In the month that will mark the 23rd anniversary of Beryl McBurnie’s death (on March 30), there’s an exhibition in the atrium of the National Library to commemorate her most famous and enduring creation, the Little Carib Theatre.
[caption id="attachment_1005334" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A 1950s photo of Beryl McBurnie, right, and others dancing to her song Coconut Woman at the exhibition on the Little Carib Theatre at the Nalis atrium, Abercromby Street, Port of Spain on March 8. - AYANNA KINSALE[/caption]
That now elegant and angular edifice on the corner of White and Roberts Street in Woodbrook officially turns 75 this year, although events had been taking place there for longer, in some of its many earlier incarnations. But it was in November 1948 that McBurnie coaxed a friend – the famous American singer Paul Robeson – into laying the cornerstone. Compiled by Sonja Dumas, energetic choreographer and practitioner of several other arts, the exhibition is succinct but fascinating. It incorporates a brief written history of the building and significant events there over the decades. There are also rare archival photos and copies of newspaper clippings about the theatre and performances by the many groups based at the theatre at various times. (Here the indefatigable and indeed obsessive American researcher Ray Funk must be credited for sourcing some of the material, drawn from his huge archive relating to both famous and obscure vintage artefacts, personalities and institutions of this country’s culture.) At the opening on Wednesday, Dumas, the vice chair of the Little Carib’s board, described the theatre as a beacon of the indigenous performing arts.
[caption id="attachment_1005333" align="aligncenter" width="583"] A booklet written by Beryl McBurnie, founder of the Little Carib Theatre, at the exhibition on the theatre at the Nalis atrium, Abercromby Street, Port of Spain. - AYANNA KINSALE[/caption]
McBurnie started it as a venue for preserving, choreographing and performing local folk dance, which at that time was considered inferior to its European counterparts and might well have died out altogether had it not been for her. She also set the lead for the region, but while other choreographers became well known for similar accomplishments, Rex Nettleford, founder of Jamaica’s National Dance Theatre Company, ranked McBurnie foremost among them. So, unsurprisingly, the focus of the exhibition is really McBurnie herself. Dumas described her in words that anyone who knew her or knows of her will recognise: iconic, a visionary, tirelessly dedicated, fierce – but also “scattered” and “difficult.” Everyone who ever met her knows she was “a character,” and the exhibition includes the Big Book of Beryl, where visitors can record their own memorable, amusing or exasperating encounters with her.
[caption id="attachment_1005331" align="alignnone" width="929"] Photos of dancer Beryl McBurnie, founder of the Little Carib Theatre, Woodbrook, on dislplay at the exhibition at t
