FOR the first time ever, the play ‘A Pleasant Career’ by Michael Gilkes, which follows the life of Guyana’s first professional novelist, Edgar Mittleholzer, will be performed at the National Cultural Centre on March 1 and 2.

Mittleholzer was a celebrated writer who has been a trailblazer for many Caribbean novelists, opening up the world to Caribbean writers’ works being published.
A writer of more than books in his short lifetime, he has written essays and short stories, with his first novel being “Creole Chips”, a self-published work in 1937.

Some of his more popular works are ‘My Bones and my Flute’, ‘The Kaywana Blood’, ‘Kaywana Stock’, ‘Children of Kaywana’, ‘Sylvia’, ‘Corentyne Thunder’, ‘Swarty Boy’, ‘Shadows move among them’, and ‘The Life and Death of Sylvia’.

The play on Mittleholzer’s life, however, ‘A Pleasant Career’, won the first Guyana Prize for Literature in the drama category in 1992, and is now being taken to the stage.
Dramaturg and set design are done by the well-known Sir Henry Muttoo, while the play is directed by veteran director Ron Robinson, with the assistance of Russell Lancaster.

In his notes shared with the Guyana Chronicle, Director of the play, Ron Robinson emphasised that the play is more than simply the retelling of Mittleholzer’s life, but rather chronicles the path of one of Guyana’s literary pioneers by exploring diverse, deep, and moving themes.

“This production is a journey into the luminous and turbulent life of Edgar Mittleholzer, the Caribbean’s first published author, whose brilliance lit up the literary world of Guyana, and whose inner demons led him into tragic self-destruction. Dr. Michael Gilkes’ script is both a celebration of artistic genius, and a raw exploration of the human psyche under pressure; a narrative that resonates deeply within our cultural landscape,” he shared.

Seeking to make a creative impact on the play, the production will be heavily based on the emotional performance of actors. This decision, the director said, was taken to allow space for symbolism and audience interpretation.

“In staging this play, our vision was to evoke the vibrant yet conflicted spirit of the Caribbean. The set and lighting have been designed to mirror the dual nature of Mittleholzer’s existence: Moments of incandescent creativity interspersed with shadows of isolation and despair. We’ve chosen a minimalist aesthetic to keep the audience’s focus on the emotional cadence of the performance, allowing the language and the layered symbolism to speak for themselves,” he said.

Prominent performers in the cast line up include Michael Ignatius, Rovindra Persaud, Mark Luke-Edwards, Derek Gomes, Russell Lancaster, Dwayne Hackett, Nathaniel Powers, Sonia Yarde, Latiefa Agard, Abigail Brower, Amrita Khoshall, Jude Holder, and Kevin Smith. This star-studded line-up was not by chance, however, as Robinson shared, each actor has a massive undertaking in replicating the various emotional and moving scenes present throughout Gilkes’ play.

“Our actors are called upon to traverse the spectrum of human emotion—from the fervour of creative passion to the depths of existential crisis. Each gesture, pause, and intonation is crafted to capture the delicate balance between genius and madness. This play is not simply a biographical account; it is a meditation on the burdens and ecstasies of creative life, reflecting broader themes of identity, legacy, and the sometimes-cruel demands of artistic excellence,” Robinson shared in his notes.

The play will see its debut at the National Cultural Centre (small theatre) on Saturday, March 1 at 22:00 hrs, and on Sunday, March 2 at 13:00 hrs.

Tickets are $2,000, and are available at the National Cultural Centre’s box office. Produced by GEMS Theatre Productions for the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports, the play is done under the government’s “One Guyana” motto.

Students from the Department of Language and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Education and Humanities of the University of Guyana along with Grades 10 & 11 from the secondary schools are invited to attend the Sunday performance. It is planned to have a zoom discussion at the end of this performance with Dr. Juanita Cox, a specialist on Edgar Mittleholzer.