Arts on Sunday

Journey of the Magi A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’

In the week before Christmas, on the occasion of its 56th Convocation Ceremony, the University of Guyana conferred upon Ameena Gafoor the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters.

Theatre has a very close history with religion. It owes its origins to religion.

The Four Maries Yestreen the Queen had four Maries, the nicht she’ll hae but three There was Mary Seaton, and Mary Beaton and Mary Carmichael and me.

On November 11 the Unit of Allied Arts (UAA) in the Ministry of Education staged the Secondary Schools Choral Speaking Festival 2022 in Guyana. 

The fairy tale is a very popular but somewhat underrated literary form.

There were recently two theatre productions on the Guyanese stage on the same weekend, standing in contrast to each other in many ways, and bringing to notice a number of significant features of the present time.

In his Nobel Lecture before the Swedish Academy in Stockholm in December 1992, Derek Walcott mentioned one of the most remarkable traditional performances he had seen in Trinidad.

A very appropriate tribute to Diwali, one of the great festivals of the Caribbean, is training the spotlight on Indian dance theatre in Guyana. 

Piaiman Cures                                Shake rattle Smoke cigar Drink tobacco juice Tie a hammock For the sick one Bring green boughs to hand.

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to French author Annie Ernaux, “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory” in her work, according to the citation.

We already commented on the way the public theatre seems fairly well settled in its return to life after the recent lock-down. 

The theatre community and theatre audience have been peering out from behind their curtains throughout 2022, looking closely and cautiously at the post-COVID recovery of theatre on the Guyanese stage. 

In a previous analysis of the Caribbean Festival of the Arts (Carifesta) reasons were elucidated as to why on the 50th anniversary of this grand historic event, instead of celebratory glory, there were so many critical questions.

The Caribbean Festival of the Arts (Carifesta) is 50 years old.

Ships that met                     I looked up one day And in he walked A tall man with seeing Eyes.

Public theatre continues to return to the Guyanese stage and there have been different types of productions in an interesting variety of venues.

As theatre in Guyana is still trying, among a number of testing circumstances, to return to normalcy following the two years of prohibition inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, among the most important recent developments was the return of the Link Show.

[The Thinker, Frank Anthony, Donald Ramotar, Clement Rohee, Hydar Ally, Indranie Chanderpal, Editors, Georgetown: Cheddi Jagan Research Centre; Vol.6, January – June, 2022, 66pp.]

[Ian McDonald and Peter Jailall, People of Guyana, Canada: MiddleRoad Publishers, 2018.