From Lion King to Mama Mia: A night at the Theatre Guild

Jun 06, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I was on the computer when my daughter rushed into our study; “We have to go to this, we cannot miss this,” she yelled out in decibels that reminded me of my loudmouthed characteristic. She showed me the advertisement in the newspaper of a one night staging of the superb musical The Lion King.
When the film came out, she was in primary school at St. Agnes. I will never know what happened to my daughter but The Lion King overwhelmed her psychology. I had to follow the pattern as before when I had to go searching for Ninja Turtles and Pocahontas knapsack, water bottle, lunch kit, lunch plate and bath towel.
The Lion King brand proved the most difficult. I got every item with Ninja Turtles and Pocahontas but in the Lion King ensemble the bath towel was nowhere to be found.
Life is indeed strange. So smitten was my daughter by The Lion King that I searched everywhere to get Lion King Memorabilia but the towel was just not there.
One day, I went to the pharmacy of the Medical Arts Centre, Guyana’s oldest private medical hospital on Thomas Street opposite the Georgetown Public Hospital. I am in the pharmacy waiting for my prescription to be filled and my eyes glance at a small boutique next to the pharmacy with children stuff. I could see clearly Pocahontas items. I walked in and there was this huge bath towel with the large image of Simba.
On Tuesday night, if I had to make the revolution my daughter would have said to me what the husband of a Bolshevik said to his wife during the Russian revolution. He was in the bath tub and the revolutionaries were passing by his window with banners and guns in their hands.
She yelled out to him, “Get up, get up, go outside, the revolution is on. “ He slid back into the tub and with pure nonchalance said to her’ “My dear, the revolution is dialectical, it will happen with or without me.”
So off I was with my kid last Tuesday evening at the Theatre Guild to see the highest grossing musical of all times, The Lion King. I saw the movie, didn’t care too much for it, but Elton John’s phenomenal philosophical theme, “The Circle of Life,” is simply an incredible song.
“The Circle of Life” will remain for centuries to come one of the greatest philosophical songs ever written. Lyrics were by the famous Tim Rice. You get a surreal tinkling of the emotions when you listen to Elton John. It has been covered countless time but John’s version cannot and will never be surpassed.
Put on by the American School renamed the Georgetown International Academy, the production was a journey into an ocean of talent in this country waiting to float into the skies for all Guyana to see. It is simply amazing how a poor country like this, without continuous development, absence of a substantial human resource base, a putrid city, run-down infrastructure and widespread poverty can produce such talent.
If you saw The Lion King last Tuesday, you have to admit it was as if you were looking at a stage presentation anywhere else in the world. The ambience and the structure of the Theatre Guild belong to the ancient past. The sound system is primitive, the space is horribly small and the stage is unfit for a country in the 21st century. I sat next to Gordon Moseley at the annual meeting of media practitioners held at the Guild three years ago and I told him, even your everyday high school in the US has a bigger, better stage. In the 21st century you don’t have a playhouse without a revolving stage.
The sound system took away from the integrity of the production but not in a major way. But whatever structural faults the Theatre Guild has, the performers in The Lion King made up for it. Except for the young Simba (which strangely the director cast a female in that role then switched to a male when Simba grew up), the other actors were superb. I don’t want to be harsh on Nakisha Narine who played young Simba but my advice would be to work on voice modulation if she is going to continue in drama.
Wesley Strand as Scar has a promising future in drama should he continue. His acting was impeccable.
UG should have done what this high school did. What a shame for our only university. I hope I see in the coming months the staging of yet another great musical, Mama Mia. I don’t think there is a human being on Planet Earth that doesn’t like the music of ABBA.

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