Dramaturgy provided by Autumn Blalock

 

Contents

Play Synopisis

About Natasha Gordon

The Nine Night Tradition

Dreams and Ghosts

Glossary

 

Synopsis

Natasha Gordon’s play Nine Night is a family drama set over the course of a traditional Jamaican Nine Night wake observed by a West Indian family living in Britain. The play was first produced in 2018.

The play is set in the house where Lorraine, mid-forties, is looking after her dying mother, Gloria. Gloria came to Britain from Jamaica as a young woman, leaving behind a daughter, Trudy, and she subsequently had two children by another man, Lorraine and Robert. Robert, married to a 45-year-old white teacher, Sophie, is an entrepreneurial businessman, while Lorraine gave up her job to look after Gloria. Anita, Lorraine's graduate daughter, is helping her mother attend to Gloria, and has to deal with the demands and eccentricities of Aunt Maggie, an elderly cousin of Gloria's, and her husband, Uncle Vince. When Gloria's time comes, the celebration begins: the traditional Jamaican Nine Night wake. But marking her death with a party that lasts over a week is a test for the entire family, involving nine nights of music, food, and sharing stories – and when Trudy arrives unexpectedly from Jamaica, the different generations and cultures collide.

 

About Natasha Gordon

Natasha is an award-winning writer and actor born in London, of Jamaican descent. Her debut play, NINE NIGHT, enjoyed a stunning sold-out run at the National in April 2018 before transferring to Trafalgar Studios making her the first black British female playwright to be produced in the West End. In recognition of the play’s overwhelming success Natasha won the Charles Wintour Award for most promising playwright at the 2018 Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

As a performer, her stage credits include NINE NIGHT at Trafalgar Studios, RED VELVET at the Tricycle Theatre, THE LOW ROAD and CLUBLAND at the Royal Court Theatre, MULES at the Young Vic and AS YOU LIKE IT at the RSC.  Film and TV includes; DOUGH, LINE OF DUTY, CLASS, and DANNY AND THE HUMAN ZOO.

 

Religious Connection: The Nine Night Tradition

Why Isn’t the Funeral Immediate?

While the bereavement of loved ones in Britain-Jamaican families can follow patterns of Catholicism, they can also be more complicated. Families such as the one in Gordon’s Nine Night seem to follow patterns of Afro-Jamaican beliefs; this means that there are elements associated with Christianity, but that the elements manifest in quite different rituals and beliefs.

How Is the Ceremony Timed?

Oftentimes Jamaican funerals aren’t held within a week of the death of the bereaved, as is common in American Christian culture. This is because they may be waiting for relatives who live abroad to come to the ceremony. This is also because it has a lot to do with the beliefs surrounding how long it takes for a spirit to pass on from its physical body, even after death.

The spirit is believed to take no less than nine nights to leave the body and sometimes the home after death. It is only after the ninth night that the funeral can be had, and the body can be cremated or buried. Families and communities celebrate and memorialize the life of the departed over the course of the nine nights until then, careful to carry out any traditions that are believed to encourage the spirit to leave. It is believed that if the spirit does not part after the nineth night that it may inflict harm upon the inhabitants of its death place or that it will become tortured, unable to move on from the physical world.

What Happens During Each Night?

Even for poor families in cities like West Kingston (in Britain), the festival of nine nights is a major event. Whole communities will gather to place favorite items of the beloved in the coffin or rearrange the living space to encourage the spirit to move on. For the first eight nights family and friends will gather, drink, share stories, and comfort the bereaved. It is the responsibility of the closest of kin to the dearly departed to host the nine nights, in most cases. As a group they will light candles, sing songs, and at the end of each night part ways. From the fifth night onwards, there is much planning about the ‘Nine Night’. On the last night the family and friends – even those who could not be present before – gather to throw a HUGE party to celebrate and send off the departed. It is believed that this is the final goodbye and gives the departed one last happy memory to take with them into the afterlife.

How Has It Changed?

Over the years the Nine Night tradition has changed due to colonization, emigration, and technological transitions. While some families spurn the idea of allowing anyone to join in the festivities virtually, others welcome the thought of reducing travel. There have also been critiques of the Nine Night tradition – claims that people will use it only as an excuse to get egregiously drunk, an opportunity to display their wealth, or that it causes the hosting family more grief than comfort.

 

Religious Connection: Dreams and Ghosts

NOTE – The beliefs and traditions of Jamaican peoples are wide and varied. This page is in no way comprehensive and focuses on beliefs that are closest to those reflected in the play only.

Is it common to believe in spirits of the dead? Are the spirits good or bad?

Beliefs about what happens after death, and more importantly how the living interact with it, are widespread. An article in the journal Folklore of the Negroes of Jamaican Africa includes an instructive list regarding how to recognize and behave around a “guppy,” or a wandering spirit. One of the most specific instructions state:

“If you are walking along a road through a wood and hear a noise as of something cracking you should look back, for there are two duppies following you, a good and a bad one; and the good one is trying to attract your attention, and if you look back it shows you are the good one’s friend, and no harm will come to you.”

From this, and other sources, we can gather that there are some spirits that are believed to be malevolent and some that are believed to be harmless, sometimes being referred to as “duppy” and not “guppy,” which may be a dialect or cultural difference.

How to get a guppy to leave?

The article also talks about the belief that when a spirit is having trouble exiting the home, it is up to the bereaved to make the way clear for the spirit to leave. It may cling to others who are still living (as in the end of the play) in an attempt to avoid departing for the afterlife. To properly send them off the family and loved ones are to celebrate their life and wish them well. It can also be helpful to rearrange furniture so that the spirit gets confused and cover mirrors.

What do they have to do with dreams?

There are sources that say that as the victim is passing, their benevolent spirit will visit loved ones that are farther away to share the news with them in a dream. There are also individuals who have testified that they spoke to a duppy as it was leaving their home, and it provided them comfort, like a “warm and cold feelin’ troo the body’. While it is difficult to find a reliable source on where beliefs in duppy dreams started, they are generally regarded with love and admiration. In other words, it is an honor to be visited by the spirit of a passing or passed loved one, especially during the Nine Nights when one might have their last chance of hearing them. This may impact why it is that Lorraine, in the play, wanted so desperately to hear from her mother.

It is of note, though, that the malevolent spirit of a passing loved one can also visit in dreams, especially those who have been irreverent of tradition. This might explain the dream Robert describes on page 41.

 

Glossary

“Bush tea”  – herbal tea native to south Africa.

“fi” – meaning ‘to’ or “for”, depending on context. Pronounced “fuh”

“mek”  – meaning “make,” pronounced “mehk”

“cerasee” – an herb used for tea.

Psalm 23 – a Bible passage that is commonly known to Catholic and other Christian sects; it is a passage of comfort and faith.

Isaiah 52  – a Bible passage of faith.

Complan – tbd

Pickney – usually referring to a Black British child or person; has racist undertones in today’s common language.

Teef  – meaning “thief”.

Jankcrow  – meaning “bull shitter”. An insult.

Oonuh  – meaning “only”.