St Lucian poet, editor and librarian John Robert Lee uses a continuing email thread to disseminate information about the arts in the Caribbean and, very importantly, sustain a dialogue among the range of West Indian writers, dramatists, artists, and critics. It keeps a wide audience up-to-date with developments in the field, including new publications.
It was through that medium that a concern about Guyanese drama was raised by Francis Quamina Farrier, which provoked responses from Henry Mootoo, Dave Martins and others. Farrier, a veteran Guyanese dramatist, playwright, journalist and videographer, complained that there was a prevalence of plays depicting gun violence on the Guyanese stage. It was disturbing, he argued, that so many plays dramatised gun play, with particularly young women pulling guns in response to sometimes unlikely situations. He found the credibility of plots questionable and the suggestions and likely influences frightening.
