Shakespeare Mas Series: Can it Happen This Year After the Hurricane?

Shakespeare Mas From Years Past

Combatants trying to outdo each other with lines from Shakespeare

Shakespeare Mas, Carnival, Carriacou, February 2009

A view of the strangely beautiful costumes worn by combatants in the Shakespeare Mas pageantry, part of Carriacou’s celebration of Carnival, February, 2009

Mummers or players compete with lines from Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar.

Shakespeare Mas, Carriacou, February, 2009

The first time I experienced Shakespeare Mas, I could hardly believe it. How could this rare and astonishing version of what mostly seemed to be parts of Julius Caesar be happening on one of the most remote islands in the world that had no other tradition of theater or Shakespeare. It was like my professional life as a theater director and actor and my traveling life as a sailor had combined to bring me to this intriguing moment of performance, and competition, and pageantry.

I have to say that I loved it and continue to each time I have been lucky enough to experience it. The sudden appearance of the players on the dusty country lanes, the commitment of the actors to their parts, their lustiness and bravado, the ferocity, almost blood lust, of the beatings when mistakes are judged to have happened, the engagement of the local crowds who just seem to gather out of thin air from the villages and farms.

The tradition of Shakespeare Mas is unique to the tiny island of Carriacou. It occurs as part of Carriacou’s celebration of carnival. The rest of carnival in Carriacou resembles carnival on the other nearby Grenadine islands. But no where else in the world does this particular event happen, part Shakespeare performance, part combative fighting with whips, so fierce that referees are required.