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The Haitian Trilogy: Plays: Henri Christophe, Drums and Colours, and The Haytian Earth
Plays by the Nobel-laureate, brought together for the first time
In the history plays that comprise The Haitian Trilogy--Henri Christophe, Drums and Colours and The Haytian Earth--Derek Walcott, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, uses verse to tell the story of his native West Indies as a four-hundred-year cycle of war, conquest and rebellion.
In Henri Christophe and The Haytian Earth, Walcott re-casts the legacy of Haiti's violent revolutionaries--led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe--whose rebellion established the first black state in the Americas, but whose cruelty becomes a parable of racial pride and corruption. Drums and Colours, commissioned in 1958 to celebrate the first parliament in Trinidad, is a grand pageant linking the lives of complex, ambiguous heroes: Columbus and Raleigh; Toussaint; and George William Gordon, a martyr of the constitutional era.
From Henri Christophe's high style to the bracing vernacular of The Haytian Earth, to the epic scale and scope of Drums and Colours, in these plays Walcott, one of our most celebrated poets, carved a place in the modern theater for the history of the West Indies, and a sounding room for his own maturing voice.
In the history plays that comprise The Haitian Trilogy--Henri Christophe, Drums and Colours and The Haytian Earth--Derek Walcott, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, uses verse to tell the story of his native West Indies as a four-hundred-year cycle of war, conquest and rebellion.
In Henri Christophe and The Haytian Earth, Walcott re-casts the legacy of Haiti's violent revolutionaries--led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe--whose rebellion established the first black state in the Americas, but whose cruelty becomes a parable of racial pride and corruption. Drums and Colours, commissioned in 1958 to celebrate the first parliament in Trinidad, is a grand pageant linking the lives of complex, ambiguous heroes: Columbus and Raleigh; Toussaint; and George William Gordon, a martyr of the constitutional era.
From Henri Christophe's high style to the bracing vernacular of The Haytian Earth, to the epic scale and scope of Drums and Colours, in these plays Walcott, one of our most celebrated poets, carved a place in the modern theater for the history of the West Indies, and a sounding room for his own maturing voice.
448 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 2002
About the author
Derek Walcott
186 books503 followersDerek Walcott was a Caribbean poet, playwright, writer and visual artist. Born in Castries, St. Lucia, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment."
His work, which developed independently of the schools of magic realism emerging in both South America and Europe at around the time of his birth, is intensely related to the symbolism of myth and its relationship to culture. He was best known for his epic poem Omeros, a reworking of Homeric story and tradition into a journey around the Caribbean and beyond to the American West and London.
Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959, which has produced his plays (and others) since that time, and remained active with its Board of Directors until his death. He also founded Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University in 1981. In 2004, Walcott was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award, and had retired from teaching poetry and drama in the Creative Writing Department at Boston University by 2007. He continued to give readings and lectures throughout the world after retiring. He divided his time between his home in the Caribbean and New York City.
His work, which developed independently of the schools of magic realism emerging in both South America and Europe at around the time of his birth, is intensely related to the symbolism of myth and its relationship to culture. He was best known for his epic poem Omeros, a reworking of Homeric story and tradition into a journey around the Caribbean and beyond to the American West and London.
Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959, which has produced his plays (and others) since that time, and remained active with its Board of Directors until his death. He also founded Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University in 1981. In 2004, Walcott was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award, and had retired from teaching poetry and drama in the Creative Writing Department at Boston University by 2007. He continued to give readings and lectures throughout the world after retiring. He divided his time between his home in the Caribbean and New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 1, 2024
I just read Henri Christophe (couldn't find it as a standalone). First Walcott anything I've read. Interesting! I've never seen anyone really try to imitate Shakespeare this directly, most are afraid of the challenge.
Even at 19, Walcott is able to write some incredible verse. The play's most interesting ideas are found within individual lines and images. e.g. Christophe rebukes Dessalines: "You have decided to assume a monarchy / Before Toussaint's breath faded from the glass of history" or, when railing to himself before his suicide, "These are the hard truths we cannot eat."
Walcott can't really do scenes, though. This felt less like a play and more like an extended poem--there's not really a sense of action, place, or momentum. While a mouthpiece for some evocative language, Christophe himself was pretty opaque as a character. The only unique voice that comes through (well, except Walcott's own) is Dessalines.
Even at 19, Walcott is able to write some incredible verse. The play's most interesting ideas are found within individual lines and images. e.g. Christophe rebukes Dessalines: "You have decided to assume a monarchy / Before Toussaint's breath faded from the glass of history" or, when railing to himself before his suicide, "These are the hard truths we cannot eat."
Walcott can't really do scenes, though. This felt less like a play and more like an extended poem--there's not really a sense of action, place, or momentum. While a mouthpiece for some evocative language, Christophe himself was pretty opaque as a character. The only unique voice that comes through (well, except Walcott's own) is Dessalines.
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December 22, 2024If nothing else, this book made me want to try reading The Black Jacobins again. I also would be interested in Walcott's more poetic works. He emulates Shakespeare, and with the quotes from Macbeth and Richard III in 'Henri Christophe', it's not hard to figure out what message he's trying to convey with these plays. Corruption of power, the imperfect revolutionary, the cyclical nature of abuse. I struggled to imagine these plays performed, though. Besides 'Henri Christophe', the others were fragmented, with a Scene having one piece of action and then cut to the next Scene. This practically serves as an intro to the Haitian revolution, but I don't think Walcott covered nearly as much nuance as he may have assumed.
October 15, 2020
Very interesting plays by the Nobel Prize winner. The three plays centre around the history of Haiti's liberation of French colonialism through a slave insurgency. I had no prior knowledge of this history, so was happy to learn about it through these plays.
The style reminded me of both Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral.
Henri Christophe is the most conventional play. Drums and Colours is epic in length (over three hours when staged) and covers a large period of history. Haytian Earth is highly fragmented, probably easier to turn into a movie than into a stage play.
The style reminded me of both Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral.
Henri Christophe is the most conventional play. Drums and Colours is epic in length (over three hours when staged) and covers a large period of history. Haytian Earth is highly fragmented, probably easier to turn into a movie than into a stage play.
February 28, 2010
Of the three plays, I only had to read "The Haitian Earth." Focuses largely on the rule of Dessaline, Haiti's first leader after independence and self-proclaimed emperor. Portrays him as a violent, power-crazed racist interested only in fighting wars and killing whites and biracial Haitians. If even an accurate picture, not much context to explain how perhaps slavery, civil war, and French, British and Spanish invasions could have something to do with that.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews