Kudos to Poinciana :: The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer

On Saturday, March 27th, the Nevis Cultural Centre was the venue for a performance of "When Men Talk About Sex", an original play written and produced by Loughlin Tatem of St.Kitts. Normally, I would have expected such a provocative title to draw a large crowd, especially in Nevis where it seems that a rather high percentage of the population is preoccupied with sexual or other related matters. The disappointingly low turnout though (about 40 persons), was probably due to the fact that a number of much better publicized events were happening elsewhere at the same time.

Unfortunately there were a number of other factors which might have led to a less than satisfactory theatre experience from my point of view. First and foremost is the fact that the acoustic qualities at the Nevis Cultural Centre are awful and really unsuitable for meaningful theatre production. Along with that, the noise from the air conditioners provided so much interference, that I missed or misunderstood most of the dialogue, couldn't get a handle on the story line, and therefore wasn't properly engaged in the play's development.

Amazingly, some people in the audience appeared to have no trouble at all in that regard so maybe its just me. Consequently I focused mainly on the actors' movements and expressions and general stagecraft. I felt that almost all of the actors were uncomfortable working on this stage, which was understandable since they had only had one opportunity to set up and rehearse here the night before. So quite frequently it seemed that they were trying to find the right position relative to each other and the surroundings, leading sometimes to awkward movement and delivering lines with their back to the audience.

There were also some technical faults with the setting and lighting - not major, but enough to be a distraction for this viewer. Despite all that (thank goodness), almost every of the cast impressed me favourably throughout the evening, through their energy and earnestness in performance. I could see that they were putting everything they had into what they were doing. This perhaps is all one should ask for under the circumstances.

For any group of people to produce and perform a new play under adverse conditions is no easy task. With the lack of proper inducements, investment, or other suitable incentives for the development and exposure of serious writer and performers in our community, it's a wonder that anything can be done at all.

Poinciana Theatre Productions deserves a big kudo for their efforts at keeping theatre craft alive, and not just from me. I sincerely hope and pray that the rest of the community takes notice and each one of us begins to play a proper constructive role, whatever it may be.