A book on the life of Guyana’s celebrated and first professional novelist Edgar Mittelholzer will come alive on stage at the National Cultural Centre on March 1st and 2nd in the form of a play titled “A Pleasant Career”.
Produced by GEMS Theatre Productions for the the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, under its ‘One Guyana’ motto, “A Pleasant Career” is about Mittelholzer’s life, works and achievements captured in the novel written by the late Dr Michael Gilkes.
According to a release from GEMS, the book won the first Guyana Prize for Literature, in the drama category, in 1992. Dramaturg and set design in the play are by the highly accomplished Sir Henry Muttoo, the release said. It is directed by veteran director Ron Robinson, assisted by Russell Lancaster. Members of the cast are Michael Ignatius, Rovindra Persaud, Mark Luke-Edwards, Derek Gomes, Russell Lancaster, Dwayne Hackett, Nathaniel Powers, Sonia Yarde, Latiefa Agard, Abigail Brower, Amrita Khoshall, Jude Holder and Kevin Smith, the release added.
It noted that Mittelholzer was a celebrated writer and a trailblazer for many Caribbean novelists, opening up the world to Caribbean writers’ works being published. He wrote over 20 books in his short lifetime, as well as essays and short stories, his first novel being “Creole Chips”, a self-published work in 1937, the release said. Some of his more popular works are “My Bones and My Flute,” “Kaywana Blood,” “Kaywana Stock,” “Children of Kaywana,” “Sylvia,” “Corentyne Thunder,” “A Swarthy Boy,” and “Shadows Move Among Them”.
Tickets cost $2,000 and are available at theNational Cultural Centre box office.
Students from the Department of Language and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Education and Humanities of the University of Guyana along with Grades 10 and 11 from the secondary schools are invited to attend the Sunday performance, the release said. A Zoom discussion is planned for the end of this performance with Dr Juanita Cox, a specialist on Mittleholzer.
