E. M. Roach
Eric Morton Roach (3 November 1915 – 18 April 1974) was a Tobagonian poet and playwright.[1][2] He published some early writing under the pseudonym Merton Maloney.
Life[]
Roach grew up in Mount Pleasant, Tobago:
My village, Mount Pleasant, was a sprawling bushy compound of crude wattle or clapboard cabins with thatched or tin roofs, shabby like ourselves. In later years it seemed to me that in my boyhood we were clinging to life by the skin of our teeth and did not realise our hardship because we knew nothing else.[3]
Between 1949 and 1955, his poetry was frequently broadcast on the BBC programme Caribbean Voices.[1]
In 1960s, Roach began to gain an international reputation. However, he became overwhelmed and depressed, and committed suicide in 1974, drinking insecticide before swimming in the ocean.[1]
Work[]
Plays[]
- Belle Fanto: A Medium-length Play in 3 Acts, 1967
- Letter from Leonora, 1968
- A Calabash of Blood, 1971
Poems[]
- The Flowering Rock: Collected Poems 1938–1974, Peepal Tree Press, 1992
Plays: Performance history[]
Belle Fanto[]
Trinidad and Tobago Secondary Schools Drama Festival[4]
- 1971 St. George's College (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by Slade Hopkinson.
- 1973 Palo Seco Government Secondary (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by B.T. Harry.
- 1982 Cowen Hamilton Secondary (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by Victor Edwards.
- 1988 San Fernando West Senior Comprehensive (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by Garvin McClean.
- 1989 Signal Hill Senior Comprehensive School (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by Cherryll Uzoruo.
- 1992 Aranguez Junior Secondary School (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by Susan Crichlow.
- 1993 Signal Hill Senior Comprehensive School (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by Cherryll Uzoruo.
- 1997 St. George's College (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by Rawle Carrington.
- 1999 Tranquility Government Secondary (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by Karen Griffith.
- 2002 Cowen Hamilton Secondary School (Trinidad and Tobago) directed by Iezora Edwards.
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Eric Roach". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- ^ Breiner, Laurence (10 November 2006). "Laureate of nowhere". Caribbean Review of Books. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- ^ Eric Roach, "Growing up in Tobago", in Michael Anthony & Andrew Carr, eds., David Frost Introduces Trinidad and Tobago, London: Andre Deutsch, 1975, pp. 147–58.
- ^ Edwards, Victor (2007). A history of the Secondary Schools Drama Association and its role as an institution for the development of drama in Trinidad and Tobago. MPhil thesis. St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago: The University of the West Indies.
Further reading[]
- Laurence A. Breiner, Black Yeats: Eric Roach and the Politics of Caribbean Poetry, Peepal Tree Press, 2008
External links[]
- Al Creighton, Glorifying African survivals, August 22, 2010
- Andre Bagoo, "I am the Archipelago": Eric Roach and Black Identity, February 28, 2015
- Eric Roach and the Flowering Rock
- Eric Roach manuscripts at the University of the West Indies
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- 1915 births
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- People from Tobago
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- Male poets
- Male dramatists and playwrights
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- Suicides in Trinidad and Tobago
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