Suzan-Lori Parks’s stage adaptation of Perry Henzell’s 1972 film “The Harder They Come” opens within the week at the Public Theater.
In the original 1972 film, Jimmy Cliff plays the character of Ivan, who comes from the Jamaican countryside to live in urban Kingston and make his name as a recording artist. The audience likes him and cares about him because he stands up for the exploited and the oppressed in the major institutions in Jamaica that wield influence in this country: the church, the music industry, and the ganja trade.
This stage adaptation by Suzan-Lori Parks must be seen for three reasons.
One, her stage adaptation shows more than the film the popular influence that the music like artists like Ivan had on their urban environment. This aspect should remind the audience that the role of an artist is that of a public servant, and not a corporate manufactured Western celebrity.
Two, her stage adaptation shows more than the film the potential for all record label owners, like the character Mr. Hilton, to become a convert and promote the conscious music of artists like the film’s Ivan, the real life Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, and Bob Marley who stood up for the oppressed. In the original, Hilton never becomes a convert and never promotes Ivan’s music throughout the film, like the real-life treatment of Bob Marley’s music in 1970s Jamaica. Parks’s adaptation shows how record label owners can squander billions by ignoring the demands of the masses for music with a political message.
Three, this adaptation must be seen for the UNFORGETTABLE performance of Ivan by Natey Jones. Jones sounds so much like the original Jimmy Cliff. His performance makes you root for him; Jones’s performance makes you want him to get the record deal; his performance makes the audience want to have his music played across the city in order to raise the consciousness of his listeners.
In these aspects, Parks’s adaptation captured the essence of the original film.
Although this adaptation must be seen, it also suffers from serious flaws that detract from the meaning of the film.
First is the undeveloped or childish way the relationship between Ivan and his love interest Elsa is shown. In the stage adaptation, Ivan covers his selling ganja from Elsa and his mother and refers to it as a “fishing business.” This makes the stage version of Elsa look foolish and gullible. In the original film, it is obvious that Elsa is aware of and condones Ivan’s selling ganja, as she cares for Pedro’s son. This part of Parks’s script panders to U.S. respectability politics and undermines the power of the relationship between Ivan and Elsa.
It also forms the shaky foundation for their relationship, as it furthers the gap between Ivan’s growth in Parks’s stage version. Elsa is unable to grow WITH Ivan instead of against him, and by the second act, as Ivan is growing in his consciousness and militance, Elsa begs for Ivan to turn himself to the Jamaican police, a serious betrayal of the original script.
That is not the only relationship that Parks’s adaptation leaves undeveloped.
After a series of rewrites, its clear that Parks’s adaptation cannot handle the social relationship between Jamaica and Cuba. Her adaptation can’t appreciate how in the original film Jamaican Pedro forcefully sought to heal Ivan’s shoulder wound after his gun fight with police. In the original film, Pedro encourages Ivan to board a boat to Cuba where he can get free medical treatment for his wounded shoulder.
The film shows Ivan, his wounded shoulder, the consequent difficulty from swimming with such a shoulder, the boat, the Caribbean sea, as glaring metaphors for the barriers the average Jamaican faces living in a neocolonial island nation. These are absent in the adaptation.
The version I saw on March 11th completely erased Pedro’s lines to Ivan about going to Cuba, and simply shows Pedro changing the bandage on Ivan’s shoulder. This betrays the message of the original film about the reality of Jamaican life.
Despite these betrayals, this stage adaptation should be seen for many reasons.
Her adaptation fleshed out the characters of Ivan’s love interest Elsa and his mother Daisy who sing original songs that speak to their own development. It allows for Daisy’s awesome song in the second act “Many Rivers to Cross” to show the singing talent of Jeannette Bayardelle.
The song “Aim and Ambition” that Parks originates for Ivan is powerful.
There were scenes that the audience LOVED, which was the scene in the church where they members transformed themselves from church dancers to dancehall dancers. This scene is AMAZING and highlights the sacred nature of dancehall music.
Clint Ramos’s set design is absolutely remarkable awesome, it transforms from the stage to a church, to a recording studio, to a street in downtown Kingston, to a bedroom, and deftly handled Parks’s variety of scenes.
Japhy Weideman’s lighting was equally flawless and made the scene with Ivan and Elsa on the bicycle come alive, along with the scene of Ivan’s swim for the boat.
Emilio Sosa’s costume design is flawless for each character.
The intimacy between Ivan and his love interest Elsa was hard to believe and needed more work. The live band needed all the elements of the original film specifically the organ that was played in the original film. The live stage band’s sound was more like U.S. gospel instead of the tambourined Jamaican Shouter Baptist church that Ska sound came from.
With the exception of those playing Ivan, Lyle, Hilton, and J. Bernard, the entire cast needed more work on their Jamaican dialect to sound more convincing.
Chelsea-Ann Jones’s performance in the ensemble as shopkeeper, to whom Ivan pleads, was powerful and unforgettable.
Housso Semon’s performance as a Radio DJ named Lemon Soul and Newscaster was strong and convincing.
Garfield Hammonds’s performance as Hilton was stern and strong.
J. Bernard Callloway’s performance as the Preacher, and Ivan’s nemesis was strong and, like Natey Jones’s performance, deserves critical acclaim.
Special thanks to Jana Zschoche of the Public Theater for her gracious hospitality that enabled me to see this performance; special thanks to the House Manager at the March 12th performance for accommodating my guests Carlene Taylor and her son Caleb. Thanks to Saundra Gilliard for her support in my writing this. Special thanks to playwright David Heron for his phone call and conversation that inspired my review. -RF.