Summary
Harry half-heartedly tries to imitate a gull while Jackson pretends to row his boat. Harry stops the performance, asking Jackson to “come here a minute.” Jackson mimes swimming from the boat to shore, collapsing at Harry’s feet and panting as if it has been a long swim. Harry says this is too humiliating, adding, “please don’t continue, or you’re fired.” Jackson says he is a meticulous man and didn’t want to do the job, but once asked, he has to see it through to the end. He says his next plan was to turn the table upright and make that Robinson Crusoe’s hut. He says it’s Harry’s people that introduced “us” to the culture of Shakespeare and Robinson Crusoe and the classics, adding, “When we start getting as good as them, you can’t leave halfway.” Harry says he will not continue, ordering Jackson to put everything back the way it was so they can forget the farce.
Jackson says it comes down to prejudice. Jackson says he thinks that Harry can’t believe Jackson can act, or that a Black man should play Robinson Crusoe. He says the moment they are now acting is the history of imperialism, and he shouldn’t abandon his part halfway just because his superior has given him orders; he has become independent. Harry apologizes for interrupting, and says that he fears the race-reversed pantomime could get offensive if they take it too seriously. He says, “We might commit Art, which is a kind of crime in this society.”
Together the men walk through the sequence of events: A Black man named Robinson Crusoe arrives at the island, makes his goatskin hat and parasol, then discovers a white cannibal. Jackson says he might call him Thursday, since they’re improvising. Harry concedes this point, then continues. With pauses between words, he outlines the idea that Thursday, a white Christian cannibal, would have to un-learn his religion and culture and civilization. He would learn that everything he has known for two thousand years is wrong, and Robinson Crusoe would have to teach him about Africa, his gods, and so on. Jackson says he doesn’t see anything wrong with the reversal. Harry says that he does, and so he wants everything cleaned up and put back, and Jackson can fix the sun deck.
As Harry exits, Jackson’s tone stops him. Jackson likens Harry’s request to the history of the British Empire, explaining that Harry’s people come to an unspoiled place and “civilize the natives,” then when the civilized natives try to do something, they tell them to return to the position of slave or servant and forget the whole thing happened.
Harry comments that Jackson is making it difficult and asks if he has offended him. Jackson says he is only a little ashamed of making a fool of himself, and he expected more respect. Harry apologizes, saying he does respect Jackson. Harry begins to help straighten the table. Jackson tells him to stop, insisting on doing it alone. When Harry keeps trying to help, Jackson plants a fist on the table and tells Harry it is his “order” that Harry not touch anything. The men watch each other as the lights fade.
In Act Two, it is noon. Harry reads a paperback thriller in a deck chair while Jackson hammers from stage left, repairing the sun deck slats. Harry closes his eyes. The sound of hammering stops a while, and then Harry opens his eyes to find Jackson standing next to him with the hammer. Harry bolts up from his chair. Jackson says that, while nailing down the slats, he started giggling to himself because he was thinking about a man he once saw audition for a play. The man introduced himself by saying he did classical acting and “Creole acting,” which made Jackson laugh. He wonders what Creole acting is before returning to hammer again, speaking in an affected Southern Black American accent. Harry closes his eyes, opening them when he hears Jackson making bird caw sounds. Jackson says he is “doing like a black sea gull, suh!” Jackson apologizes for the distraction. Harry resumes trying to rest while Jackson launches into his Robinson Crusoe calypso. Harry gets up and demands he stop.
Jackson finishes hammering, and offers to get lunch for Harry. Harry says just to bring Scotch and beer, telling Jackson to get beer for himself. Jackson addresses him as Mr. Robinson when he thanks him. Harry tells him to cut it out and bring the bloody beer. Jackson brings out a tray of drinks. Harry says that was the “most sarcastic hammering I’ve ever heard” and says he knows Jackson was getting back at him. He proposes they have a drink and try to work out “man to man” what happened that morning. Jackson says he’s forgotten about the morning. Harry asks him to sit in a deck chair. They raise their drinks in a toast. Jackson says they can just forget the whole thing; he will finish his beer and shift, then go for his sea bath, and Harry can spend the rest of the day by himself.
