Summary
Now that Jackson is sitting, Harry says he can share some of his own “war stories.” Jackson reminds him that his shift is from 7:30 to 1:00. Harry offers a cigarette, but Jackson says he never smokes on duty. Jackson tells Harry about a Christmas panto he put on when he was in the army as RAF ground crew. He played a woman’s role as “the Wonderful Vamp” in Aladdin and His Wonderful Vamp. At the party afterward, a large sergeant kept treating Harry as though he were his character, sexually harassing him and pinching his bottom. Eventually, Harry hid waiting for him and knocked him out with a giant wrench. Jackson calls it “white-man fighting.”
Jackson asks for permission to get up and fix the sundeck. Harry insists he stay seated while he explains his idea for the show. He says he’s a liberal who has supported all sorts of protests, but if he’s playing the role of hotel manager, then he will do it. He orders Jackson to sit. Jackson relaxes into his seat and accepts a cigarette. Harry asks him to put the goatskin hat on; Jackson hesitates, but does so. Harry says his idea is to turn the guest house into a “little cabaret” and present a two-man show of Robinson Crusoe and Friday. The show would satirize the master-servant relationship.
Jackson says he’ll have to have music. Harry continues, saying that to make a point about the hotel industry, manners, conduct, and so on, Jackson should play Crusoe while Harry plays Friday. Then people would both laugh and feel the impact of their critique of “the whole Caribbean.”
Jackson gives his "honest," "professional" opinion: the idea is “shit.” Harry says it could be hilarious. Mocking Harry, Jackson offers an improvised monologue, saying he has served Harry for three hundred years in an empire on which the sun never set. That was Jackson’s pantomime. He was Harry’s shadow, copying him and following him. But when Harry became frightened of his shadow and realized he had better stop the pantomime, the shadow didn’t stop following. Everywhere he turned, the shadow was there, until the shadow started dominating; the servant dominating the master. Jackson says that’s why all the Pakistani and West Indians in England—“all them immigrant Fridays”—are driving the English crazy. Jackson says they are Harry’s shadow, and he can’t shake them off.
Harry tells Jackson he got carried away. He says that it’s pantomime, so he must keep it light. Jackson points at Harry and says, “Robinson obey Thursday now. Speak Thursday language. Obey Thursday gods.” He then invents a language to say that Jesus Christ is dead. Harry plays along, pretending to tell a cameraman to try the scene again.
Jackson continues using his invented language, moving around and naming things. He finishes his dramatic stomping around by saying that this is “what it was like, before you come here.” Harry tells him that if he wants to invent a language, he should remember the names he gives things. Jackson says he gives up, and accepts English. Harry tells him to sing a song in English then.
Jackson holds the parasol like a guitar and begins improvising a song, calling the relationship between Robinson Crusoe and Friday “the first example of slavery.” He says that although Robinson Crusoe was a Christian and Friday a cannibal, one day things are bound to reverse, with “Crusoe the slave and Friday the boss.”
Jackson stops the song to signal in the air. Harry is confused about what is happening until Jackson’s body starts rocking in rhythm. A very loud calypso rhythm can be heard by the audience. Jackson starts singing a calypso about a “Limey” named Trewe coming to Tobago with no show, and asking in desperation for “Mister Phillip” to help. Harry stops him, telling him not to waste the song; he rushes to get his tape recorder.
Alone on stage, Jackson rolls up his pants, removes his shirt and jacket, and overturns the table to turn it into a boat. He sits in the “boat” and begins rowing calmly. Harry returns and asks what he is doing. Jackson asks him to play a white seabird, saying that if he is supposed to be a Black explorer, Harry can play a white seabird for him; they must collaborate.
Jackson imagines himself as Robinson Crusoe. He is rowing in his boat when he sees a seabird in the sky making noises to signal a coming storm. A large wave knocks him to shore. He says that he sees goats on the beach, and because he needs clothes, makes the parasol and hat from goatskin. He asks Harry to play the sea bird and then the goat he must kill. After that, he will do the song again to the best of his ability, adding, “However shitty that is.”
Analysis
Walcott builds on the theme of performance with Harry’s “war story” about an event from his time as a British Royal Air Force ground crewman. While he was stationed in Palestine, Harry performed the role of a woman in the Christmas pantomime put on for the soldiers. When a sergeant sexually harassed him, Harry knocked the man unconscious to fend off his unwanted advances. However, Harry will later reveal that he invented this story to impress Jackson and gain some credibility. In this way, Harry is performing for Jackson’s benefit. Ironically, Jackson dismisses the false story as “white-man fighting,” implying that Harry was cowardly for ambushing the man.
The theme of performance continues as Harry comments on the need for him to play the role of hotel manager. As much as he likes to think of himself as a liberal, progressive-minded man, he will exercise his authority over Jackson when the need arises. Walcott subtly introduces the theme of compromise as Jackson reluctantly obeys the command to sit and hear out Harry’s idea for a postcolonial critique of the Robinson Crusoe story. It seems that even Jackson is coming around to the idea when he suggests that the show will need music. However, in an instance of situational irony, Jackson’s “honest, professional opinion” is a crude dismissal of the entire premise.
Walcott continues building on the themes of postcolonialism, mimicry, and performance as Jackson improvises a monologue that explores Harry’s idea for the show. In the monologue, Jackson comes up with an allegory for Britain’s postcolonial relationship with people from former colonies. Likening the formerly colonized to the British empire’s shadow, Jackson emphasizes the hypocrisy of the British imposing their culture on so many people and then complaining when those people mimic the British way of life to the extent that they seek to live in Britain and think of themselves as British subjects. When Jackson speaks of “all them immigrant Fridays” driving the English crazy, he is alluding to the right-wing backlash to the influx of 1.5 million “New Commonwealth” immigrants from former colonies in the 1950s-1970s.
Jackson continues his mocking critique of British colonial attitudes by inverting his relationship with Harry, saying that Robinson Crusoe must obey Thursday (his joking version of Friday) now. Jackson emphasizes the absurdity of colonialism by bluntly breaking down the imperial imperative to demand obedience, force colonized people to speak the colonizer’s language, and convert to the colonizer’s religion.
Harry attempts to steer the contemptuous improvisation back toward the “light” entertainment style that characterizes pantomimes, so Jackson compromises with a calypso song sung in English. Harry is so excited by the material that he runs to get his tape recorder to capture it. However, Jackson undermines Harry’s authority once again by refusing to sing the same lyrics. Instead, he forces Harry to demean himself by playing a seabird, while he plays Robinson Crusoe first arriving on shore after his shipwreck. In this way, Jackson feigns cooperation with Harry by insisting that Harry compromise his vision and conform to Jackson’s sarcastic exploration of the premise.
