By Francis Quamina Farrier

Maybe we should refer to tonight’s Show at the National Cultural Centre, as “The Night of the Stars”. This is the Award Ceremony of this Jubilee Year National Drama Festival, which takes place tonight, after weeks of Preliminary and Finals Sessions at the National Cultural Centre, the Theatre Guild Playhouse and other rural and hinterland venues.

It is the culmination of weeks and months of hard work by all involved. The young playwrights who wrote new plays. The directors who had to fashion both the new and older plays into worthy stage productions, to be adjudicated by an experienced panel of

professional Drama Judges.

The actors who worked so hard learning their lines and rehearsing and bringing their characters to life, to impress both judges and audiences, on the various stages, in Georgetown and elsewhere. The

judges who worked really hard viewing, analyzing, and then deciding on the merits of each presentation, many times late into the night, and making their decisions, as to which will go forward into the Finals. And finally, those judges had the arduous task of deciding who will be awarded the various prizes up for grabs, including the lucrative Monetary Prizes, which will be

presented at tonight’s Jubilee Year Awards Ceremony.
Because of past misinformation, Chief Judge, Al Creighton, informed the Audience at the opening night of the Finals, on Sunday November 20, 2016, that this new series of National Drama Festivals, commenced in 2012, and that there were previous National Drama Festivals in past times. It is not

widely known that there were National Drama Festivals here in British Guiana, way back in the Colonial era. There were also the Sugar Estates Drama Festivals, which were held every other year. I should also mention that I won Best Actor at the 1965 National Drama Festival, playing the Chorus in the play ANTIGONE, by the French playwright, Jean Anouilh.

At that 1965 National Drama Festival, a group from Buxton won the Best Play prize in the Youth category with the play “The Promised Land” by Sydney King (Eusi Kwayana). It would also be appropriate for me to mention that Yvonne Harewood-Benn, then a teacher at the Watooka Nursery School in Linden, won Best Supporting Actress a few years later, at a National Drama Festival. That was before she became a Minister of Government and very influential in the day-to-day operations of the Guyana Chronicle.

While there were some great productions this year, with very inspirational subjects at this year’s National Drama Festival, there was a very worrying element for many who attended the various sessions, at the National Cultural Centre. Many patrons were very alarmed and shocked at the amount of violence in many of the plays. Domestic Violence with no salvation on the horizon. Senseless shootings without a plausible cause. The sex act simulated with vigorous abandonment. Rapes and Suicides played out with raw reality and without any hope for the victims. For example, in none of those plays which had so much of the dark underbelly of our society, was any reference made to the Suicide Hot Line, and other Organizations which are a part of our Society, and working so hard to reduce the incidents of suicide, which is so rampant in Guyana, at this time.

Let me give you the plot of one of the plays I am referring to. An Indian husband and father, along with his Chinese wife and mother of two teens, relocate from Bartica to Georgetown. Before the action of the play hardly gets underway, the teen age daughter is raped at her new school. The rape is organized by some of the other female students, who brought their stud boyfriends to carry out the brutal attack; all played out, even with pre-teens in the audience. The teen age son becomes involved with narcotics, and ends up at the New Opportunity Corps Correctional Centre.

Then as the plot of that play develops, the audience is informed that the father has an out-side woman, and the wife has an out-side man. All hell breaks loose, and a family goes tumbling down into a bottomless abyss; the quintessential Dysfunctional Guyanese Family on display, without any hope of salvation. The play ends with the depressed teen-age daughter, putting a gun to her head, and blowing out her brain. Where she got the gun from is still a mystery to many in the audience that night. As she falls to the floor, the lights go out and the audience, including some mature women, go in rapturous laughter and applause.

Many of those who attended the sessions at this year’s National Drama Festival, expressed concern of the preponderance of violence in so many of the plays, with many instances when there was the use of a gun. In one of the plays, a bride who is about to exchange marriage vows, is shocked when a gay objector at the wedding ceremony, announces loudly that the bridegroom is his lover. So the bride extracts a gun and shoots dead, the man she was just about to marry. My question is this; which bride takes a gun to her wedding?

“The enigma to all of the gun violence at this Year’s Drama Festival, is that out of Sophia, Georgetown, where there is so much gun violence, came a wonderful little comedy play, which was enacted by four to fourteen year old actors. There was no gun play whatsoever in that beautifully produced and performed comedy. Such clean fun entertainment out of troubled Sophia!”

Of course, there will be those who will defend these “true-to-life”, elements in plays which hold up a mirror to Society. Plays such as those which are referred to in our sister Caricom country, Jamaica, as “Crutch Theatre.” However, the other side of the argument, is that it is very unprofessional and irresponsible for any serious and professional playwright, to hold up the mirror only to the dark under-belly of society, where violence and vulgarity abound, and not give an inkling of that proverbial silver lining behind the dark cloud. Playwrights should have at least one Positive character in their dark plot in the play. As is known, the job of a playwright is to take the rough diamond of society, carefully cut and polish it, before inserting it into a ring.

Our Playwrights need to know the basic rudiments of their craft. They need to try and give sound and plausible reasons behind the behavour of their characters. Some members of the audiences have criticized the play which opened with a vicious rape scene, and another play which ended with a rape victim who shoots herself dead. Guyana is a country still struggling with a serious suicide problem; a country which is regarded as the “Suicide Capital of the world”. A country which, nonetheless, has a Suicide Hotline, which unfortunately, is never referred to in any of the plays, at this National Drama Festival, 2016!

On the opening night of the Finals of the National Drama Festival, at the National Cultural Centre, Chief Judge, Al Creighton, in addressing the audience, alluded to the Code of Conduct of the Drama Festival, and stated that offending groups will face penalties. At that opening night, the Minister of Government responsible for Culture, Hon. Nicolette Henry, M.P., promised her ministry’s continuing support for the National Drama Festival. A representative of DIGICEL, which is an important financial sponsor of the National Drama Festival, also promised her Company’s continuing support.

Having stated most of the above, it would be remiss of me not to mention that there were quite a number of very inspirational plays. There was also some comedy plays with clean fun, suitable for Family audiences. Then there were those dramatic plays with clean, positive scenarios. “The Healing”, which was staged by a Group from St. Cuthbert’s Mission on the Upper Mahaica River, is a good example. It tells the story of a distraught father who does all within his power, to have his very sick daughter healed. The Indigenous culture and costumes were all to the education of the audience; Edutainment at its brilliant best. Then there were the classics; Frank Pilgrim’s “Miriamy”, Ronald Hollingsworth’s “Till Ah Find a Place”, Barrington Braithwaite’s “The Legend of the Silk Cotton Tree”, (Trinidadian) Freddie Kissoon’s “Doo Doo” and my own “The Slave and the Scroll.”

So tonight, all roads will lead to the National Cultural Centre, for the Night of the Stars. There will be many winners – Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Best Director. Best new play. Best production and on and on. Of course, there will be those who would not receive any Awards for their efforts, except the reward of doing something which brought them and their audiences, lots of Pleasure, lots of Entertainment, and also lots of Edutainment. After all, when I won the Best Actor Prize back in 1965, the Trophy and the Best wishes of admiring audiences were all we got, but which we treasure over the decades. If you doubt me, then ask former Best Supporting Actress of decades ago, Yvonne Harewood-Benn, who still has the joy of participating and winning, warm in her heart.