Runt " A Hero's Journey"
Moonglow Productions

?Absolutely Mesmerizing?? ~ La Weekly. ?This one-man show offers a chilling portrayal of family life" - The Scotsman; Edinburgh Fringe 1st Award Winner; Directed by Cable Ace award winner K. Elise

RUNT is a harsh title for a warm and entertaining production. For American/Jamaican actor Michael Edwards, being a runt is allowing your fears to enslave you. His show is an exploration and dissection of his past with reference to this concept. (Dawn Kofie - Theatre Critic)


1/10/02 - 2/20/02


?Runt is a harsh title for a warm and entertaining production.
The American/Jamaican actor Michael Edwards, being a runt is allowing your fears to enslave you. His show is an exploration and dissection of his past with reference to this concept.
From being torturous navel-gazing, drenched in pop psychology and therapy speak, this show is a celebration of the Jamaican spirit. Through Edwards? lively, fluent monologue we are presented with images of him growing up in Jamaica, the nightmares of his childhood and the characters he encountered.
He shuttles between this monologue and instances where he ploys speech and mime to bring past episodes to life.
This piece has much to say about the love, hate, tension and traumas that characterize father/son relationships in general. It never ceases to be raw ? for example he doesn?t shy away from discussing his father?s male chauvinism.
Funny, eloquent and engaging, every word is imbued with genuine feeling. Edwards? rapport with the audience is tangible and the whole venue sits rapt, listening to his tale.>br/> Runt is refreshing, humorous and compelling. It is a real pleasure to take this unique emotional journey.? Dawn Kofie - Theatre Critic

?With words delivered at machine gun velocity, at a volume to compete with the cannons of the Edinburgh Tattoo, Michael Phillip Edwards presents an autobiography of fear, an Oedipal tale that has yet to find it?s bloody conclusion.
His one-man show explores what it is to grow up in Jamaica and in America under the guidance of a tyrannical father ? what it is to be a runt. ?Being a runt,? he says, ?has nothing to do with talent, skill or size. It?s about how much fear an animal allows to live within itself.?
That this man should fear anything is unthinkable, he stands over 6ft tall, with a warrior shoulders and proud face. Yet, when he conjures up his ?dupis?, the ghosts that feed his runt status, you see a man cower like a child.
Edwards? skills as an actor ensure that, for the most part, his brave and angry play succeeds in its aspirations to be far more than just a series of atavistic, neuroses plunked on theatre?s therapeutic couch; Jamaican tableaux are fleshed out given ripe voice to childhood nightmares made real. This is poetry without doubt.? The List, Edinburgh, August 9, 2001

?this celebration of Jamaican spirit is peculiarly American in its tone and delivery. For Michael Phillip Edwards? autobiographical monologue is a search for closure played out onstage and it is difficult to overlook that.
His story of a life divided between America and Jamaica and the brutality realized tug of love which saw him reject his domineering father at the age of five leads him a long a path strewn with images of masculinity. As a ?runt?-a creature full of ear ? his life builds to a point where he reclaims his own self-image for the sake of his new son.
His performance is excellent ? a series of male characters are beautifully realized ? and his story is moving and powerful. But a confessional production such as this places a barrier between performer and audiences and at the end it is hard to know what it is that we are applauding. Edwards? acting or his personal resilience.? Alison Freebain

Michael Phillip Edwards has a dazzlingly charismatic presence on the stage. Here, in his self-penned show, he explores his roots as a Jamaican-born ‚migr‚ to North America.
The show?s title refers to a harsh lesson our here learned from his Jamaican uncle, who kept a pact of dogs, always hungry and running wild. The lesson shows how, in life, the top dog will always eat first, the runt taking whatever he is given, apologizing for his very existence with his slouching gait and downcast eyes.
Dignity, pride and confidence are all-important, it would seem, or perhaps it?s something altogether more ruthless and self serving that motivates the top dog.
Our hero?s father is the dominating authority figure of the pack, desperate to ensure that no son of his should become a runt. He is chillingly assertive and yet admirable, too- clearly capable of inspiring both love and fear in equal measure.
At the bottom of the runt system we find the boy?s mother, a warrior of a woman oppressed because of her gender. Dumped for a series of blonde trophy girlfriends, her indefatigable spirit is paid wholesome tribute as Edwards portrays her, in the kitchen, defiantly singing ?The harder they come, the harder they fall,? with a respect and love that is tangible and touching.
The seemingly silent and obedient child is seething with suppressed anger, understanding fully all that he confronts.
But dad knows this: ?Every thought you?ve had, I?ve already had,? he says, uniting his experience with that of his son while simultaneously negating the latter. His misogyny, hyper-masculine logic and belief that laziness is the root of all evil might make him an unsympathetic character, or at least risibly out of touch, but Edwards firmly reminds us not to judge him. For all his father?s abuse, the son cannot hate, fight or even confront him.
This is a powerfully written play, matched by a mightily sustained performance.
Its sincerity, heartfelt emotion and sensitive, raw intelligence provokes laughter, tears and thought in abundance.? Diane Dubois

??My father didn?t like me,? Michael Phillip Edards confesses, ?but he respected me in a way I couldn?t understand.? This is a man explaining the complex father-son relationship which dogged his early life. It was often amusing tale, confidently and charismatically related, which explores and characterizes the Jamaican family figures from this childhood.
But a little more fo himself and less of his father, hence a stronger relationship with his audience would boost the power of Edwards? performace. Otherwise, the rhythmic dynamism aof his language expresses well his feelings and emotions, creating a story of selfhood which anybody who?s ever felt like an inferior being can related to, and from which everybody who?s ever felt superior can learn.? Gareth Davies, The List Edinburgh, August 9, 2001

Author
Michael Phillip Edwards

Director
Kimberly Elise

Performers
Michael Phillip Edwards

Production
Michael R. Blaha, Francine Juilus-Edwards, Daniel Myatt, Nelson Pachcco, Lynne Conner Rumford

Tags: Theater, American, 2002