Jamaica Farewell

Most people who sneaked into a country with a million dollars stuffed in their duffle bag would want to keep it quiet. Debra Ehrhardt, however, has gone and made a show about it. Jamaica Farewell is the autobiographical tale of her journey from Jamaica to the USA, a road littered with danger, obstacles and 100 dollar bills.

The show, performed by Ehrhardt, follows her youthful intoxication with the candy and consumerism of America and her determination to get to the promised land despite the odds. At the age of 18, and as her nation is in political tumult, Ehrhardt meets a charming CIA agent who becomes her unwitting ticket out of Jamaica. First, she just has to smuggle out a million bucks.

At the same time as highlighting the difficulties faced by immigrants, Ehrhardt’s play cleaves surprisingly closely to the great American dream of freedom and opportunity. This is, after all, the story of an individual who made it thanks to her own rule-breaking initiative, offering only glancing references to the structural barriers to achieving her goal. Whether the dream was worth all the danger, meanwhile, is never really explored.

Even putting aside this criticism, Jamaica Farewell is never as compelling as its subject matter would suggest. The momentum is hampered by clunky sound design, while Ehrhardt’s overwrought delivery quickly begins to grate. It’s quite a feat, but Ehrhardt somehow manages to make a high stakes quest for success into a dull, sluggish viewing experience.