Arts on Sunday

We already commented on the way the public theatre seems fairly well settled in its return to life after the recent lock-down. 

The theatre community and theatre audience have been peering out from behind their curtains throughout 2022, looking closely and cautiously at the post-COVID recovery of theatre on the Guyanese stage. 

In a previous analysis of the Caribbean Festival of the Arts (Carifesta) reasons were elucidated as to why on the 50th anniversary of this grand historic event, instead of celebratory glory, there were so many critical questions.

The Caribbean Festival of the Arts (Carifesta) is 50 years old.

Ships that met                     I looked up one day And in he walked A tall man with seeing Eyes.

Public theatre continues to return to the Guyanese stage and there have been different types of productions in an interesting variety of venues.

As theatre in Guyana is still trying, among a number of testing circumstances, to return to normalcy following the two years of prohibition inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, among the most important recent developments was the return of the Link Show.

[The Thinker, Frank Anthony, Donald Ramotar, Clement Rohee, Hydar Ally, Indranie Chanderpal, Editors, Georgetown: Cheddi Jagan Research Centre; Vol.6, January – June, 2022, 66pp.]

[Ian McDonald and Peter Jailall, People of Guyana, Canada: MiddleRoad Publishers, 2018.

Drama is among the most misunderstood and most abused subjects in secondary schools in Guyana. 

One of the greatest and most important theatrical traditions in contemporary Caribbean theatre, the Jamaica Pantomime is very closely associated with the work of Jamaican journalist, playwright, broadcaster, radio/TV personality, theatre director and administrator Barbara Gloudon (February 5, 1935 – May 11, 2022).

[John Robert Lee and Kendel Hippolyte, Editors, Saint Lucian Literature and Theatre:  An Anthology of Reviews, Castries: Cultural Development Foundation, 2006. 

In the summer of 2011, I felt deeply honoured when I was asked to deliver the Inaugural Roy AK Heath Lecture at the Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick.

(Barbadian writer George Lamming died on June 4, four days before he would have celebrated his 95th birthday.

For Walter Rodney                                 Assassins of conversation they bury the voice they assassinate, in the beloved grave of the voice, never to be silent.

At the end of last month, there was a theatrical exhibition on stage at the National Cultural Centre that was not widely publicised.

Tomorrow and the World I am most happy as I walk the seller of sweets says “friend” and the shoemaker with his awl and waxen thread reminds me of tomorrow and the world.

It has been an interesting experience to see the productions that have returned theatre to the public since March, 2021.

Public theatre has begun to return after sporadic stops and starts on the major world stages like the London West End and Broadway and a total shutdown in many other countries, including in the Caribbean.

They Came in Ships They came in ships From far across the seas.