The most recent revision of the annual comedy series “Nothing to Laugh About” by Signature Productions provided another very good opportunity to do a further study of comedy theatre in Guyana. These sequences of decline and ascendancy, trends and developments, studies of the audience and audience response, and even of tradition, continue to be of infinite dynamism and interest.
What was found from looking at this most recent production is that trends in comedy on the Guyanese stage are still subject to minor fluctuations but have largely settled down. There were some alterations in the show itself that illustrate the relevance of traditions in comedy in the Caribbean, while attention to the audience response revealed a very interesting little factor in the differences in demographics and styles in what was happening on the other side of town at the Theatre Guild.
“Nothing to Laugh About 11” was produced and directed by Maria Benschop at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) and initially ran for four nights. It was brought back by popular demand last weekend and the number of solid sold out houses help to tell the story that has unfolded about trends and the audience. Comedy has been the choice of the popular audiences across the Caribbean for many decades, but a number of other interesting factors became evident here. In Guyana, the popular audience that cuts across classes and includes a large number of working people has chosen the brand of comedy offered by “Nothing to Laugh About”. Only that broad-based audience provides the numbers to fill the NCC; and from recent observations, today, only “Nothing to Laugh About” and “Uncensored” can comfortably expect to sell out the NCC. “Uncensored” is produced and directed by Lyndon Jones but, incidentally, Jones and Benschop belong to the same team/company.
