Tanti at the Oval Paul Keens-Douglas was born in Trinidad but spent his childhood in Grenada. He is well-known for his dramatic presentations, storytelling, poetry and advertising as both writer and performer. One of his dramatic presentations which is a part of the Tim Tim storytelling is called Tanti at the Oval. This is a public performance, due to the fact that the listener can hear the laughter of the audience throughout. In his performance, Mr. Keens-Douglas (from hence to be called the narrator) appears to be speaking angrily to his wife as he uses the phrase “woman you don’t know how you nearly lose a husband”. We can tell that he is angry because his first statement is “don’t ask no stupid question”, also because of his tone of voice which is loud and by him saying that he is “vex, vex, vex”. He is speaking to her about one of their relatives named Tanti Merle. Tanti Merle is described as a sixty-five (65) year old woman from St. Vincent who is currently visiting Trinidad. It is her (Tanti Merle’s) birthday and the narrator’s wife convinced him to take Tanti Merle with him to the Oval to see a cricket match. The match is being played between Trinidad and the Combined Islands. The latter of which Tanti Merle is a fan. The Oval refers to the Queens Park Oval which has been in existence for one hundred and five (105) years (Besson, 1).[1] Cricket was a growing sport at this time. It was very popular then and still is today. The narrator is showing his regret about taking Tanti Merle to the oval by repeating the word never in regards to not taking anyone to the Oval again. He also says “When I going to the Oval, is me alone and god going”. He then goes on to explain why he regrets taking Tanti Merle to the Oval. The first reason being that Tanti Merle is not a very good time keeper. She delayed their start by taking the time to pack a picnic basket. This idea did not sit well with the narrator as it was not the norm for him. He was not accustomed to carrying anything with him to the Oval except a small bottle of rum and his money in his back and side pockets respectively. Whatever else he would need food wise there were vendors aplenty selling in Port of Spain. Carrying a basket had a stigma attached to it. You were mistaken for a vendor, this was evidenced by persons asking the narrator what he was selling. The second reason for his upset was the fact that despite taxis being hard to get Tanti Merle refused to board those that stopped. She had issues with the physical appearance of the driver as well as the status of the passengers. This together with the parasol (referred to later in the performance) used by Tanti Merle tells us that Tanti Merle considers herself to be superior to other people. In a different class. She is one of the richer persons in her country. Another point that to note is that the narrator is superstitious. This can be seen when Tanti Merle requests a red taxi and the narrator says “you see that woman, I think she working obeah you know”. Obeah is another word that is used in the Caribbean to mean voodoo. Also the colour red is associated with evil. Hence the narrator’s conclusion. When Tanti Merle stopped a taxi (she did this by stepping of the pavement onto the road and saying stop), she sat in the back of the vehicle. The narrator compared her to the Queen of Sheba. This again reinforces our belief that Tanti Merle is a wealthy individual. During the ride to the Oval, Tanti Merle asked the driver to listen to the cricket. When the radio was on she continued to show her favouritism and support for the Combined Islands. At this show of enthusiasm for a team other than Trinidad the driver asked Tanti Merle which country she was from. This was answered with a show of pride and a history lesson on St. Vincent. St. Vincent was called Hairouna meaning the Land of the Blessed by the Kalinago people who were inhabitants of the island when the Europeans first landed there (Wikipedia).[2] The narrator at this time was thinking “well who tell he say that”, meaning that it a topic dear to Tanti Merle and she could converse on it for a long period of time. The narrator goes on to highlight the hilarity of the situation by saying that he has “never seen a taxi man drive so fast yet” also “we drive straight to the Oval” and “he didn’t pick up no passengers”. To further indicate the comedic angle to the performance the audience is laughing in the background and the narrator’s tone changed as well. He did not quite laugh as the audience were doing but there was a trace of laughter in his tone. It is important to note that this is the only time in the entire performance that the narrator’s tone reflected the comedy behind the performance. When the narrator and Tanti Merle arrived at the Oval, Tanti Merle took out her parasol. This was mentioned previously and also its indication to a person’s social status. Our narrator continues to lament about his problems with Tanti Merle and her parasol when they are entering the Oval. The gate to the Oval is not very wide and the ticket salesmen are lined at the gate to sell their tickets and collect their money. They do not usually pay attention to the faces of attendees to the Oval but in this particular instance they did. As the narrator tells us, Tanti Merle refused to close her parasol and as a result she almost struck the ticket salesmen in their eyes with the edge of the parasol. Another particular bone of contention to the narrator was the fact that the ticket salesmen assumed that Tanti Merle was the narrator’s wife. The narrator, went on to express in a peeved tone that Tanti Merle could have been identified as his aunt, or his grandmother, instead she was assumed to be his wife. To further compound the situation, the narrator met a group of his friends (Boysie and the boys), who asked to be introduced to his madam and also questioned as to whether she had a will. This shows the significant difference in ages between Tanti Merle and the narrator, hence his harassed and peeved tone at this time. This caused the most laughter in the audience. Soon enough the cricket game captured everyone’s attention and they sat down to watch the match. Trinidad was bowling and the Combined Islands was batting. There was a lot of tension in the Oval at this time. It was also at this time that Tanti Merle told a man seated in front of her to remove his hat because it was bothering her. The man was purported to be a “bad john” or a bully, and this caused another kind of tension. While Tanti Merle and the bully were arguing and cursing each other, the narrator was trying to bring peace to the situation. The fight was interrupted when Richards was declared out. At this new development, the fight between Tanti Merle and the bully stopped and Tanti Merle started threatening the umpire. The match started to get exciting as there were three wickets taken, and Tanti Merle started to get angry. She decided to switch seats and also turned to the person seated behind her and made a comment about the bowler. At this time the man asked her where she was from. This caused our narrator to think again “well who tell he say that”. The response from Tanti Merle was similar to that given to the taxi driver, however, she stood up on the seat to make her point. The narrator got her to come down by convincing her to share out the food from the picnic basket. Which she did. At this time another batsman got out, and Tanti Merle decided to go to the front to see the match. Things were heating up at the Oval and the tension was thick. Then another batsman was out and Tanti said that Trinidad were cheating. The match started to heat up and the narrator started to give a rundown of the runs and ball to go. During this time Tanti was getting excited and started to wave the basket and her parasol. She even stood up on the seat and the police had to caution her. Then at three runs to go Tanti started climbing the fence, then two balls and she was on the field. After that the game was tied but some said the Combined Islands won and the narrator at this time saw Tanti and others from the small islands on the field. The narrator could not see Tanti but he saw the parasol going up and down. During this time it was announced that the match was a draw. This caused Tanti Merle to flare up. She wanted the rules changed, she also spoke about forming delegation to speak to the Prime Minister about the situation. The narrator took nearly two (2) hours to get Tanti out of the Oval. She almost caused a riot. The basket was shattered and the parasol was lost. When they were almost home Tanti asked the narrator “when next we going back”. This piece was presented in Trinidad colloquialism. It is a comedic piece and was presented by a performer who is famous for such pieces. It was delivered in tones that provoked the necessary reactions from the audience.

Bibliography
Besson, Gerard A. “Cricket.” Caribbean History Archives, Paria Publishing Company Limited, 22 Nov 2011. Web. 25 Sept 2014

Wikipedia. “Hairouna.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia, 27 Mar 2011. Web. 25 Sept 2014
-----------------------
[1] Besson, Gerard A. “Cricket.” Caribbean History Archives, Paria Publishing Company Limited, 22 Nov 2011. Web. 25 Sept 2014
[2] Wikipedia. “Hairouna.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia, 27 Mar 2011. Web. 25 Sept 2014