Long hailed as Jamaica’s king of comedy, Oliver Samuels gets serious when discussing stalwarts of theatre. Many of them, he noted, get little respect from the country’s Internet generation.

Samuels, currently starring in playwright Patrick Brown’s Guilty With Explanation, says Jamaican youth have minimal knowledge of achievements of giants like Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett-Coverley and Ranny “Maas Ran” Williams.

“Our culture unfortunately celebrates persons with little contribution to our country. Wi don’t even begin to write the history of Miss Lou, Lois Kelly-Miller, Maas Ran [Williams], and Charles Hyatt, which is sad,” Samuels told the Jamaica Observer.

Kelly-Miller was a contemporary of Miss Lou, Williams and Hyatt. When she died in 2020 at age 102, it closed the chapter on actors who helped shape theatre in pre-Independence Jamaica.

Samuels rubbed shoulders with Kelly-Miller, Miss Lou, and Williams in the 1971 national pantomime, Music Boy, his first major production. Over the years, his respect for their humility and dedication to craft grew even more.

That respect, he stated, is lacking in many Jamaican youth.

Still, Samuels is pleased, in large part, with the growth and advances in local theatre, but laments that the words of National Hero Marcus Garvey ring true, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

“Unless they [youth] become a part of the movement they can never know what goes into a production to bring it to a level where viewers can come and enjoy our creativity,” said Samuels.

The veteran comedian continues to fly the flag wherever he takes the stage and hopes that the richness of the Jamaican culture will continue to be celebrated.

Guilty With Explanation, which opened last year, also stars Lekeisha Ellison and Tesfa Edwards. The comedy closes Sunday at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

After a frustrating three-year break due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, this production marked Samuels’ return to the stage.

Being away from theatre for an extended period was not easy, but he is pleased with the response to Guilty With Explanation.

“Is a laugh-a-line play an’ Jamaica love a bellyful a laughs,” he said.