By Francis Quamina Farrier

THERE are those plays that focus on serious social issues which are universal. Such a play, Shadow Hour, is being staged at the Bowie Playhouse in Maryland, USA. Being in that location, I was taken to see the play.
Let me first say that I have attended previous productions at that playhouse, and always felt very much at home. The theatre is just about the size of our Theatre Guild Playhouse in Georgetown, with an approximate similar seating capacity.

It was a full house when I attended. The majority of the members of the audience were elderly women. Maybe that was so because it was a Sunday mid-afternoon matinee performance. As a theatre veteran, I recognised that probably all the other audience members were theatre veterans who had been attending plays and other theatre productions for decades.

I just felt a mutual comradery. That was so before, during and at the end of the performance. We were all theatre lovers, and we were happy to be there to enjoy another of the many plays we have seen, probably in different playhouses, here, there and everywhere.

The chatter and laughter quickly ended as the auditorium lights were slowly dimmed and blackened, and the stage lights slowly rose to the required level. It was the commencement of yet another performance of Shadow Hour by Ralph Tropf. As a member of the audience, I was prepared for the revelation of how powerful male politicians generally function in society. It is a male subculture in developed and developing countries; powerful men dominate almost every facet of society. Many do so with an iron fist as they take revenge on every enemy, real and imagined.

Stated on the cover of the printed programme of the play, Shadow Hour, is the following: “A United States Senator is facing a horrible accusation, and a jury is divided.” Also printed on the front of the programme, just below the image of the courthouse gavel, is the statement, “The truth, it seems, is lost in the shadows…” Sounds a bit depressing! However, the play points out and advocates that although the truth is sometimes somewhat difficult to prove, in the end, the truth will emerge and win out, no matter how long it takes.

So, as the saying goes, “Speak the Truth and speak it ever. Cost it what it may.” This latest production by the Bowie Community Theatre is yet another star in the sky of a theatre that looks and functions like the glory days of The Theatre Guild of Guyana. The “Glory Days”, to which I refer, were the days when directors, actors and all the others worked tirelessly for successful productions, and in a voluntary capacity. Their purpose was to ensure the successful production of the play, and to ensure that all the members of the audience were satisfied.

Those productions were always of an extremely high standard. The quality, in every instance, was that of the West End in London, and Broadway in New York. The actors and actresses were mainly people of the Middle Class who prided themselves on doing what was their principal talent, to the best of their abilities. Some were expatriates who hailed from the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and elsewhere. They made their contributions without any financial rewards. They did it for the love of it. They were happy doing it, and their happiness flowed from the stage into the auditorium and the wider society.