After a pause, Harry says “the terror of emptiness” he feels from trying not to go mad with boredom in the tropics made him propose the idea of the pantomime. So he’d like to apologize. Jackson suggests that, if he finds it boring, Harry can go back home and do something else. Harry says it isn’t that simple: all of his capital is invested there. He also cryptically refers to the “little matter of a brilliant actress who drank too much, and a car crash at Brighton after a panto.” He says he is determined to make the guest house work, and he gave up the theater for it. And he would hate to believe that he was prejudiced.
Jackson says it isn’t prejudice that’s bothering him but loneliness. Jackson adds that he and the other staff have studied the way Harry wanders around restlessly, remembering his wife and son while staring at the sea. Jackson asks if he hasn’t gotten over it yet. He says Harry keeps to himself too much; Harry would get his hair cut by telephone if he could.
Jackson says all that could change if Harry did what Jackson told him to do. He would have the same life but be a different man. Jackson says Harry will have to be Thursday. Harry says, “Aha, you bastard!” Harry concedes that it’s a thrill giving orders, but he won’t go through it again.
Analysis
Resentful of Jackson’s improvisation, which Harry senses Jackson is not taking seriously, Harry tries to exercise his authority again by insisting that Jackson stop exploring the idea of a postcolonial critique of the Robinson Crusoe story. Jackson, however, continues his performance, feigning ignorance and acting as though his improvisation was done in good faith. Jackson continues to undermine his boss by accusing him of halting the performance because his adoption of the British theatre tradition was so good that Harry became insecure.
Walcott continues building on the themes of postcolonialism and resentment with Jackson’s insistence that Harry’s attempt to impose his will on Jackson is a repetition of the history of imperialism. Jackson insists upon his need to exercise postcolonial independence and thus not give in to the orders of the empire—i.e. Harry. Despite the half-sincere manner in which Jackson delivers the critique, Harry softens his approach and explains that he worries about the volatility of the political statement they might unwittingly make with the show. Because a pantomime is meant to be light entertainment, any serious critique of imperialism they embed in the show would put the play in the territory of “Art,” which Harry believes their guests would want to punish them for.
While Jackson sees nothing wrong with pointing out the absurdity of colonialism, Harry knows that his British holiday-makers aren’t likely to accept such a critique. Jackson continues to manipulate Harry by pointing out the hypocrisy of civilizing “the natives”—a common justification for colonial projects—and then trying to make the natives return to being what they were when the colonizers finally decide to grant independence to the colony. As Act One ends, Walcott emphasizes the tension between Harry and Jackson as Jackson returns to his duties with his resentment made clear.
In Act Two, which begins several hours later on the same day, the tension between Harry and Jackson hasn’t dissipated. Jackson continues to make his resentment known to Harry by annoying him with needlessly noisy hammering and an impression of a “black seagull” who has the antiquated Southern Black American accent associated with slavery. With this performance, Jackson gets in Harry’s head by emphasizing the imbalanced relationship between himself and Harry as servant and master, which Harry sought to reimpose at the end of Act One.
As a gesture towards compromise, Harry asks Jackson to drink with him and talk things over “man to man”—i.e. on the same social level. The theme of isolation arises as Harry talks about his boredom in Tobago, which he gives as the reason behind his desire to stage the pantomime. Jackson builds on the theme of isolation by referencing Harry’s wife and son, and both men cryptically allude to the reason behind their absence. Jackson implies that the grief Harry feels has made him cut himself off emotionally and physically from other people. To emphasize his point, Jackson jokes that Harry would get his hair cut over the phone if it were possible.
While the tone of the conversation suggests a reconciliation between the two men, Jackson tries to get the upper hand over Harry again by insisting that Harry will only get out of his grief if he does as Jackson says and plays Thursday. In this way, Walcott contrasts the scene’s dramatic nature with a reassertion of the play’s overarching comedic tone.
