In various West African traditions, biological twins have a sacred/profane mystique. In Yorubaland in particular, they are considered magical and given special names, possessing a specific social function akin to the ‘alchemical union of opposites’ in Western Hermetic traditions… these varying facets of twinship are themes explored in this play.

The piece also culls from A more sinister belief that also runs rampant in other Nigerian cultures, the cult of the abiku or the ogbanje—the evil (or merely capricious) child spirit who returns over and over again… that is, the child is born, lives until the age of two or even three and then decides to return to the delights of the spirit world, and then decides to come back to earthly realm—via the same mother. A classic case of indecision…
There are some unfortunate women plagued by these spirit children who insist on straddling the best of both worlds. The result is an endless cycle of birth, death and grief…

Both traditions find their culmination in the Haitian Vodoun pantheon— the Marasa— unborn twins, innocent and mischievous they wreak all kinds of mishap upon living relatives.

Other Vodoun deities appear as characters within the play— the Guédés, a very stylish and tricksterish clan of Politicians and legislators. The ultimate socialites, the Guédés tend towards dandyism, often given to wearing black, dark glasses, and a fair amount of couture.
While the Guédés appear to be marauding socialites, their real function is to reinstitute justice. In Haiti, the Guédé’s have the reputation of appearing out of nowhere in a crowd and switching the current—a funeral becomes a wedding; a wedding becomes a riot; a riot becomes a massive dance party… They appear on the scene to correct imbalances in the social scheme. However the justice they instill is often of a strange skewy caste—never lacking in characteristic flair and panache…

Extracting truth from the strange, outsize and bizarre is a Guédé specialty.

Perhaps the most popular of all the Guédés is Baron Samedi, aristocratic, elegant, and of saturnine aspect—the Baron is the prototype of the Magician in tails, pulling rabbits and suchlike out of the hat. The Baron is usually invoked in civil suits to provide a just outcome. He is also ‘Lord of the Crossroads’ and gatekeeper to the cemeteries.
Eleggua also enjoys a great deal of popularity as the archetypal trickster. In this play, he is utilized in his “little Miss Eleggua” aspect—a brave ,tricky and elusive girl who shows up in the most unlikely places.

Grande Brigitte, (featured in the Celtic pantheon as well), also presides over cemeteries. She is the consummate judge and jury. Here, she is rpresented in her “Queen Victoria” aspect.

This brings us to the very particular aesthetic of the play, which carries with it an Edwardian nuance. To this writer’s mind, the Vodoun religion which developed as a syncretic blend of West African religion and Catholicism by the slave populations in Haiti—crystallized it’s identity in the late 19th century. aesthetic. In particular, the dandyism of the Guédés’ is emerges from the same socio-political roots that produced Brummel’s affect, Whistler’s fashion composition and the Wildean epigram—all prefiguring the headrush of decadence to follow the death of Queen Victoria.

This same decadence is refracted in the domestic tragedies of the Hapsburgs, which amplified in larger political contexts, lead to the eve of the first world war…

Crumbling empires, failing institutions, slave revolts—the Guédé’s inhabit the glee of the oppressor’s yoke falling off—except in their case, instead of a tightened noose, this clan much prefers an elaborately wrought cravat…

Being a “tragicomedy of manners” (and a parlour game), ”Intimate Relay” naturally lends itself to the rules, social restrictions, the corset armature, the superfluous bustle, the diginified poise and the stiffened upper lip exemplified by Victoriana.

All this is not to say, as per casting, there is any obligation to follow a code of racial guidelines—rather, there is a Black and White theme inherent to the design of the play that may be enhanced by staggered casting…
or not.

What is more pertinent is that the accent on these integral archetypes is pronounced in the rendition of this play.

Intimate Relay ©2005, 2013 onomé ekeh