Talk about a blast from the past! Francis Quamina Farrier’s The Tides of Susanburg returns on the stage of the Theatre Guild, Kingston next Friday, June 27, with a matinee performance at 13:00 hrs and evening performances on Saturday and Sunday at 19:00hrs.
The Tides of Susanburg, set in a fictitious village in Essequibo, is based on the life of a young girl called June Winters (Charisma Jones-Chin) and her mother Savitri Winters (Natasha Azeez and Renita Dyndial). Savitri battles with her devious sister-in-law, Stella Wharton (Colleen Humphrey), who wants to take the 13-year-old June away from her mother.
Mrs Wharton who is desperate to have her niece and her friend Carol Waldron (Carlene Samuel as her daughters, offers to pay a man named Mentore (Henry Rodney) to kidnap June and offers Mr Waldron (George Braithwaite) money in exchange for his daughter Carol.
Their plotting ends when Mentore and Mrs Waldron cause a fire in which the Eldorado Guest House, owned by Mrs Sobers (LaVonne George) and her son Desmond Sobers (Keyon Heywood), to burn flat to the ground. Collette Jones-Chin, who is directing will play community character Yayah.
The play was first staged at the National Cultural Centre in 1985 and then in Linden some years after its run as Guyana’s first local radio serial drama. The sterling cast then included Venita Farrier as Carol, Rosamund Addo as Stella Wharton, Seta Kartick as Savitri Winters, Hector Stoute as Desmond Sobers, Nicola Smith as June Winters, John Exeter as Mentore, Curtis Daniels as Waldron, Alma Heber as Mrs Sobers and Lucy Williams as Yayah.
On the first evening’s performance, Senoj Creations will be paying tribute to several people who were integral to the first stage production.
Admission costs $500 for the Matinee Show and $1,500 for the evening shows.
The Tides of Susanburg was an extremely popular radio drama, followed by reams of fans brought up on a diet of Dr Paul, Give Me No Pity, Portia Faces Life and Calabash Alley among others, none of which were local.
According to a press release, Francis Quamina Farrier finished writing the drama sometime in 1966 and it was first aired seven months later. It was re-run in the 70s and followed by its less successful sequel, The Girl From Susanburg. By the time it arrived on radio Girl From Susanburg would have been forced to compete with the televisions and VCRs that had started making their presence known in the country.
The producer of both serials was Ray Robinson who was a broadcaster at Radio Demerara at the time.
The release revealed that Francis had spent four years studying theatre in London and upon his return to Guyana, he produced several plays including The Trumpeters and Young Skibby.
