A nervous smile creases Wynton Williams’ face at the suggestion that the lead time to stage a new musical production in September is tight.

But Williams, music director at Missionaries Of the Poor (MOP), is accustomed to tight deadlines and thrives on the adrenaline rush that most people in the performing arts experience before taking the stage.

“We’re doing our best. The rehearsals started a month or so ago but we are on our way,” Williams told the Jamaica Observer two Mondays ago as he and MOP co-founder Father Richard Ho Lung talked about the upcoming production Ruby.

The production tells the story of a young prostitute who Ho Lung had met in the early 1970s in one of the downtown communities surrounding MOP’s homes in that end of the capital city.

“It’s out of her own story, her experiences — love, death, joy, finding God — and all of that journey and how it plays out. And, of course, it is enriched with music, so it should be, I think, a positive for Jamaica,” Williams explained.

The fact that the production is a theatre biography of sorts prompted the question: “What happened to Ruby?”

“She died,” Ho Lung replied. “What was stunning about Ruby is this: She used to come to communion and there was something very strange about her and beautiful and secretive. Now, you know you’re not supposed to receive communion if you are in sin, but she used to sell her body just to get a few extra dollars. She had two children. The man who was with her abandoned her. Then her best friend, Rose, who lived next door to her, died and she was in the same circumstances. Rose had three children and Ruby took over the children, although she could hardly manage. So she ended up with three more children.”

Women like Ruby, Williams argued, possess big hearts.

Ho Lung agreed. “Their hearts do the thinking,” he said, adding that, compared to many people today who would first look at their resources and question their ability to take care of orphaned children, “the best of Jamaican women say, ‘No, I can’t leave this child like that. We must help each other because life is so precious.’ “

Ruby, Williams explained, is tinged with an element of hope — “bright light at the end of the tunnel in spite of our struggles”.

The story also cautions against being judgemental about people because of their circumstances.

“Don’t do that, because we all have our own skeletons, our own demons, so just be respectful of people and see how best we can help each do better,” he said.

Ruby is planned for the last weekend in September at the National Arena in St Andrew, with special performances for schools.

However, single-weekend stagings of previous Father Ho Lung and Friends productions have left many Jamaicans disappointed as they were unable to get tickets due to the popularity of the musicals which usually relate Bible stories and, in most instances, can be categorised as reggae operas.

Asked if Ruby will really be staged for only one weekend, given past experiences, Williams said, “For now,” then chuckled and, with a glance at Ho Lung, added, “I have to say for now because you’re never sure with Father.”

The comment elicits hearty laughter from the 83-year-old Catholic priest who, after spending the past two years in South-east Asia expanding MOP’s missions, returned to Jamaica on June 5.