The Coup
By Mustapha Matura
Year staged: 1991
Opening night: 12/07/1991
Theatre Company: National Theatre; 1963-
Staged in: Cottesloe Theatre, National Theatre
Cast Size: 12
Synopsis
A funeral oration of President Eddie Jones; a precarious military takeover with trigger-happy squabbling factions: Mustapha Matura’s farcical, fictional coup, set in independent Trinidad and Tobago, swings with the fluid language and magical lyricism of the Caribbean and explores the chimerical quality of nationhood where foreign money overpowers dreams.
Original Cast
Maureen Hibbert
First Nun / Arawak
Lennie James
Mickey Jones
Gordon Case
Lieutenant Chan
Oscar James
Archbishop / Arawak Priest
Josephine Melville
Second Nun / Arawak
Jeffery Kissoon
Major Ferret
Stefan Kalipha
Lieutenant le Grange
Tony Armatrading
Black Lighting
Norman Beaton
President Edward Francis Jones
Marc Matthews
Monk / Second Workman / Guard of Honour
T-Bone Wilson
Christopher Columbus / First Workman / Guard of Honour
Lenny Algernon Edwards
Captain / Soldier / Guard of Honour
Production Team
Emma B Lloyd
Assistant Stage Manager
Ernest Hall
Stage Manager
Angela Bissett
Deputy Stage Manager
Edward Kemp
Staff Director
Ivan Kyncl
Production and Rehearsal Photographer
Paul Groothuis
Sound Score
Paul Greaves
Assistant Stage Manager
Michael Mayhew
Designer of Poster and Programme Cover
Roger Michell
Director
Rick Fisher
Lighting Designer
Tim Bray
Assistant to the Lighting Designer
Jason Barnes
Production Manager
Miles King
Design Assistant
Rose Towler
Poster / Programme cover designer
Wendy Griffiths
Costume Supervisor
William Dudley
Designer / Programme cover design
Additional Materials
Platform Recording with Matura
Ref: RNT/PL/3/74
National Theatre