The Guyanese theatre landscape welcomed with loud voices the return to the stage of an old favourite comedy – “Till Ah Find A Place” by Ronald Hollingsworth. First staged in 1991, it has not grown stale over three decades, and its return, directed by Sheron Cadogan-Taylor and Hollingsworth, was resoundingly greeted last week at the National Cultural Centre by a grateful audience.
After several reproductions since its premiere, this latest incarnation was under the revised title “Till Ah Find A Place In Guyana: The Spanish Connection”. This retouched version of the script was in keeping with the historical focus and approach by the playwright – to cash in on popularity with a topical issue melodrama and comedy of situation. As before, it took advantage of topical issues and changing social circumstances in Guyana to exploit popular and comic possibilities. The subtitle “The Spanish Connection” indicated a prevailing uncomplimentary attitude to the influx of Latin American immigrants in today’s Guyana.
The original play was stimulated by the acute housing shortage in Georgetown and many displaced persons seeking residence, often depending on the hospitality of other Guyanese. After the first run of the play, it came back as “Till Ah Find A Place In Sophia”, following the rapid opening up of squatter settlements in the district of Sophia in outer Georgetown. Now, this version is moved by the recent wave of Brazilians, Cubans and Venezuelans seeking a place in Guyana.
“Till Ah Find A Place” holds the distinction of being among the most popular plays to have emerged in this contemporary era of Guyanese drama. It joins a list that includes “Two’s A Crowd” by Ian Valz, “House of Pressure” also by Valz, “Anybody See Brenda?” By Paloma Mohamed and “Watch De Ride” also by Hollingsworth. These are all comedies, with “Anybody See Brenda?” as probably the most hilarious, except for “Watch De Ride”, which is a dark sensational popular take-off on a topical situation. But they have all earned this distinction by being most in demand and most reproduced on stage.
“Till Ah Find A Place” is possibly the most popular of all. It has had several sequels, turning itself into a long running serial reminiscent of the soap opera. In “The Spanish Connection” a married couple Linden Lewis (Mark Luke-Edwards) and Roxanne Lewis (Latoya Da Silva) saw their life suddenly dramatically and irrecoverably disrupted in the wee hours of the morning when a popular nightclub is raided by the police and several Venezuelan strippers and prostitutes take flight. One of them, Dulce (Nuriyyih Gerrard), who is a friend of Roxanne, escapes, and suddenly finding herself homeless, ends up on Roxanne’s doorstep. Her friend takes her in to stay “till she finds a place” much against the violent objection of Linden and there is hostility between him and Dulce.
Roxanne has to travel overseas on a work-related trip and, having been told that she was infertile, extends her stay to pursue medical solutions. But she is forced to leave the two “enemies” together in the house since Dulce still has not found a place. They are quite dramatically driven into a hot lustful encounter which leaves them smitten by each other and entangled in a very steamy love affair. Matters come to a climax when Dulce announces that she is pregnant and refuses to abort. When Roxanne returns the entire household overturns and both women walk out, leaving Linden all alone.
The very experienced team of Cadogan-Taylor and Hollingsworth produced a fast-moving, very hilarious play full of ironies and funny moments. It was generally well paced except for a few unnecessarily long blackouts. It was occasionally fairly risqué with a high level of sexuality which Luke-Edwards and Gerrard played very well together. Their convincing hot, romantic entanglement driven by lust was credibly performed.
Even though it was the procreation of a stereotype, Gerrard was always believable as the sexy and alluring Dulce, quite consistent with the character’s personality and Latin accent – a mastery of the language. She and Luke-Edwards had a command of their roles and were well complemented by a supporting cast of Da Silva, Michael Ignatius, Frederick Minty, Mark Kazim and Jasmine Wong. Ignatius, Minty and Kazim, a very familiar crew in local comedy, carried that vibrancy over into this production.
Da Silva continued as a rising actress ever since her first lead role as an intended bride in the National Drama Company play “Queh Queh” last year. Wong joined in the workable staging although she did not fully capture the Hispanic accent as a girl just arrived from Venezuela. But she did well at the centre of what was really the play’s most enduring theme – a statement about retribution. This came over in the revelation of Dulce’s most unattractive attributes about which she was warned by her sister (Wong).
The play suggests that misfortunes being encountered today are visited upon one by misdeeds of the past.
However, outside of that, the play was guilty of perpetuating unflattering attitudes seen in Guyana towards recent immigrants, encouraging uncomplimentary stereotyping. The use of the label “Spanish” was a prime example. The play practised “othering”, a factor complained of in the UK, for example, by post-colonial critics where ethnic minorities in immigrant communities are exploited and given treatment as inferiors. In this play Dulce is “the other”, identified by her immigrant status and presented as a stereotype and a subaltern in Guyana as a growing multi-cultural society. It is so because of the new multitudes of Brazilians, Venezuelans and Cubans who are reduced to being “othered” as minorities of whom the local population needs to be wary. That was the message in the song about “the Spanish” that was repeatedly played between scenes during the play.
Latin American women are stereotyped, associated with the strip clubs and the sex industry. The character Dulce was typified as an object of sexuality. The name means “sweet”. To drive this home, her sister who arrived from Venezuela, although she did not work in a nightclub, was named Bonita, which means “pretty”. The play exploits popular notions of these women. This is part of an old trend in West Indian theatre, which for a long time had a similar approach to the
treatment of homosexuals, for instance, in comic fashion on stage.
“Till Ah Find A Place”, in a number of ways, signalled a rollicking return of comedy to the Guyanese stage. For quite a while, only the productions of Maria Benschop and Lyndon Jones seemed viable and there were concerns about the survival of stage plays. (The Mike James Group in Linden, however, still continues). But this play shows that Benschop and Jones are not alone in Georgetown where comedy, and plays as a whole, are concerned. The production appealed to the audience who demonstrated that the tradition of audience participation has not waned.
Members of the audience talked back to the actors, keeping up running commentary and dialogue throughout. Significantly, much of the remarks thrown by the audience revealed their attitudes towards the “Spanish” as encouraged by the words of the theme song that was being played. It was a very strong “talk back” performance, a very old Caribbean practice, perhaps a hundred years old.
With this production, Hollingsworth and Cadogan-Taylor therefore, showed the way and might have given encouragement to other producers to return to the stage. It is still possible for comedy drama on stage to draw an audience, even with the recent evidence of a decline. Additionally, there were signs that the production received some assistance from private businesses; an encouraging sign since there have also been concerns about the lack thereof.
