The other side of Dave Martins for Theatre Guild stage

GEMS Theatre Productions will allow the wider Guyanese audience to experience the other side of Dave Martins come July 3 with the show ‘Dave Martins-lemme tell you’ at the new Theatre Guild Playhouse.

The show, which will run until July 5, will also feature guest appearances by a few new local faces, a press release from GEMS said.

Born and raised in rural Guyana, Dave Martins immigrated to Canada and, in 1967, formed a four-man musical group, the Tradewinds, in the growing West Indian community in Toronto. The band was an instant success, with a Martins song called “Honeymooning Couple” topping the radio charts in the Caribbean, and went on to become one of the most popular and enduring bands in the region  known for its witty and insightful songs about Caribbean life, all written by Martins.

Based in the Cayman Islands since 1982, where the band re-located, Dave has widened his horizons in recent years as a theatrical playwright (two musicals) and as the sole writer and cast member of an annual comedy revue that plays to sold-out audiences at the Harquail Theatre in Grand Cayman.

For close to ten years now, on stages in the Caribbean and North America, Dave has also become known for his solo stand-up comedy performances rooted, as everything he does, in the culture of the Caribbean. This combination of his unique contributions of a musical icon and a naturally comedic mind is winning new audiences for this son of Guyana wherever Caribbean people live.