For me the night started off a bit wrong because when I entered the theatre the show had already started. I was not alone in that, there were at least 30 other people struggling to find the ushers and their seats in the dark theatre, disturbing the others who were already seated. Not 10 minutes later another wave of people entered the theatre and halfway through the show, an announcement was made that someone had left his/her car lights on; forgotten no doubt, as s/he hurried to get in before the show would have moved too far along.
But wait, for a true perspective I must reverse to the beginning, because if some people had been courteous and used a little commonsense, I, and I suspect many others, would have been in our seats before the curtains rose. I mean, I was sitting smouldering in my car for more than 15 minutes, inching along Mandela Avenue outside the National Cultural Centre while minibus, taxi and other drivers ran the red light, cut in front of other cars ahead of me, blocked the entrance to the NCC dropping off theatre-goers and making change and stopped in front of the foyer to drop off folks, holding up a long line of vehicles trying to get into the car park. There was not a single traffic cop on the road to maintain order. I guess they don’t work nights.
Meanwhile, inside, those sticklers for time that are the Link Show producers/directors/actors et al started promptly at 8 pm. I can’t fault them; they probably had no clue about the chaos outside and eight o’clock is eight o’clock, right? All the same, I live only 15 minutes away from the NCC and left home at 7.30 pm, which is what I usually do and usually I am seated with time to spare before the show starts. Which makes what happened last Saturday all the more ridiculous. Had the show not been funny, I would have remained in a blue funk all evening.
Though late, I was in time to hear the actors gripe about the costs attached to renting the NCC and that was certainly not funny. It was even less funny when a blackout hit in the middle of a scene and there was no automatic switch over to a generator. And worse when the generator could seemingly only power the stage and perhaps the lights and the theatre began to heat up; fortunately the power was not out for too long. There was also no joking about the fact that the sound was so messed up, folks in the balcony could not hear and heckled the poor performers who were forced to strain their voices in the hope they could pitch upstairs. I mean, seriously? Where does the money go that is collected as rental? And since the NCC is a national institution, shouldn’t the government be paying a bit more attention to its maintenance? Mainten-who? I must be kidding, right? Or providing fodder for next year’s Link Show.
The show itself was good. Not great, but good. Ron Robinson was convincing as the President (“I must be a perfect…”) as was Rajan Tiwari as Sharma (“Suh yuh like sheh?”). Henry Rodney and Ajay Baksh fit into roles reprised from last year and before like they had been doing them every day. Maybe they were. Sonia Yarde, Michael Ignatius, Sherry Ann Dyal, Leslyn Fraser and Simone Dowding brought considerable skill to the stage. However, I personally would have preferred to see Sonia Yarde as Charmaine Blackman.
The songs, versions of popular modern pieces with satirical lyrics inserted worked well also, but I missed hearing “Stand Up Stand Up”. Unless it was done at the beginning while I sat outside silently cursing all uncouth drivers. (thescene@stabroeknews.com)
