A Lloyd N De Arts production with the very meaningful title, Unmasked, was performed on April 21. Significantly, it was not performed at any of the conventional venues, the National Cultural Centre or the Theatre Guild Playhouse, but at the Girl Guides Association Building on Brickdam, previously unknown as a house for theatre.
Unmasked was directed by Lloyd Thomas, a drama teacher, actor, dancer, playwright, director, and a product of the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama. Thomas was for some time a member of the National Drama Company, and then founded Lloyd N De Arts. The group he formed also has the distinction of being one of the few real and active theatre companies in Guyana. It immediately formed an alliance with high school students studying Theatre Arts and CAPE Performing Arts, and Unmasked is the latest production which served as an exam piece for CXC students at Tutorial High.
The production may be further distinguished as a true high point for the company since its formation and the standout effort of all its previous performances. It was led and driven by very promising dance, a noteworthy and effective concept which would have been quite impactful on the national stage had it been able to announce itself to a larger audience.
Unmasked worked as a clever and significant title and concept. It also carried a sub-title – “A Revelation of the Inner Me”, which gives a good idea of its intentions. Its main burden was the struggles and existence in the ghetto and it was for the most part set in a tenement yard. There was a continuous sequence of appropriately designed dances, spoken-word pieces, dramatic monologues, dialogues, choral speaking and short dramatisations on themes related to conflicts in the yard as well as to identity, deceptions and negative perceptions. The argument was also existentialist as it touched on self-discovery and awareness with a tension between stereotypes and true realisation of social ills.
These were carried as much by dance as they were by spirited acting and effective music. Relevant song selections from dancehall and reggae genres proved quite powerful, and were fortified by a bit of chutney as the production sought to highlight the multiethnic composition of the tenement yard with its mixture of Black, East Indian and Portuguese protagonists. But the dance rhythms were powered by dancehall, sustaining a tragic sense of struggle, adversity, grief and poverty, interspersed with humour and comedy. A sequence of events and a variety of acts were triggered off by the gunning down of a man from the yard, a fairly well-recognised tragedy in that setting. But there was a mixture of moods exploring the colourful lifestyle with other moments of rivalry and conflict as well as hilarious scenes.
The themes of masking and unmasking pervaded to the end. Moreover, they were very interestingly multifaceted. First of all they reflected the unmasking of a society. The Guyana government recently announced the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, which included the removal of compulsory masks in public places. So here was a production which marked a physical removal of masks; a performance in a society unmasked. Second, that was a pun, a metaphor and something symbolic, as was already telegraphed by the attachment of “A Revelation of the Inner Me” as a sub-title. It symbolised the removal of masks which hide true identities, personalities, the existence of individuals and of people in an unprivileged subculture. It unmasked social stereotyping and negative perceptions of people who live in the ghetto; who are associated with violence and immorality in contemporary times.
The production unmasked society, exposing its prejudices and nearsightedness, its dehumanisation of people because of class and residence; a society insensitive to human worth and needs in situations of poverty. It also unmasked a variety of social ills and abuse. The most outstanding piece of dramatisation targeted the school system with teachers unable to effectively handle serious student problems. It highlighted individuals grappling with self-knowledge, identity and sincerity.
The scene in the classroom showed a teacher exhibiting a clear lack of sensitivity and understanding, refusing to empathise and help a girl stricken with a situation of personal grief which hindered her participation in class. The scene was done in diptych fashion on two sides of the stage with a corresponding scenario in counterpoint where another teacher was appropriately sympathetic, patient and understanding. The two halves mirrored each other showing up the hostility of one teacher as against the constructive positive approach of the other. The dramatisation ended with a twist – the first teacher was unmasked – her adamant inflexibility was revealed in her subconscious to be really an act to hide the fact that she just did not know what to do.
Productions might be seeking new venues because of high costs in the conventional ones, but theatre will always open up new space. While this forces creativity in converting unconventional venues into theatre spaces, it comes with several limitations. The Girl Guides Association Building was not designed for dramatic performance and has a problem with the absence of lighting. More seriously, there was no theatrical auditorium with no real backstage area, and structural problems with sight lines. For this production much of stage left, on the raised platform, was rendered unusable, forcing repetitive use of entrances and exits at stage right.
Nevertheless, there was a creative attempt to convert what was available into usable performance space. There was an effective effort in the set design which partly overcame the problem. Two levels were used – the raised platform and the floor space in front of the proscenium. The latter was satisfactorily transformed into the tenement yard with its residential and functional compartments. What could not happen upstage left was done on the floor downstage.
The performances were rich and dynamic and presented with some energy. But it was lengthy, with a long first act, prolonged intermission, and an act two that had a lull and slowness in its early monologues and choral pieces. But if there was any suspicion of tiredness this was belied by a robust resuscitation by the dancers in a sequence of pieces which restored the pace and precision that characterised the whole performance. The dancers were obviously amateurs, and were overwhelmingly Tutorial High School students. But some happened also to benefit from classes at the National School of Dance and very much from choreography and rehearsals in this production under members of the National Dance Company.
The acting progressed from an early stumble in the choral pieces with low projection and dropped lines to an overall high-spirited presentation that lost very little in communication. However, a repeated issue was one of audibility. Even where there was no problem of projection, there was one of clarity of speech. In some of the most high-spirited exchanges where characters showed some heat and passion, there were breakdowns in enunciation – even in those moments of fired emotion. Performers need to take care to speak so every word is clear to the audience.
Lloyd N De Arts is a promising company. It is composed of a few seasoned and accomplished members led by Thomas, who has received awards at the National Drama Festival. It also includes musician and Best Actress Award winner Kimberly Samuels (a member of the National Drama Company), prize-winning actress Tikoma Austin, and a number of associate members. Most of the associates are writing Theatre Arts or CAPE Performing Arts at school and are attached to the company to fulfil some of the CXC requirements and provide material on which they are to be examined. It was in such exercises that the company had its humble origins, but has gone ahead to progress with active annual productions. This most recent one shows the group at its best.
Unmasked: A Revelation of the Inner Me is a fairly progressive study in speech and dance that unmasked Guyanese society, freed of both emergency and deceptive masking.
