In the western world theatres have been closed for various reasons at different times in history. People in the Caribbean have had the experience of exactly what that feels like over the past two years with the kind compliments of the shutdowns forced by the Coronavirus pandemic. The world is now slowly reopening bit by bit including theatres, but in Guyana there is a threat they might not really reopen at all.
Throughout the history of drama in the west there have been major periods of forced closure of theatres. In Greece, in the Classical era, theatre faced its first crisis when it declined and suffered closure in the fifth century AD. This accompanied the fall of the Classical period itself at the decline of the Roman Empire. But it was also hastened by the disapproval of the Roman Catholic Church. The great theologian St Augustine was theatre’s strongest critic, condemned it in his writings and rejoiced that it was crumbling. There was no western stage for quite a stretch in the Middle Ages – no wonder it is referred to as the Dark Ages.
A fairly minor prohibition took place in England in the sixteenth century. But this was an inconsequential check, not a shutdown because it only affected religious plays. Queen Elizabeth I put a ban on religious drama as a way of keeping the Catholics and the Anglicans away from each other’s throats. This followed the conflict caused by her father King Henry VIII, who had withdrawn from the Roman Catholic Church and established the Church of England. Christian plays had been dominant since the rebirth of drama and Elizabeth forestalled the stage becoming a major battleground during this rift in the Christian religion. Ironically, though, this was a catalyst for the rise of drama when under the patronage of Elizabeth herself, the era of her reign became the greatest for the development of drama and literature.
The Elizabethan Era was to be further affected in the 1590s. At least twice between 1592 and 1593 theatres were forced to close in London because of outbreaks of the plague. During those periods some companies went touring to perform in other provinces in order to remain in business and employment.
The most devastating prohibition was the total banning of public theatre in Britain in 1642. This followed the rise of the Puritans in parliament and their eventual take-over of the country in 1649. The Puritan Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell ruled Britain until 1660 after the assassination of the King in 1649. The Puritans saw theatre as evil and the closure was the most devastating in history, only ending when a king was returned to the throne in the Restoration.
The Puritan influence spread to America to which many Christians migrated in 1624. The “Pilgrim Fathers” did not only persecute witches, but the theatre as well. They prevented its development and the country suffered a long prohibition. There was no western stage until English dramatists toured America and the West Indies (notably Jamaica).
The west’s most powerful theatres closed in 2020 as a precaution against the Coronavirus outbreak around the world. There were sporadic attempts to reopen and perform during the two-year period, but drama was severely affected both in the London West End and Broadway in New York.
In the Caribbean, many theatres shut their doors in 2020. This might have been hardest felt in Jamaica where theatre is a major business industry. The closure put people including playwrights, producers and actors out of work and the industry suffered economically.
The theatre industry in Guyana is nowhere near as large and developed as it is in Jamaica, but it has allowed producers and performers to actually gain an income. The nation has, after a long delay, come to accept that the dramatist is worthy of his hire and performers ought to be paid for their work. Professional theatre companies have flourished since a major breakthrough in 1981. Though success has been sporadic and financial gain has fluctuated, a few companies have kept afloat.
The National Cultural Centre
Nothing happened on stage since March 2020 but now that COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed, and the National Cultural Centre (NCC) has reopened, producers may once again apply to return to the stage. However, there is a major shadow over this.
Even before the pandemic, theatre production in Guyana had experienced fluctuations and an overall reduction. This was mainly because of a net decline in audience numbers, the overwhelming preference for comedy, and the high costs of production. Will the dramatists now return in large numbers to the NCC or have they been killed off by the long forced inactivity and the high costs of putting on a play? Are they sufficiently strong to produce plays in the face of, not only the production costs, but the oppressive regime of charges, taxes and payments they face at the NCC and Theatre Guild?
The costs of theatre production in Guyana are prohibitive. The Theatre Guild Playhouse has a nightly rental fee which is higher than that of the National Cultural Centre, in spite of the fact that it only seats 300. But the Guild is private and has to fund itself. It receives a subvention from the government but that does not meet the cost of its existence.
The NCC costs $80,000 per night flat rental for the whole theatre. It costs $30,000 if one is just renting the Recital Hall and $50,000 for the downstairs auditorium alone. In addition, there is a charge of $30,000 for a technical rehearsal; any performance requires at least one technical rehearsal. Then there is a payment on ticket sales. If gate receipts are $500,000 or more, producers pay 20% of ticket sales to the NCC or 15% if they sell less than $500,000 add to that 14% VAT. They must also pay for the ushers who work during performances.
That aside, producers must pay actors, actresses and directors. They must also pay the stage crew, including a manager and stagehands. There is also the cost of publicity and advertisement, the purchase of material for the set, props, costume and make-up.
When the total expense is weighed against the uncertainty of ticket sales, the risk is high. Few producers, if any, have the capital to bounce back after a box office loss. Furthermore, corporate sponsorship for drama, as for the arts, is extremely difficult to access in Guyana; companies tend to back large popular events from which they can expect a mass audience and huge spinoff gains and there is no public fund, such as the Arts Council in the UK, that can be approached for help.
Going back over some 30 years there have been times when popular plays, particularly comedies or the Link Show, could fill the NCC’s 2,000 seats. The sizes of audiences have fluctuated over that period, and have generally seen a decline. Today, only the comic productions Uncensored and Nothing to Laugh About can expect that kind of full house.
For this to change, government needs to come to terms with its responsibility to subsidise the arts. This is the only way to have an educated, cultured population. One of the ways it can begin to do this is to remove all taxes, including VAT from NCC productions.
Rumour has it that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport is considering an upward revision of those NCC charges. If that is so, surely it would be a move in the wrong direction. Is there a notion somewhere that dramatists make money from the theatre? That is not a truth universally acknowledged in Guyana. The population is small and the audience for theatre smaller; only one or two producers fill houses and keep their bank accounts in the black. As a whole, they all struggle to stay afloat and strain to pay their staff. Many are discouraged and have stopped producing. This means lean times for actors and actresses and can discourage anyone taking up the profession.
That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with making money from the arts. The government should encourage it by creating an environment in which theatrical production is not a headache and an immovable burden. Performers ought to be able to work and earn as is the case in any other profession. The arts deserve to survive and artists to earn a living. The NCC should not be run as a business in a small developing society, but should be part of an enabling environment. Present conditions there can kill dramatic production rather than facilitate it.
