Aston Cooke
Prolific Jamaican playwright Aston Cooke has published a new book which features two of his most successful stage plays - Country Duppyand Jonkanoo Jamboree. Through this book, Country Duppy and Jonkanoo Jamboree, Cooke skilfully serves up a delectable spread of Jamaican and Caribbean traditional cultural forms and demonstrates their relevance in contemporary literature.
Country Duppy and Jonkanoo Jamboree are two very amusing plays that revel in traditional Jamaican cultural forms and creatively explore their meeting with the modern world. These plays explore some of the the aesthetic practices of Jamaicans such as wakes and jonkanoo - their functions and meanings and their relationships to contemporary popular culture. This book is highly recommended for academic researchers, theatre lovers, cultural practitioners and students of English literature and theatre arts.
According to University of the West Indies lecturer Michael Holgate, in the foreword from the book: "Aston Cooke has done a masterful job at storytelling with both Country Duppy and Jonkanoo Jamboree. Readers will enjoy the Caribbean fantasy-fiction-like quality and appreciate the juxtaposition of the rural life and the urban aesthetic of the dancehall."
Aston Cooke is no stranger to the Jamaican theatre scene and has been writing since his high-school days at Wolmer's Boys' School. He has done some memorable works such as Oliver at Large, LTM Pantomime River Mumma and the Golden Table, Front Room, Single Entry,Concubine, and the popular Jamaican revue series Jamaica 2 Rahtid.
Cooke is the recipient of 10 national Actor Boy Awards for outstanding achievement in theatre, and an inductee to the Caribbean Hall of Fame for Arts and Culture.
Country Duppy and Jonkanoo Jamboree is available at bookstores islandwide, and online from AuthorHouse Publishers Bookstores, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble Booksellers.