To legally smoke, or not to smoke marijuana is the topic in the second episode of Ya Mama.

Two of Ya Mama?s daughters have been smoking marijuana on their mother?s front porch. Mama says it is wrong because it is illegal and the girls, Prudy and Darlene think it is right for reasons all their own.

THE Company production of Ya Mama: ?Westgate Family Vacation? was written and directed by playwright Patricia D. Pogson-Nesbitt.

The play is set to open tomorrow evening at the City Hall Theatre and runs until Sunday.

The idea to highlight and raise the question of the legality of smoking marijuana came up during the last episode, said Mrs. Pogson-Nesbitt.

Two of the characters ?Darlene? (Melody Albouy) and ?Prudy? (Rhonda Daniels) speak frankly on the subject.

?The issue here in Bermuda is a ?silent? issue that permeates all levels of society ? smoking marijuana,? she said.

?We know that Bermudians from all walks of life smoke it. We know that it is classified as a controlled substance ? it?s an illegal drug.

?Other than that, what is wrong with it? Why can?t people smoke herb just like people drink alcohol? What is the problem??

But, Mrs. Pogson-Nesbitt said it is about the respect for ?what is? that is the problem.

The Mama in the play is attempting to relay the thought that if her daughters are caught smoking or in possession of it ? they will end up in Westgate Correctional Facility.

?Prudy and Darlene just cannot accept ?what is?,? said the playwright. ?But Mama understands that marijuana is illegal and a controlled substance.

?She loves her daughters, so the way she handles them is something to be discussed and it really does get discussed in this particular play.?

But the play aims to drive home an even deeper message.

?We just want to look at the fact that when Bermudians don?t like something most of us really don?t know how to change things,? she said.

?We might go off and talk about it, bicker about it, and keep it among ourselves, but there is no plan to go and see how can we change a law.

?We don?t like to have sound discussion about issues and to put a plan into action and so, we want to look at how do we deal with issues like that, when we don?t accept ? what is.?

Adding to the point, Rhonda Daniels, who is playing the weed smoking Prudy, said people speak on the radio talk shows in the hopes that if their gripe and or grievance is aired ? the Government will now ?do? something about it.

When asked if her aim was to make a statement, Mrs. Pogson-Nesbitt said. ?This is purely discussion, and if the Government decides that they will listen to what we have to say and somebody does something about it ? okay, but as a playwright my whole job is just to look at society and say what it is that we do as a people.

?If change comes about, because of what we say well then that is a good thing ? particularly if the change is good. But we are not trying to make a statement or anything.?

The five daughters range in age from 40 to 18, said Mrs. Daniels. Prudy is the middle daughter, and whatever she does ?brat? (Darlene played by Melody Albouy) emulates her.

The character of Prudy is up front and one that, in her opinion, does not have issues ? instead her sisters have issues.

Prudy?s theories on life are quite simple and they are as follows: ?In life there is a remedy for every ailment: if you have a headache there is Tylenol; if you have PMS there is Mydol; if you are thirsty there is beer; and if stressed ? got weed??

Although, the sisters share their illegal pleasure, Prudy, the elder sister, thinks that her baby sister, Darlene, is ?out of control?.

?So, whatever Prudy does, Darlene wants to do it,? said Ms Albouy. ?And being the baby, she was spoiled and is your typical brat.

?Her thoughts are, ?I didn?t ask to come here, so why the devil am I got to worry about things and if I can go out onto my porch and smoke a little weed, why not ? I?m not bothering anybody?.?

But Prudy on the other hand is suggesting that if you do it ? do it in the privacy of your own home.

?She is getting careless,? said Mrs. Daniels who introduced her younger sister to smoking pot. ?And that is what Prudy doesn?t like.?

Elder sisters Muriel and Dinah and they are against smoking the substance.

?Muriel is very straight laced and what is for her ? is what is and you are supposed to do things the way you are supposed to do them,? said Mrs. Daniels.

On a more serious note, although Ms Albouy plays a ganja smoking teen, her thoughts on the subject are quite the contrary.

?I always thought that marijuana was wrong because it is a mind altering drug when smoked,? she said. ?My mother and grandmother are both West Indian and they were into herbal remedies, but when marijuana is smoked it doesn?t have the same benefits as when it is boiled.

?The average person today that smokes weed, isn?t smoking it for medicinal purposes ? they are smoking it to get high. As an average teenager, I tried it, someone got a joint and it was like ? ?yeah, lets take a puff?.

?I had no bad experiences with it, but just knowing that it is illegal and what it is doing to young people today. Society is so different from when I was growing up and I don?t want my son caught up in it.

?As a parent, I discourage my son. He is in middle school and they meet those types of vices and peer pressures in life, because there are children his age who do smoke.

Many parents act as if they are blind to it and feel that if they act like it is not there then it is not there.?

When growing up, Mrs. Daniels said there were people who smoked weed, but as a young person she was never exposed to it. Nowadays it is prevalent.

?Me, as Rhonda, I personally know a lot of people who smoke weed. I don?t like it because I equate it with smoking cigarettes and it is the illegal issue. If it was legal I wouldn?t have a problem with it.

?But the other thing is that I used to smoke cigarettes and I enjoyed smoking cigarettes, but then I gave it up. I?ve had a few experiences with marijuana and one was in nursing school in Britain.

?Everyone rolled their own cigarettes and we shared cigarettes, cause you know in England you are poor. So everybody was passing it around and I didn?t realise it was weed and I missed the rest of the party because I was out like a light.

?Another time was when I was married to my first husband who was a narcotics Police officer and we were playing tennis up at the Police Club.

?After every case they would burn the evidence and it was blowing straight towards the tennis court and I thought they were burning trash.

?Anyway, I was thinking, I should have had breakfast ? it must be low blood sugar levels and I went to hit the ball and went splat into the net. I was high. My husband and everyone was laughing at me, because they knew what it was.

?That was another good reason not to do it and it was something that I never bothered to try.?

Initially, the Ya Mama plays were born out of conversations that the playwright had with the secretary of THE Company, Georgette Trott.

During their talks they discovered that they had grown up on Happy Valley Road, and Ms Trott on Cherry Hill Road, which was a forbidden area for Mrs. Pogson-Nesbitt.

?It was the ?um hmm? bad hill (laugh),? she said. It was assumed that every girl that went down that hill would end up pregnant. So, consequently I never really went down that hill unless I went to meet Mrs. Simons for dinner before going to Salvation Army for Sunday School.

?Anyway, we got together in later years and we began talking about our different societies, even though we resided in the same neighbourhood ? in fact just 20 yards away. She (Ms Trott) began to talk about how mamas in the olden days really were.

?We began to compare and she came up with some serious stories. I listened and then I wrote what she and other people were saying about their mothers.

?I didn?t want it to feel as if we were playing The Dozens, so consequently it is not the way you would say it if you were playing in The Dozens. It is more like ?that is how your mama acts?. She?s not my mama, she?s your mama.?

The next questions to be answered are who will end up spending their holiday in Westgate and who are the new characters.

Ya Mama: ?Westgate Family Vacation? Thursday Preview Night, tickets are $20 and the performance begins at 8 p.m. Friday show time is at 8 p.m. Saturday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., and Sunday the show opens at 4 p.m.

Tickets for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances are $30 and can be purchased at Logic, on Burnaby Street, Eru-Atile on Court Street, Deans Bakery, and The Deli, in Somerset.

For more information ( 292-4341 or thecompany emperial: thecompanyemperial.bm.