On a Caribbean island, the morning after a full moon, Felix Hobain tears through the market in a drunken rage. Taken away to sober up in jail, all that night he is gripped by hallucinations: the impoverished hermit believes he has become a healer, walking from village to village, tending to the sick, waiting for a sign from God. In this dream, his one companion, Moustique, wants to exploit his power. Moustique decides to impersonate a prophet himself, ignoring a coffin-maker who warns him he will die and enraging the people of the island. Hobain, half-awake in his desolate jail cell, terrorized by the specter of his friend's corruption, clings to his visionary quest. He will try to transform himself; to heal Moustique, his jailer, and his jail-mates; and to be a leader for his people.Dream on Monkey Mountainwas awarded the 1971 Obie Award for a Distinguished Foreign Play when it was first presented in New York, and Edith Oliver, writing inThe New Yorker, called it a masterpiece.
Three of Derek's Walcott's most popular short plays are also included in this volume:Ti-Jean and His Brothers;Malcochon, or The Six in the Rain; andThe Sea at Dauphin. In an expansive introductory essay, What the Twilight Says, the playwright explains his founding of the seminal dramatic company where these works were first performed, the Trinidad Theatre Workshop.
First published in 1970,Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Playsis an essential part of Walcott's vast and important body of work.
Derek Walcott (1930-2017)was born in St. Lucia, the West Indies, in 1930. His
Collected Poems: 1948-1984was published in 1986, and his subsequent works include a book-length poem,
Omeros(1990); a collection of verse,
The Bounty(1997); and, in an edition illustrated with his own paintings, the long poem
Tiepolo's Hound(2000). His numerous plays include
The Haitian Trilogy(2001) and
Walker and The Ghostl³.
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