"An Echo in the Bone" by Dennis Scott

Difference between reading and acting

Reading is a skill that is taught at one point in our lives, it’s a way of learning and expressing one’s self with words. Reading open ones imagination and also it makes one understand also about life and grasp the importance of its benefits. Likewise reading helps one with their ability to think outside the box especially when it comes to their writing skills. Whereas acting is when an individual pretends to be someone other than themselves, it’s like a form of expressing one’s self through fictional beliefs, Acting brings more enthusiasm to the story because if one is reading, they may sometimes get lost in what they are reading whereas if they actually acted out the play, they would enjoy it more and get a better understanding of the story.

Summary of Act 1

Dennis Scott recalls the painful memories of the slaves and the hardships. “An Echo in the Bone” was written to understand the present in terms of the past. This timeline entails the framework of the play which is called the Nine-Nighty Ceremony. A man by the name of Crew who was a black peasant, was missing from Maas Charlie, the white estate owner had been killed. Crew killed him  because of racial tension. In the year 1937 in Kingston, Jamaica, Crew friends and family was searching for him for a long time but they were finally convinced that he had died. Rachel who was the wife of Crew in her late 40s and her daughter-in-law Brigit who is two months pregnant in her 20s , had a traditional ritual gathering that is a part of the Jamaica culture held nine nights after someone had died , they called it the Nine-Night Ceremony . Rachel was trying to communicate with the soul of her deceased husband Crew ensuring him that all is well. She sent him off with cheerful noise of rejoicing and meanwhile they were celebrating the death of Crew, some of the people at the ritual were re-enacting the oppression we black people had to face back in the days. Dreamboat, who was a 26 year old hard-drinking, womanizing peasant, that partake in the ritual. At the ritual one cannot drink of the rum until its bless, Dreamboat on the other hand complained that he was thirsty before the rum was blest and the P who was a 64 year old and was the district largest producer of ‘grass’ warned Dreamboat not to drink the rum because it was not blest, instead Dreamboat refused to listen and from there he started to feel motionless and weak. From there he became possess with Crew spirit at the Nine-Night’s party. Dreamboat was the easiest target for Crew spirit because he had already been living a non-religious life. Crew spirit could not last in Dreamboat so he possessed the one person close to him and hi wife which was his is son SonSon , he was a 25 year old boxer's build.