The audience at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) was entertained and enlightened by a fairly unique theatrical experience on Saturday, February 2, with “Musings of A Poet” produced and performed by the National Drama Company (NDC) of Guyana.
It was a sharp, fluent, intense programme staged in an intimate setting on a space constructed in the upper foyer of the NCC. The environment was brilliantly suited to drama with lighting and décor as colourful as the language in some of the dramatic pieces performed.
The blend of colours was quite spectacular in the small setting elaborately enhanced by professional lighting and expressive costuming. These gave support to the programme, which was a selection of poems written by members of the National Drama Company and recited by its members and associates. They were dramatised, accompanied by dance and movement, music and singing in some instances.
There were different genres of poetry represented, according to the orientation of the different writers, and a variety of subjects and types presented according to their different preoccupations. The style of the show was very much in keeping with the work of the NDC, dominated by a modernistic, post-modern, and occasionally ritualistic theatre. It was avant-garde theatre at the cutting edge of the Guyanese stage. The audience therefore had an education about theatre itself, as well as about styles and issues, since the poems spoke on many subjects including comedy, outrageous commentary, raciness and eroticism, and serious lessons about the society and its human experiences.
