This final instalment on Carifesta XIV in Trinidad and Tobago will focus on the performing arts, and a bit of literature, with particular attention to Guyana’s contribution. There is much more to say about Carifesta, and it cannot be said in these three discussions, but this review will bring a halt to the subject until it becomes appropriate again.
The major observation is that there was considerably more attention paid to the performing arts this time as opposed to what has been happening since 2013. This upgrade in performance, includes some variation in the trends where drama is concerned. But the attitudes to the ‘Country Nights’ continued, as did Guyana’s continued rise to prominence and impressiveness in these areas.
The performance trends in dance have seen a bit more stability, with less noticeable fluctuation over successive festivals. There was a noted rise in this discipline in 2015, and this was sustained in 2017, and certainly this year in Trinidad. Over the past two Carifestas (2017 and 2019) Guyana’s dance has been considerably stronger, and this country has shown that it can hold its own alongside the powerhouses of dance in the Caribbean.
The history of the performing arts in Carifesta has been approached in previous discussions here, and it is apparent that the performing arts have dominated in the history of Carifesta. From 1952 (or 1951, according to some accounts), it has been through the performing arts that tentative attempts have always been made towards a regional festival of the arts. In 1953, 1958, 1960 drama was the focus, followed by dance, particularly in 1958. But both drama (especially) and dance fell away as major concentrations since 1995. Dance returned in 2015. Drama was outstanding in 2008 alone, and then reappeared significantly in 2019.
To summarise, Carifesta, in its present grandeur, started off in Guyana in 1972 with everything, including drama and dance. 1976 in Jamaica was especially strong in both and it was an extraordinary year for major drama. You could depend on Carifesta to showcase the best in theatre in various countries right through Cuba (1979), Barbados (1981) and Trinidad. This persisted in 1992 and 1995, but thereafter declined from unreliable to absent. In the singular year of 2008 in Guyana major plays returned, particularly from theatre powerhouse Jamaica, and from Guyana, but disappeared again in the 11 years up to now.
Dance showed off its colours again in Haiti in 2015, largely because of the strength, energy and interest displayed by the host nation. Haiti is famous for the spiritual and traditional quality of its dance theatre and is able to overcome linguistic barriers. In the same year Jamaica’s NDTC (for the first time after Nettleford) returned to Carifesta with its supreme artistry. The Guyana National Dance Company returned in Barbados in 2017, joining Haiti and Jamaica to signal the return of serious dance.
That was sustained in Trinidad this year. The major production was “Centuries of Dance” at the Queens Hall last week where Jamaica was able to demonstrate the best in dance in the Caribbean, quite surpassing even the heights of Haitian ritualistic splendour. Trinidad, being at home, was able to draw on a number of different companies, including Astor Johnson and the Shakti Strings.
Guyana’s National Dance Company shared the stage at Queens Hall and was not belittled by the exalted company of those countries. It was obvious that the quality of artistry and virtuosity met international standards.
Interestingly, the prominence of drama since 1995 was replaced by something else, which developed as a major feature of the Carifesta stage as the performance of leading plays from around the Caribbean declined. Countries stopped bringing their best plays and started focusing on the ‘Country Nights’.
‘Country Nights’ were promoted from the introductory national pieces which gave samples of culture and tradition to become major productions in their own right. The shorter version was emerging in Trinidad in 1995 and became quite standard in Suriname (2003). In 2013, that was where visiting countries put the emphasis for stage performance, mixing the forms – music, dance, short acts – but mostly dominated by music. Each country has 45 minutes on stage for a mixed performance that shows something about the country. These pieces are high on patriotism, display traditions and pageantry but in most cases are dominated by music and dance.
Guyana dominated the ‘Country Nights’ and this was obvious in 2015 and 2017 when Guyana outshone all others in the quality and impact of its shows. It was often evident that many countries did not make much of an effort or take it seriously enough to create an artistic production. But Guyana did.
Guyana could be depended upon to come with a concept and to use music, dance, traditional masques and dramatisation to tell a story about the country’s culture. In 2019 it was “A Year In A Day” – a production using the backdrop of the iconic Stabroek Market as a frame against which to display elements of Guyanese festivals and seasonal calendar activities. Easter, Eid al Adza, Phagwah, Diwali, Emancipation and Amerindian Heritage Month were all rolled into a series of masques linked by spoken word that took the audience on a journey from January to December. The main coordinator was Esther Hamer, with the National Drama Company, and functional pieces by the nation’s dance companies and the resounding impact of a masquerade dance complete with its traditional music.
