The Key Game, a play looking at the demolition of a psychiatric hospital in Jamaica during the 1990s, has been revived for an 11-day run at New Perspectives Studio in Manhattan, New York.
Written by British-Jamaican playwright Pat Cumper, The Key Game opened in London in 2004 to strong reviews. Its American premiere takes place on October 17 and is produced by Banana Boat Productions, a 20-year-old New York company run by Jamaican Merlina Rich.
The Key Game focuses on three inmates at the psychiatric facility, and their caregiver. With the hospital's closure imminent, the inmates ponder their future in unfamiliar surroundings, while the caregiver considers his next professional move.
Because the hospital is being demolished to construct a high-end apartment complex, Rich said The Key Game also addresses regentrification, a popular real estate practice where wealthy people purchase homes in economically challenged communities and transform them into trendy locations.
“Gentrification is necessarily a controversial topic. While life may continually move forward over time, it doesn't always move with grace and empathy. Gentrification may appear to have some obvious benefits, but when old neighbourhoods are too rapidly modified without enough concern for long-term residents, it will not be seen as progress, but rather as punishment for being poor,” she told the Jamaica Observer.
James Foster Jr, Leajato Amara Robinson, Jonathan Michaelson Swain and Marc Webster comprise the cast of The Key Game which Rich discovered some years ago.
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