How do people respond when “hard times” force them to rethink the image they have of themselves and the importance of the roles they play in life? It seems that the responses can be as diverse as the people-characters themselves. And in his new play For Better Or Worse, one of Jamaica’s most prolific playwrights, Basil Dawkins, is ready to present a stimulating view of how one group of connected people react to hard-time pressures.

The play, which will have its gala world premiere at the Little Little Theatre on Sunday, explores economically challenging times in which reasonable adults do strange and often unwise things. Described as “a provocative comedy”, For Better Or Worse is filled with both questions and life lessons about the choices people make and the impact of those choices on their own lives and the lives of others.

For Better Or Worse provides audiences with a peek into the life of Marcia, a working wife who becomes disappointed with the way her life has turned out because her husband, Alfred, a qualified architect, has been unable to find employment or to carry on a successful business. Alfred appears to have become content in being a dedicated and efficient stay-at-home dad who takes care of their two daughters, thereby forcing her unwillingly into the role of sole breadwinner. Despite the constraints of the global economic climate and the way in which those demands are helping to change roles in the home, Marcia is clearly not “liberated” enough to accept those changes in her home.

Marcia’s decision to make a move that will allow her to live the dreams she appears to hold dear creates some interesting dynamics which are guaranteed to take audiences through a whole range of emotions. Humour is mixed in with empathy for both the husband and the wife and is twinned, further, with some feelings of disgust at the way in which people allow themselves to be used and to become users.

Playwright Basil Dawkins has scripted a scenario with which many people may identify, given the harsh economic conditions and the challenging employment environment which is today’s reality for many. But Dawkins’ For Better Or Worse also shines a light-beam of hope for those willing to make opportunities out of seeming hopelessness and to build new career paths out of both traditional and non-traditional situations.

An experienced team of actors, led by Ruth Hoshing, Terri Salmon, Sakina, Christopher ‘Johnny’ Daley and Jerry Benzwick, will present this comedy under the direction of Douglas Prout.