One woman play to take Bliss stage tonight

Rising crime rates in Belize have prompted the question of reinstating the death penalty for convicted criminals. This weekend, a new play will open at the Bliss on that very subject and even though times and attitudes have changed, the underlying message is that sometimes an innocent person dies at the hand of the law.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
The play ?Who Will Sing for Lena,? is based on the tragic true story of Lena Baker, the first and only American woman to die in the electric chair in the state of Georgia. Baker, a black woman, who was sentenced to death in 1945, after a one day trial. An all male jury found her guilty of killing her white employer E. B Knight, whom she claimed held her in slavery and threatened her life. In her defence, Baker claimed Knight was accidentally shot during a struggle over the gun he was holding. Sixty years after Baker?s execution, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted Lena Baker a full posthumous pardon.

Makeda Solomon, Actress
?You are looking at a black woman killing a white man. So it was a done deal from the outset from the time she pulled the trigger. It was clear that they would be giving her the worst end of the justice system at that time.?

Jacqueline Godwin
?And the jurors were all white men??

Makeda Solomon
?All white, all men. She was the only one that really testified on her own behalf.?

Jamaican actress Makeda Solomon has made it her mission to bring the life story of Lena Baker to the stage. Solomon?s performances proved crucial in acquiring Baker?s pardon in 2005.

Makeda Solomon
?Lena Baker?s family had been really pushing through the years to have her name cleared, pardoned. So the play was a part of that campaign as well, for me it was a great experience. Because after each performance we would have petitions to send to the board of parole in Georgia. And when I got the news I was actually in my hotel in England just about to perform the play and I got the news that the pardon had finally been granted against the odds. So sixty years late, yes, but I think it was still a great feeling to know that we play some part through this play. The play is one that speaks to the trials and tribulations of an ordinary woman. This woman was no angel; she wasn?t perfect she made mistakes. She was a mother of three children, she was struggling to survive and she may have compromised herself in some instances in terms of things she did to earn money to feed her children. But what the play is saying is that that shouldn?t mean at the end of day you suffer the injustices of a brutal society, as it was at that time. She was an ordinary woman trying to live as best life as she could and the consequences really went very much against her.?

?Who Will Sing for Lena? will take the stage at the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts on June second and third. The play does contain some material not suited for children. Tickets are now on sale at the box office at twenty five dollars premier, twenty dollars reserve and fifteen dollars general.

Jacqueline Godwin for News Five.

In the 1960’s Nora Parham became the first and only Belizean woman put to death by hanging after she was found guilty of burning her husband alive. Parham’s defence was that her marital relationship was abusive.