If you're a living, thinking person from T&T, it likely hasn't escaped your notice that our nation grows dirtier daily, and not just in terms of pollution. This dire news certainly hasn't evaded the attention of rapso group 3Canal. Their tenth anniversary production of their eponymous Carnival show, this year entitled Grimeee, staged at Queen's Hall, gave every impression of citizenly discontent over the local state of affairs.Founded in 1997, 3Canal comprises Wendell Manwarren, Stanton Kewley and Roger Roberts. Their first iteration of the Carnival show was staged in 2004. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of their J'Ouvert band.One thing became apparent from the very first raised curtain at the February 23 show, and the appearance of the evening's elaborately constructed mise-en-sc�ne: 3Canal is not so much a three-man band as it is an institution. Grimeee bears an industrial, mechanical heart, one that evinces the combined greed of T&T corporate hell, and the resultant apathy of a drone-like local populace. If you like your Carnival celebrations peppered by rhetoric that engages both the intellect and the waistline, the 3Canal Show remains the place to be, run as it is by a smorgasbord of creative powerhouses.
Grimeee was segmented into three parts of a thematically circulatory whole: Chapter One, Carnival is a Living Ritual; Chapter Two, Carnival is Bacchanal," and a Chapter Three that fused core sentiments of the first two segments, dwelling on the need for respite from corruption's vicious clutches. Grimeee's intuitive stage design, conceived by architect Sean Leonard, involved triple-tiered miniature stages, ascending from downstage and encircling the 3Canal Cut + Clear Crew (Kiwan Landreth-Smith, Elliot Francois, Simon Mendoza, Jayron Remy and Marcus Sammy), who played at stage centre. These various levels allowed for a visually engaging variety of both dance and oratory presentations.Lighting, designed by Celia Wells, evinced a crafty engagement with both over-exposure and darkness, with a consistent battery of harsh yellows and blues, contrasting with brilliant white spotlights and rhythmically-timed blackouts.
Of oration, there was no shortage: elements of spoken word and frequent insertions from literary texts punctuated the evening's music. The most compelling of these was Cecilia Salazar's Chapter Two embodiment of Gene Miles, the whistleblowing public servant best known for her depositions in the 1965 Gas Station Racket Enquiry. (What a shame, then, that Salazar's microphone cut out at brief but conspicuous moments during her spirited rendition.)The Miss Miles character was designed by Peter Minshall.Dance beat at the fierce, vigorous heart of Grimeee, with Dave Williams and Dion Baptiste helming stage direction and choreography respectively. The production's dancers, clad in functional trainers and bandeau tops, leggings, cutoffs and Grimeee-logo T-shirts, were a collective furnace of expression in movement. In truth, their occasionally complex (and occasionally generic) interpretations of 3Canal's repertoire were sometimes more engaging than the songs being belted out by the leading trio of the night.
3Canal served up a varied song set, a generous one, considering the two-hour constraints of the performance. Lining up time-tested, foot-stamping favourites like Talk Yuh Talk and Blue alongside invigorating new work, the group's enthusiasm never waned, perhaps because of their well-scheduled departures from the performance stage. The fact that their older classics almost consistently received greater audience response ought to surprise no one. The evening also featured a spirited guest performance by Sheldon Blackman. His new 2014 single, Show Your Colours, was well-received, despite a distinct inability to perceive Blackman's lyrical enunciation over the enthusiastically loud musical backing. Despite this, the song's frequent refrain of "Up! Up! Up!" garnered fist-pumping affirmations from both 3Canal and the audience.3Canal may come under critical fire for the inevitable repetition that elements of their annual performances evoke. Despite this, Grimeee isn't ultimately marked by tired old constructs, but by prevailing ideas of love, resistance and life's good battles, armoured anew for 2014.