Trinidadian <PERSON>, visionary of ‘play and performance’, leaves behind a precious legacy · Global Voices
A portrait of Trinbagonian playwright, actor and director <PERSON>, by <PERSON>. Used with permission.
On April 27, 2020, one of the pillars of Trinidad and Tobago's film and theatre community — actor, playwright and director <PERSON> — died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving the heart of a nation in pieces. He was 71 years old.
<PERSON> dedicated his life to the performing arts, writing both stage and screenplays, directing theatrical and film works and often appearing on stage and screen as an actor or interviewer.
After getting his bachelor's degree in drama and education from the University of Alberta in 1973, <PERSON> cut his teeth in community theatre in Canada; he also did work in prisons, where he created workshops for the inmates using role-play as a technique. A lifelong learner who enjoyed the questions just as much as the answers, <PERSON> earned a diploma in film and advanced television production from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1980.
Both qualifications served him well when he returned home and became an integral part of the pioneering group of television producers that created “Gayelle” [this clip features his brother, <PERSON>], a cultural magazine-type series that began to transform the landscape of regional television in the mid-1980s.
For many years, <PERSON> apprenticed as an actor and director with Nobel laureate Sir <PERSON> in the seminal Trinidad Theatre Workshop (TTW), where he performed in the world premiere of <PERSON>'s “The Joker of Seville” and “O’ Babylon” (1975-81).
Speaking with me by telephone, <PERSON>, one of the founders of Banyan Limited, the video production company through which <PERSON> put his unique artistic stamp on various indigenous soap operas, drama series, and current affairs programmes, recalled that <PERSON> was so deeply involved in the TTW that he was “widely viewed as <PERSON>'s heir apparent”. He described <PERSON> as “an ultimate artist and renaissance man” who would often develop scripts from improvised sessions with other theatre giants like <PERSON> and <PERSON>.
“He loved satire skits and social commentary,” <PERSON> said. “He was always off the wall, but very authentic — and very socially committed.” He remembers the pairing of <PERSON> and fellow actor <PERSON> in the “Gayelle” series as “wonderful”, noting that <PERSON> would usually insist they approach topics from an unexpected angle. 357
“<PERSON> would, therefore, do interviews for events like the Hindu festival of Phagwa,” <PERSON> explained, while Sitahal, of Indian descent, would host segments on things like the Orisha religion. In Trinidad and Tobago, where the population is almost evenly split between people of African and Indian descent, <PERSON> helped make the country's rich cultural diversity more inclusive, and accessible to everyone.
<PERSON>, who co-hosted “Gayelle” with <PERSON>, said on Facebook:
<PERSON>’s pursuit of truth had no room for pettiness, for jostling for stardom, for ethnic competition, pretense and pappyshow. […] Making Gayelle was always a hunt for the unexpected twist that would flip a situation out of the mundane.
A promotional still from <PERSON> play, “Jean and Dinah”. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.
In a career that spanned five decades in various media — in his words, “play and performance in space, street, stage and screen” — nothing <PERSON> ever worked on was short of original ideas. Some of his most recognised pieces of work, staged through his Lordstreet Theatre Company, include the critically acclaimed play “Jean and Dinah” (based on The Mighty Sparrow's famous 1956 calypso of the same name), “The Brand New Lucky Diamond Horseshoe Club” (a musical collaboration with calypsonian <PERSON>), and “Miss Miles, Woman of the World”, a play based on the life of Trinidadian political whistleblower <PERSON>. He also co-directed the award-winning BBC/Banyan documentary, “And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon”.
Film producer <PERSON>, who worked with <PERSON> at Banyan from 1990, remembers him as “the ideas man”. 357