Theatre
Couvade: A Dream-Play of Guyana
Michael Gilkes · 1972
Synopsis
Pat, Lionel's wife, is about to give birth, and the young Georgetown painter, absorbed in canvases inspired by Amerindian art, sinks into a world of dreams in which the shaman, the rituals and the forces of the past return. Like the father in the Amerindian rite of couvade, who takes to his bed and suffers in place of the woman in labour, he bears in his own way the birth that is approaching, and with it the question of what can unite the peoples of which his country is made.
Context
The play was premiered in 1972 in Georgetown, at the first Carifesta, the Caribbean arts festival, in a production by its author, who restaged it in 1993. It was revived in London in 1978 at the Keskidee Centre, directed by Rufus Collins, published in 1974, then reissued in 2014 by Peepal Tree Press together with another play by its author. Critics see in it a drama of the meeting of cultures, of cultural unity, of art and of healing.
Who it is for
A play in English, not translated; knowing this custom of the first peoples and the early days of independent Guyana sheds light on the allegory.
Prizes and reception
According to Stabroek News, it dominates Guyanese theatre, with two major productions and two editions.