Public theatre has begun to return after sporadic stops and starts on the major world stages like the London West End and Broadway and a total shutdown in many other countries, including in the Caribbean. Very prominent in this revival in Guyana was the return of the National Dance Company (NDC) to a full production in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Brickdam a few weeks ago.
It was the first opportunity to see the NDC in performance post-Covid, but it might not go down as a normal public production, since these visits to the church have been a regular and long-standing commitment of the company but not on its calendar of public events. It did, however, fit a pattern seen so far in which the few productions that have returned to the stage after the pandemic have used non-conventional venues, though Ingrid Griffith’s “Shirley Chisolm: Unbossed and Unbowed” was at the Theatre Guild Playhouse in April. The performance of dance in the cathedral, nonetheless, has several significant associations.
