Theatre

Wan Smol Bag a success story

By Patrick Decloitre

VANUATU’S only professional theatre

company, Wan Smol Bag Theater, is putting the final touch to its new play Down Paradise Street. Designed both for local and overseas viewers, it touches a wide variety of the social and economic problems Pacific islanders face in a society where money values tend to replace traditional ones.

This time, with this new play, the South Pacific Culture Fund had pro vided a second grant of around US$67OO to support what was initially planned to be a second part to Wan Smol Bag’s previous play, the Vanuatu Show. As it turned out to be, it was something totally different from part one. “The group wanted to talk about something different, like the problems of an extended family, whether the culture and custom had any place today, where the money is driving out all the old values”, says director Peter Walker. “A lot of the play comes from the small acts we did before for education purposes, where all these subjects had already been touched separately,” he adds - The only difference is that, this time, Wan Smol Bag and their writer Jo Dorras have come up with a two-hour musical, the first of its kind in the island state’s theatrical history Down Paradise Street.

There are indeed a lot of songs in this new production, but it is only to enhance situations where the young generation is

faced to a new set of Western-style values, as opposed to the roots ot their culture and tradition. This includes references to rising urban drift, unem ployment in towns and related social plagues such as alcohol, poor working conditions and the women’s changing ro j e j n an ur ban environment, “It’s boring in the islands. I want to see different things,” says a character w ho’s just moved to town, a promised l an d j n pis eyes gut the much-craved town often turns to have a bitter taste often there are no jobs, and even when there are, hard-earned money sets the ru i e And money is going fast men spend it on alconol or kava, their wives don’t like it a bit, they get beaten up.

“Now it’s money, money, money,” says an o ld m an in the play, The pre mier ot Down Paradise Street was to ta k e p i ace on 26 July in Port Vila, in a brand new permanent building in the outskirts of the Vanuatu capital. It will be the first time they actually perform on t b e i r own stage, thanks to British and Canadian among others, As in its previous productions, Wan Smo j Bag not on i y a i ms at the local audience, but also at the regional viewers. “We hope this will have an impact on tourists. Also, once people from countries of the region will have seen it, I’m sure a big festival will want it ; because it deals with problems which are prevalent throughout the Pacific. In fact, the scene takes place in Vanuatu, but it could be anywhere else in the region,” says Walker. □

Vanuatu play; Wan Smol Bag performers in action