The only other country that matched Guyana’s grandeur was Trinidad, which used home advantage to put several pieces together, but the impact came more from spectacle than from the depth of conceptual theatre as produced by Guyana.
Where drama is concerned, there may be a number of reasons why countries might have stopped bringing their best plays to Carifesta. During the period of the 1990s and to the present time, professionalism in the theatre was on the rise, and particularly for Jamaica, it became difficult to take the major running plays to Carifesta. Contributing factors might have been the costs. These plays were running on stage to paying audiences at home and raised all kinds of questions about payments.
Other factors were the attitudes to Carifesta and how it was seen by practitioners and countries. It was certainly not a major attraction for performing companies and for international audiences, and so was not drawing out the best from most countries. The last major drama was the foremost play Ecstasy by David Heron of Jamaica, directed by Trevor Nairn and performed by a standing Jamaican professional company. It played to sold-out audiences in Port of Spain in 1995. But after that, Carifesta performances were free. In Trinidad again, in 2006 there was an outstanding play, Mary Could Dance, that was not a part of Carifesta, but played on the fringe as an independent show to a paying audience.
There was a definite change in 2008 in Guyana when the host country deliberately asked for invited countries to bring major full-length plays. Examples of responses to that were the leading Jamaican plays Love Games by Patrick Brown and River Bottom by Oliver Samuels. Right there among the best of them was the new drama Ogun Iyaan by Rawle Gibbons coming from Trinidad. Guyana itself set the example with its national production of Legend of the Silk Cotton Tree directed by Al Creighton.
Countries going to Suriname in 2013 and especially Haiti in 2015 were advised not to take plays because of the language barrier. Dialogue in English might be a challenge to a Patois or French-speaking audience. Guyana persisted in 2015, however, and took the Guyana Prize-winning, full-length play Sauda by Mosa Telford, performed by the National Drama Company and directed by Ayanna Waddell. It, surprisingly, was well received by the local audience.
There was no language problem in Barbados in 2017, but still drama was not prominently foregrounded by Carifesta. Guyana, again, undaunted, and took an excellent play – Masque by Subraj Singh, performed by the National Drama Company. This was the most outstanding play in Carifesta in that year.
A change was seen in Trinidad this year. Interestingly, if not a bit perplexing, Trinidad invited drama, but limited plays to one hour playing time. This meant you could not bring your 2-hour full-length drama. Yet, Trinidad itself, presented three full-length plays in Carifesta – the first time since 2008 that full drama was a feature in Carifesta. Two of the Trinidadian plays were of particular high quality. One was Bitter Cassava by Efebo Wilkinson – a Best Village Theatre production at the Little Carib Theatre. The other was Temple in the Sea, drawn from the Hindu tradition, a play developed by students of the University of the West Indies Drama Degree class and their lecturer Rawle Gibbons. The third full-length play was a production of the old classic Moon On A Rainbow Shawl by Errol John.
Yet, Guyana was right up there with the best of them, yet again. The major play taken was Laugh of the Marble Queen by Subraj Singh, performed by the National Drama Company at the Queens Hall. This stood out as an excellent demonstration of post-colonial and post-modernist theatre. No other country had the range and focus on theatre exhibited by Guyana except Trinidad. Yet the Guyana concept included something none of the others had – that was the exhibition of various theatre performance pieces and short plays, all performed by the National Drama Company. There was the short play The Tadja, an Islamic drama about the martyrdom of Imam Hosein, grandson of the Prophet Mohamed (on Whom Be Peace), by Nicholas Singh, directed by Esther Hamer.
There were also Stick Fight by Creighton, drawing on traditions the kalinda, the masquerade and the Jonkonnu; The Baccoo by Sonia Yarde; and Ol Higue, a dramatisation of Wordsworth McAndrew’s poem by Creighton.
Guyana has surely ascended in the performing arts over these years in the context of the Caribbean and showed some significant impact in Carifesta XIV in Trinidad and Tobago last week.
