In a number of important ways the performance of the GT&T Link Show 29 in February and March of 2013 may be recorded as an achievement, while in a few other areas there are questions and blemishes. Rising above all is the present strength of the Link Show as an annual satirical revue and the fact that it continues a long and noble tradition of satire in Caribbean theatre. Its 29th appearance since 1981 speaks to the survival of a threatened species and in this regard it is surpassed only by the annual Jamaica Pantomime. This factor over-rides the areas of doubt that persist.
The show is its own tradition as the leading and most popular production in Guyana and one of just three of its type left standing in the Caribbean. It is still run by its founders, director Ron Robinson of The Theatre Company and producer Gem Madhoo-Nascimento of GEMS Theatre Productions, now with the support of GT&T. With appropriate grace Robinson in the Programme Notes acknowledges the debt to Frank Pilgrim in a passing tribute to him as the original author of this type of theatre in Guyana in the 1960s to ’70s.
As a descendant of Pilgrim’s Brink series, The Link faltered, then soared Phoenix-like from its own ashes to its greatest imperial heights in 2009. That peak was nearly matched in 2010 then scaled off a bit.
