3Canal celebrated 25 years in the business earlier this week with its production of Zingaytalala, a three-show series, at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.
In true 3Canal style, members Wendell Manwarren, Stanton Kewley and Roger Roberts gave the patrons who turned out over the three shows a well thought out, choreographed and produced event.
Built around a look into the history of the Carnival, which was presented by a storytelling team which included veteran performer Cecilia Salazar, Arnold Goindhan, Marvin Dowridge, Kimmy Stoute-Robinson and Randy Stanley, the show, more importantly, took patrons on a journey of the group’s musical progress through the years.
Known for their theatrical productions, 3Canal did not disappoint either, keeping the patrons engrossed from the time they rose out of the venue lower level on the stage to end, when they gave fans a taste of some of the hits which made them households names over two decades ago. While they may be going down in age, as any entity celebrating 25 years would suggest, Manwarren, Kewley and Roberts have not lost their usual flair and went the full mile in delivering this vigour during the three-day run.
On the other side, the storytellers also gave a poignant commentary on how the Carnival has been overtaken by an elitist group of individuals now bent more on generating wealth than putting the power of expression through unfettered revelry in the hand of the revellers. It is an issue which is often discussed within the cultural fraternity but very rarely makes it as far as a stage in the manner the storytelling crew did it.
All in all, it was a production in line with previous 3Canal Carnival productions.
But for those patrons who missed it this week and by demand, 3 Canal is putting on two more last lap shows next week (Feburary 26 and 27) at the same venue starting at 8.30 each night.