Bob Marley’s Song & Two Can Play

Two Can Play by Trevor Rhone

            The setting of the play is in Kingston, Jamaica in the late 1970s. In a house in a poor and depressed area surrounded by the effects of political warfare. In Jamaica in the 1970s there were several political parties that have resorted to violence in opposing each other. In this decade, Jamaica Labor Party and People’s National Party aligned themselves with rival gun gangs and fought their political battles in the streets and at the ballot box. Jamaica became a debtor nation and has remained so ever since. In 1972 the PNP won the elections. Deteriorating economic conditions led to recurrent violence in Kingston and elsewhere during the mid-1970s. By 1976, Jamaica was faced with declining exports, a critical shortage of foreign exchange and investment, an unemployment rate estimated at 30–40%, and rampant currency speculation. The setting of the play reflects the situations during the 1970s in Jamaica, making the characters suffer the effects of the political warfare and the economics problems. The characters were oppressed by the political warfare, making them prisoners of their own house and country. They felt the urge to escape from the only way of life they could have.

Bob Marley’s Song

War

Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war
That until there are no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the color of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the color of his eyes
Me say war

            The lyrics of this song express the feeling of the Jamaican society that suffers from the political and economics conflicts. Also, explains how the difference between color and social class can be a reason for violence. This can relate with the setting of the play because the main cause to all the problems is the violence. This is marginalizing the characters making them suffer the effects of it.