GREAT BAY, St. Martin (January 12, 2003)—The House That Jack Built and Other Plays by Louie Laveist will be launched here on February 1, said Lasana M. Sekou, projects director at House of Nehesi Publishers.
The House That Jack Built and Other Plays, the first book of 2003 from House of Nehesi, contains Who’s Fooling Who?,Forbidden Love and the title play The House That Jack Built, considered by critics as one of Laveist’s best plays. The three plays have been staged in St. Martin, Curaçao and Trinidad—some for a number of times—since they were written in 1991, 1992 and 1996 respectively.
In his introduction to the book, Funso Aiyejina, senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, posits the book stoutly within the developing literature of St. Martin and critiques the major theme of family in Laveist’s work as it relates to historical and current trends of Caribbean authors.
Laveist, one of the founding members of the Cole Bay Theater Company, has been involved in theater since he was about 15 years old. The actor/director/playwright has written five plays. His most recent work is Love You To Death (2002)—his only full-length play written since he was first elected to parliament in 1998. The play, about domestic abuse, was performed last year in St. Martin and Cuba.
The story of how Laveist came to write plays has been profiled in the book St. Martin Massive! A Snapshot of Popular Artists (2000). But to find out more about what is really in those plays, said Sekou, the general public, actors, students of theater and present and future directors now have Laveist’s first book, The House That Jack Built and Other Plays.