The Jubilee Theatre Festival, which will showcase and celebrate 50 years of theatre in Guyana, will debut next Thursday at the Theatre Guild, quite fittingly, with two plays at extreme ends of the 50-year timeline.
The festival is set to open with Playing Chess with a Blind Man, written and directed by Rae Wiltshire and Come Back to Melda, written by John Campbell and directed by Nickose Layne.
Come Back to Melda, one of the oldest plays in the lineup, is set in colonial times, and interestingly, is one of the two plays written pre-independence.
It is the story of a Guyanese woman who employs the use of obeah to trap a foreigner who she had been in a relationship with, after he makes plans to travel back to his native country, Dutch Guiana, to marry his sweetheart. When the plan fails, Melda receives advice from a friend who tells her, “Labba and creek water could make a man stay with you forever.”
Playing Chess with a Blind Man, according to Wiltshire, is a play about “God versus the devil.” The narrative speaks to the darker side of gods and religion, and explores “the nature of God’s motivation, religion, sacrifice and psychological warfare.”
The festival, which aims to showcase the best of Guyanese plays over varying time periods, is the brainchild of Rochelle Christie, Clinton Duncan, Mosa Telford and Rae Wiltshire, the members of 4th Wall Productions Inc.
The group teamed up with Russell Lancaster, who shares a similar vision and the idea blossomed and sprang to fruition. The result is a cross-country festival featuring 17 plays, over the course of one month.
The genres range from comedy to drama to tragedy and all the short plays being featured would have won awards at the National Drama Festival. House of Pressure, once a popular radio drama series in times past, (as popular as Merundoi according to Christie) will also make a comeback to the stage.
The Jubilee Theatre Festival, initially slated to run from May 5 to June 12, will now begin on May 12. Tickets are available all week at Andrew’s Supermarket in Festival City and at the Theatre Guild from Monday to Friday between 10 am and 2 pm.
Tickets cost $1,000 and $1,500 and season passes are $10,000 each. All plays at Theatre Guild will begin at 7pm, while the plays at the National Cultural Centre will begin at 8pm.
Name of Play Date Location
Playing Chess with a Blind Man
(written and directed by Rae Wiltshire) May 12 Theatre Guild
Come Back to Melda
(written by John Campbell, directed by
Nickose Layne) May 12 Theatre Guild
Guilty Pleasures (written by
Nicola Moonsammy,
directed by Ayanna Waddell) May 13 Theatre Guild
Til’ Death (written and directed
by Tashandra Innis) May 13 Theatre Guild
Summer Breeze (Written and
Directed by Linden Isles) May 14 Theatre Guild
White House on Black Street
(Written and Directed by Clinton Duncan) May 14 Theatre Guild
House of Pressure (Written by Ian Valz,
Directed by Godfrey Naughton) May 15 National Cultural Centre
Some Other Nights (Written and
Directed by Nicholas Singh) May 16 Theatre Guild
Obeah Koksen (Written by
Kenn Danns, Directed by Sonia Yarde) May 16 Theatre Guild
Black Bush (Written by
Shiek Sadeek, Directed by Errol Chan) May 25 Theatre Guild
Till Ah Find a Place
(Written by Ronald Hollingsworth,
Directed by Sheron Cadogan) June 3 Theatre Guild
Green Card Marriage (Written by
Harold Bascom, Directed by Mariatha Causway) June 4 Theatre Guild
Colour of Race (Written and Directed
by Sonia Yarde) June 4 New Amsterdam
Sauda (Written by Mosa Telford,
Directed by Clinton Duncan) June 5 Theatre Guild
Miriamy (Written by
Frank Pilgrim, Directed by Ron Robinson) June 10 Theatre Guild
Benjie Darling (Written by Paloma Mohammed,
Directed by Rae Wiltshire) June 11 Theatre Guild
Journey to Freedom
(Written by Francis Quamina Farrier,
Directed by Godfrey Naughton) June 12 National Cultural Centre
