The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

THE Caribbean King of Comedy, Oliver Samuels, is bringing his popular production, Dolly House, to a Bahamian audience on Sunday at the Rainforest Theatre, Wyndham Nassau Resort.

The Jamaican expects the show to be like no other as it is also a celebration of his 65th birthday.

Dolly House features a mix of Jamaica’s leading topics including politics, mistrust, intimacy, power, race, class and betrayal. Even though the topics are serious, the cast of Dolly House brings humour to the forefront.

In an interview with Tribune Entertainment, Oliver said he has been in the Jamaican stage play production business for 60 years. He has taken productions as far as North America, Africa, England and the Caribbean islands.

“I have visited your lovely country quite a few times performing to enthusiastic audiences in Nassau and Grand Bahama,” he said. “This was over 20 years ago. I performed one of the earlier plays called Oliver At Large, which was taken from the television series.”

Oliver said he is most known for stage plays as opposed being a stand-up comedian because he hates being alone on stage. He is looking forward to what he recalls as the usual warmth, tenderness and laughter that he receives from Bahamians when he visits.

Oliver said Dolly House focuses on the 1970s when there were a lot of people migrating, particularly the Chinese. The story is told of a Chinese lady who decides that she is not leaving her country. She decides to stay because as she described it, it is her roots and it was where she was born.

“There was a serious financial meltdown in her country and so in order for her to survive, she transformed the family house into a mini tenement. All the tenants that she got were very strange and odd people so it came to the point where she had to seek assistance in getting the rents due. She realised the person that she asked for assistance in getting the rent for her turned out to be even less effective than she is in terms of collecting,” said Oliver.

He said most of the tenants residing in Dolly House are dysfunctional, characters such as Candy and Stretch.

“It really shines light on life that people on all of the islands and broader society can relate to because we have all gone through our political issues and our financial meltdowns,” said Oliver.

He encouraged Bahamian comedians to believe in themselves and stay informed with the latest happenings around the world because information is easily accessible nowadays.

“The cast and crew of Dolly House are all excited and ready to perform because we all know the Bahamian crowd love their humour. We are absolutely certain that this is a piece that they would really love and it is for everybody, young and old. There is nothing lewd or risqué, it’s for the entire family,” said Oliver.

Tickets for Dolly House can be accessed from the Original Patties locations on Tonique Williams Darling Highway and Blue Hill Road. There are general admission tickets available at $55 and VIP at $70.00 (limited availability).

For more information contact Capital City Marketing, 242 323-5589 www.ccmbahamas.com