A play covering the Jamaican revolution, an impossible visa situation and prostitution is set to take the stage tomorrow night.

Throw $1 million and some bullets into the story, and begin to understand why 'Jamaica Farewell' has critics talking and could soon hit the silver screen.

Playwright and actress Debra Ehrhardt wrote the play based on her life.

The Kingston native is bringing her one-woman show to Bermuda this weekend, performing at the Berkeley Institute auditorium.

In an interview from her home in Los Angeles, she said that at 17 years old she was one of many Jamaicans concerned where the country was headed under the leadership of Michael Manley. The fear, held by Jamaicans and the US, stemmed from his ties with Cuba's leader Fidel Castro.

"People were running from the country, because they were nervous that Jamaica was going to go communist," she said.

There were additional problems to cope with at home.

"My mother spent most of her time in church praying that my father would stop drinking and gambling," Mrs. Ehrhardt said.

"When I would come home and daddy hadn't paid the bills the lights [were] shut off, and the water [was] shut off, not enough food and no furniture because he gambled everything."

She decided to break what she recognised as a cycle in her family, where women overlooked their own wants to accommodate men.

She met CIA agent Jack Wallingford while having lunch in a cafe. He fell in love. She saw him as an opportunity to emigrate to America.

To this day she refuses to say how she was asked or who asked her, but Mrs. Ehrhardt agreed to smuggle $1 million in cash to a mysterious contact somewhere in Miami.

It was at a time when Jamaicans could not leave the island with more than $50 Jamaican dollars.

"You know, I was 17 when I did what I did. It is funny because at 17 you feel invincible. It's like you can conquer the world and nothing is going to happen to you," she explained.

"I was ready to take on the world and I wondered whether America was ready for me. I'm telling you if it were now, I would just be living and dying in Jamaica, but I had so many dreams and I didn't see them coming true in Jamaica."

In the US she attended the William Esper Studio drama school. On graduation she found that a white person with a Jamaican accent wasn't as marketable as a black person with the same accent. It translated into little to no work for the actress who refused to speak 'American'.

"So I didn't get any work and the only way I could get work was that I had to write my own."

She wrote 'Jamaica Farewell', which in 2007 took the top prize at the New York Fringe Festival. A second play, 'Mango, Mango', won two NAACP Theatre Awards in Los Angeles.

Another play, 'Invisible Chairs', attracted the attention of Fox TV executives who optioned it for a sitcom.

"I started writing all my Caribbean stories and people just flocked to hear them, because they were good.

"America is the place that if you have drive, than you can do anything that you want. 'Jamaica Farewell' has just been optioned by a top Hollywood producer to turn it into a movie. I am very excited that a Jamaican girl with her Jamaican accent could make it."

'Jamaica Farewell' is being presented by the Jamaican Association of Bermuda under the patronage of lawyer Delroy Duncan.

Tickets $35 $65 for patrons are available from Jamaican Grill, Dub City and In-Between Boutique. Proceeds will go towards the Jamaican Association Scholarship Fund.

Show time is at 7 p.m. sharp.