A Deal with Darkness

Trinidad folklore comes to life in a dark musical thriller

• 📍 Location: Naparima Bowl, San Fernando, Trinidad 🇹🇹
• 📅 Date: April 16th to 19th, 2026
• ⏰ School Shows: April 16th & 17th : 9AM & 12 Noon
• ⏰ Adult Shows: April 17th, 18th: 7pm  & April 19th : 5pm
• 🌐 Hosted by: Island Productions 

ISLAND PRODUCTIONS 

Tel.: 468-7435 

Synopsis of “A DEAL WITH DARKNESS” 
(Performing Arts – Secondary Level) 
Set in the village of Tortuga, Trinidad, in 1919, “A Deal with Darkness” is a musical stage play 
rooted in the folklore and oral traditions of Trinidad and Tobago. The play explores themes of 
love, sacrifice, morality, and spiritual consequence, culminating in a final battle between good 
and evil. 
The story begins beneath the great silk cotton tree, believed to be a gateway between worlds. 
Hubert, a villager, is haunted by recurring dreams in which he is commanded to sacrifice his son 
to the Devil in exchange for a pot of wealth rising from the earth. Hubert refuses, choosing love 
and integrity over greed. Unknown to him, another villager has already made a deal with 
darkness, setting off a chain of events that brings sickness, death, and fear to Tortuga. 
At the heart of the play are two interwoven love stories that reveal how fear and betrayal create 
monsters, while love and sacrifice create redemption. The first traces the tragic past of Celia, 
before she bore the mark of the cloven hoof. Once a young maid in the French Great House, 
Celia shared a forbidden love with Jean Paul, the young French master. Betrayed by 
superstition and violence, Celia turns to darkness for justice and becomes a feared figure of 
folklore. Years later, Celia now redeemed, stands on the side of good, having been freed from 
her contract through love and sacrifice. 
The second love story follows Maria and Arjoon, whose relationship is destroyed by prejudice 
and cruelty. Maria’s stepmother, Shanty, makes a pact with darkness and transforms into a 
serpent. She murders Maria after revealing her father’s plan to kill Arjoon to preserve honour. 
Shanty is cursed to remain in serpentine form forever, while Maria becomes the little ghost of 
the highway, symbolising innocence lost and injustice unresolved. 
As the village begins to die, the spiritual balance shifts. Through ritual, courage, and defiance, 
the obeah man restores Maria to human form and calls for a final reckoning known as The 
Game of Souls. The battle is now clearly drawn: good versus evil. On the side of good stands 
Celia, Maria, and Morgan representing redemption, justice, and spiritual strength. On the side of 
darkness stands the Devil, his fearsome Lagahoo, and Shanty, the serpentine woman. 
Music, movement, and folklore driven imagery bring the final confrontation to life as contracts 
are challenged and souls hang in the balance. The play asks a central moral question: Can 
goodness rooted in love, sacrifice, and community be powerful enough to break ancient 
contracts and defeat the Devil himself? 
A Deal with Darkness is a culturally significant musical thriller that preserves Trinidad and 
Tobago’s folklore while offering students a rich text for performance analysis, character study, 
and exploration of moral and spiritual conflict within Caribbean theatre.