BY VISHNU BISRAM
The play “Dancing Bells of Rekha” involving a cast of Guyanese-Americans, and written and directed by a Guyanese, was staged in New York to a packed audience over the weekend.
It is a theatrical drama that showcases the cultural survival and journey of indentured immigrants to the Caribbean.
The audience was emotionally-driven as “Dancing Bells of Rekha” tells the sad story of the indentured Indian who were brutalised in the Caribbean. It is about the indentureship system – the recruitment and experience of Indians on the ship and the plantations in Guyana – overcoming hardship, torture and persecution.
As so many historians have penned, the indentured servants survived the horrors of the passage across the Indian and Atlantic oceans in small ships in which they were packed like sardines for months and then made enormous contributions to the societies they were consigned. They toiled long hours for little pay and were stricken with all kinds of diseases that they overcame to build a society.
The play received rave review from commentators and the packed audience.
Everyone loved it and offered encouragement to the script writer, producer and actors to continue with a follow-up on the theme. The play is written and directed by Ramesh Deochand of West Demerara. The play is a production of the Nirvana Humanitarian Foundation, founded by Ramesh Deochand, Pandit Ramdular Singh and others.
Under the astute leadership of Pandit Ramdular, the Nirvana Humanitarian Foundation has become an exemplary group, comprising individuals of integrity, volunteering their skills in the fields of music, dance, and drama to raise funds for educational and humanitarian activities.
The Nirvana Humanitarian Foundation previously staged highly acclaimed plays such as “Laff Till Yuh Belly Bust”, “Visa Wedding” and “Parika Market Starboy”. The proceeds of the latest play were meant for the Swami High School in West Demerara, but were redirected to the victims of typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
Dr Somdath Mohabir described the show “as a masterpiece”. Members in the audience agreed with Dr Mohabir, saying it was a magnificent play filled with emotion that drove them to tears, knowing how their foreparents were ill-treated and what they went through to leave a rich legacy behind for their descendants to enjoy.
