Drama in the time of Coronavirus is a long dark play. The national lockdown has placed a prohibition on public theatre for an indefinite period. Discussion on performances for the rest of the year might then be quite academic, but it is still rewarding, if you can’t get on stage, to evaluate one of the ways in which theatre in Guyana moved ahead of the other countries in the Caribbean.
The nation should be now getting an idea of what it might have been like in England during 1642 to 1660, when there was a ban on public theatre and performances. The Puritans (English Protestants) managed to wield enough power in parliament to criminalise theatre and spin it to suit their narrative against the monarchy and against Roman Catholics. They waged a civil war which led to the overthrow of King Charles I and the accession to power of Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell in 1649. The Puritan Commonwealth ruled England until the Restoration, which defeated them, and brought King Charles II to the throne in 1660. He immediately restored the public theatre.
