‘Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine’ goes to the silver screen
ACCLAIMED JAMAICAN play Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine is ready for the silver screen. Originally presented in 1987 at the Dennis Scott Theatre at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts School of Drama, the dark and intimate social satire will be adapted for the screen by Raw Management, which recently acquired the film option rights for the project.
A dramatic comedy that deftly and sometimes humorously explores ageing, isolation, loss, and survival, the original two-hander script follows the story of Katie and Lettie, who are trapped by destitute circumstances and their inner demons in an abandoned colonial mansion. Seemingly separated by their cultural and racial divide and their desire to be (literally) at each other’s throats, the elderly women also find similarities, friendship and solace as they are forced to face certain realities of their past and present between bouts of madness.
“This is one of Jamaica’s brilliant and nuanced plays,” notes film producer and Raw Management Chief Executive Officer Nadean Rawlins. “[It is] a story that places issues of ageism and abandonment at the forefront.”
NEGLECTED
She added that too often, these issues and stories that focus on elderly characters, especially female characters, are neglected. Despite the serious subject matter and representation of marginalised characters, Rawlins is convinced that the story will resonate with a wide audience.
During her stint at the renowned IFFR Rotterdam Lab in 2020, Rawlins, who played Lettie in the play’s 2008 staging, felt that Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine was the perfect story that could translate into a film with international appeal.
“It is purely Jamaican, yet will present a different perspective from past Jamaican films, and as a two-hander, it would be an amazingly layered and practical contained film.”
The project recently advanced to the second-round shortlist for Cinemart 2022.
With the feature film project currently in early script development, the original story, playscript and theatre production is credited to the talents of Honor Ford-Smith, Carol Lawes, Eugene Williams, Hertencer Lindsay and Patricia Cumper. They all support the adaptation of their work through a different medium and creative lens.
“I’m delighted that the Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine will be adapted as a film by Nadean Rawlins and Raw Management,” stated playwright Patricia Cumper. “It explores universal questions through the very specific relationship between two women on the margins of society, and the way their interaction is poisoned by race and redeemed by friendship. It is also engaging and often funny.”
Co-creator of the play, Eugene Williams, added that the play is one of the most produced Caribbean plays across the region, and in “temperate foreign”, since its creation.
“We never expected more. And now this! We trust that the funders of the art of the big screen will find value in the play’s compelling characters, particular story, and its thematic significance,” Williams stated.