‘You have to reflect the language to capture people’s souls’: Martina Laird on calypso, patois and the RSC

The former Casualty actor wrote Driftwood – a family drama set against the backdrop of Trinidadian independence – as a private act after reconnecting with her roots. It was like solving a crossword, she says More than two decades ago, the actor Martina Laird took a trip back to her past. As part of the ensemble on the TV drama Casualty, in which she played paramedic Comfort Jones, she was a household face with a rewarding job, yet she felt stuck in her life. “Things weren’t developing,” she r...

By Arifa Akbar