DAVID CUFFY

Six time Band of the Year win­ner Bri­an Mac Far­lane staged his 2012 mas pre­sen­ta­tion Sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion–In Search Of at the Jean Pierre Com­plex, Wood­brook on Mon­day night, and re­ceived lots of pos­i­tive feed­back for the ef­fort from the sparse but ap­pre­cia­tive au­di­ence that showed up. "It was a very good show," said a sat­is­fied pa­tron when asked for a com­ment on de­part­ing the venue. "How­ev­er, if the tick­et price was a lit­tle less, it may have at­tract­ed more peo­ple."

Tick­ets were priced at $300, $400 and $500. Themed The Event: Mac Mas Mon­day the pre­sen­ta­tion was not lack­ing in spe­cial ef­fects (fog ma­chines, con­fet­ti, fire­works, light­ing, etc) but fell short on pro­vid­ing a nar­ra­tive to take pa­trons through its var­i­ous as­pects. To be fair, though, songs by the con­tract­ed artistes were used as in­tro­duc­tions to the sec­tions as they ap­peared through the gates of the Com­plex.

Sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion's ten sec­tions at­tempt to tell of a na­tion's jour­ney in search of self and soul, and is draped in the na­tion­al colours. Red rep­re­sent­ing our blood; Black rep­re­sent­ing dark­ness; and White the co­he­sive­ness and uni­ty that form part of the so­lu­tion. Ac­cord­ing to a brochure on the sub­ject: "It is a call to heal, pu­ri­fy, and cleanse, and it taps in­to a col­lec­tive con­scious­ness that some­how we can be bet­ter than the head­lines, but it is first nec­es­sary to par­take from a com­mon coin of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and sanc­ti­fy."

David Rud­der and some of his com­po­si­tions fea­tured promi­nent­ly in the pre­sen­ta­tion, as Mad­ness, Mad­man's Rant, Doesn't Get Too Much Bet­ter Than This, and High Mas were ef­fec­tive­ly utilised to con­vey the mes­sage, while con­tri­bu­tions from Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller, Tony Prescott and Patrice Roberts brought added val­ue to the con­cept.

It in­clud­ed, as well, ap­pear­ances by Ros­alind Gabriel's chil­dren's band "Xante Trin­ba­go Xante," for­mer In­ter­na­tion­al Pow­er So­ca Monarch Shad­ow (Win­ston Bai­ley), and two-time Panora­ma cham­pi­on steel or­ches­tra PCS Sil­ver Stars. Mac Far­lane said the pro­duc­tion was "an ef­fort to breathe new life in­to the na­tion­al fes­ti­val." Com­ing 22 years af­ter Pe­ter Min­shall staged his 1989 pro­duc­tion San­ti­man­i­tay in the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um on Car­ni­val Mon­day night, it is in­evitable that a com­par­i­son will be drawn.

Min­shall tried to rein­vent mas as a cut­ting-edge tool to en­light­en spec­ta­tors about the com­plex­i­ties of life. His Car­ni­val art, as he re­ferred to his ef­forts, tied in­to a sto­ry line that es­sen­tial­ly cap­tured his muse, and flair for cos­tumery. Did Mac Far­lane's at­tempt at the same ide­ol­o­gy suc­ceed? The ju­ry is still out on this one.