By Gibron Rahim
THEATRE has a magic all its own. It can transform the mundane into the extraordinary or remind us of social ills we need to address to name just a few of its powers. The 2017 National Drama Festival of Guyana continued this grand tradition.
The 2017 National Drama Festival (NDF) ran from November 18 to November 22. During that period, different genres of theatre- from melodrama to comedy to experimental – were performed on stage. This year’s NDF was a scaled down one from last year’s. There were unfortunately no school or debutante categories in this year’s festival. The categories this year were the junior, open short and open full length. A new feature for this year was the screening of Guyanese short films between performances.

‘Next Door Neighbour’ was the festival’s opening play on November 18. The comedic farce, written by Sidney Henry and directed by Frederick Minty, was an entry in the junior category that explored the situation that unfolds when a drunken neighbour reveals long-buried secrets at a funeral and opened the festival on a light-hearted note. The play starred Tristana Roberts, Shantel McLean, Ato Vaughn, Osafa Dos Santos, Tikoma Austin, Junior Arrindell, Twyla Sealey, Mapendo Samuels and Andrew Belle.

The second night of the NDF featured the plays ‘Hidden Secrets’ and ‘Daddy, I am a Boy’ both in the junior category. `Hidden Secrets’ centered on the reality of a family that appeared to be perfect. The comedy had a touch of melodrama. As the audience would discover, the family was anything with infidelity on the part of both husband and wife. The plot thickened even further when black magic became involved. The comedy had a touch of melodrama. `Hidden Secrets’ was written and directed by Errol Chan and featured Frederick Minty as the spiritualist Ba Ba Afolabi. Also among the actors were Tikoma Austin, Nelan Benjamin, Shantel McLean, Jerome Abrams, Twyla Sealey, Jamal Omawali and Bianca Marques.

‘Daddy, I am a Boy’ was performed by the students of Annandale Secondary and written and directed by Randy Fredericks with Renita Dindyal as co-director. In the play, the character Christopher is rejected by his churchgoer father for being effeminate with almost tragic consequences. The play addressed difficult issues such as child abuse, sexual assault and suicide. Music played a big role in `Daddy, I am a Boy’s’ plot. The production featured Daniel Bissoon, Kemi Gittens, Jason Gordon, Clinton Younge, Troni Semple and Denneal Clarke, among others.

The plays ‘Letters from Father’ and ‘Benjie Darling’ were the two plays presented on Monday, November 20. `Letter from Father’ was written and directed by Andrew Belle and starred Jemima Holmes, Andrew Belle, Bianca Marques and Towanie Thom, among others. The junior category play told the story of an estranged father desperate to reunite with his daughter. His return led to a startling revelation.
‘Benjie Darling’ was directed by Simone Dowding from a play written by Dr. Paloma Mohamed. The romantic comedy starred Clinton Duncan, Simone Dowding and Colleen Humphrey. Benjie Darling focused on the love story between one of two spinster sisters and her gardener. Much conflict and comedy would occur before the play reached its final scene. The play was entered in the open full length category of NDF 2017.

The festival’s fourth night featured the plays ‘The Black Clothes’ and ‘Woman-in-law’ which were both written by Ken Danns and directed by Sonia Yarde. `The Black Clothes’ told a dark and tragic tale of two brothers caught on opposite sides of the law. The play addressed the serious issues of police brutality, corruption and racism. Woman-in-law addressed marital infidelity and walked the line of comedy and drama. The plot centered on a businessman who neglected and abused his wife in favour of his mistress. It featured among the cast, Melinda Primo-Solomon, Kijana Lewis, Jheanelle Kerr, Lloyda Nicholas-Garrett and Rovindra Persaud.

The NDF’s finale night on November 22 was adults only. The festival was closed off grandly with three plays – ‘Children of Baby’, ‘The Perfect Man’ and ‘SPIT’. `Children of Baby’ was written by Mosa Telford and directed by Kojo McPherson. It starred Colleen Humphrey, Kimberly Fernandes, Clinton Duncan, Mark-Luke Edwards, Nicholas Singh and Tashandra Inniss. The play explored religious faith, mental illness, drug addiction and love. It was one of the most thought provoking of this year’s NDF plays.
`The Perfect Man’ is a play that made a return from last year with an all new cast. It centered on a woman embracing her family’s magical heritage so that she can return her dead lover to life.

Closing off the 2017 National Drama Festival was the play `SPIT’, written and directed by Clinton Duncan. The cast included Leon Cummings, Frederick Minty, Mark-Luke Edwards, Nicholas Singh and Nelan Benjamin and Tikoma Austin. The plot centred on a group of elderly stallholders who devise various schemes to get money. One character aimed to gain enough money to travel to the United States and spit in his wife’s eye. A brief description could not do justice to the hilarity that ensued.

This year’s festival was undoubtedly different from years past, especially last year’s. The Pepperpot Magazine contacted Mr. Al Creighton, the NDF’s Director who was able to explain the changes and how they affected the festival. The most notable change was, of course, the festival’s smaller size. Creighton said that the most noticeable effect of this is that it made the festival easier to manage. Still, he noted that they still have preferred the full-scale festival. “There was still a reasonable range and variety of plays presented, but very unfortunately we could not have had plays from communities in the wider regions – the kind of community theatre that we were developing,” he said.

The festival is now under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Cohesion, rather than the Ministry of Education. This, said Creighton, had no truly notable effect on the festival. “The planning was already on its way when the change took place,” he explained. “It is too early to properly tell what effect it will really have.”
The 2017 National Drama Festival has marked another year for theatre in Guyana. The audience was moved to laughter and tears, delight and fear. Though the preparation time was short and this affected the groups that were able to perform, Creighton noted that NDF 2017 was good overall. While there were fewer plays, the ones that were there were plays of excellence he said. While there are still a few issues to be worked out with the time it takes to put up and take down sets, “It went smoothly, there were no controversies, no reports of disciplinary violations, no known conflicts,” Creighton said. And happily for the festival, the turnout for this year was larger than last year.