FREDDIE KISSOON PLAYS ON

By Clevon Raphael

Independent

March 24, 2000

Page 19

After almost 50 years one would understandably think that Freddie Kissoon would be calling it quits from the drama arena or, at least, preparing himself for the final curtain call.

Not so; this man Freddie McCrean Kissoon whose most famous work "Calabash Alley" is still a big hit on the local and regional theatre circuit.

At age 69, Kissoon is boasting - not really, he is not that kind of effusive guy - that he is in the process of writing 26 NEW episodes of the mega radio, television and stage series which looks at the varied faces of love.

"Please don't refer to my work as a soap opera," the ever-smiling and soft-spoken Kissoon said in his Diamond Vale home last week, of the piece that was first staged in November 1970, on radio.

Why not?

Kissoon, who has been a schoolteacher all his working life, explains:

"Soap operas connote married men and women jumping into bed with multiple partners and other immoral scenarios. My play deals with true life situations depicting the many faces of love…not those vacuous shows we see on television."

Freddie Kissoon was born the last of seven children to Augustine and Virginia Kissoon, at 63 Mucurapo Road, St James, and attended the Nelson Street Boys RC School. He received his secondary education at the Modern Secondary School in Woodbrook.

From there he went to the then Government Training College which prepared him for his 33 years as a teacher during which he taught at several primary and secondary schools.

Married to the former Nesta Maxwell for the past 42 years, they have two grown children - Richard and William, and one grand child.

Freddie received his initiation in the drama field after joining the Nelsonians Cultural Club in 1950, and his big break came in 1957 when he won a recitation contest for "No Thank You" from the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostant.

For that occasion he formed the now legendary Strolling Players, which today still has the record of being the oldest drama entity in the country with deputy directors, Azard Daniel and the ever-popular Shirley King.

A director of more than 100 and a writer of 70-plus plays, Kissoon, a former British Council scholar was awarded the Humming Bird Medal in Trinidad and Tobago's National Awards in 1986, for culture.

He first wrote and produced "Calabash Alley" for radio in 1970, and because of its great success there was no stopping it making big times.

"Because of the encouraging comments and arguments about the play that I overheard from the people in the streets I thought it would make a good stage play. I followed my hunch, sat down and did a stage version in 1972."

"I took it to Grenada for one performance but as a result of the people there liking it so much we had to put on a second performance that same night; people inside did not want to leave and those outside were clamouring to see the play."

It was subsequently taken to other regional countries and North America where it continued to receive rave reviews.

In 1986 Video Associates did 10 episodes followed by AVM, which taped additional segments.

Speaking about an almost near physical confrontation with Mano Benjamin, Kissoon whose motto is that entrance to his plays must be affordable to everyone hence the reasonable admission prices, recollected that incident at times interjecting laughter:

"In those days, the early 1950s, I was teaching at the Laventille RC School (on the Hill) and one of my pupils was Mano Benjamin's daughter.

"In those days it was the in-thing to administer corporal punishment to erring children and I had justifiable cause to flog her. She then told me that she was bringing her father for me the next day."

"To be honest with you I was terribly scared of this man because he was so hugely built and he worked in the nearby quarry. The following morning I decided to stay at home but when I told my mother the reason why she advised me to go and face the situation."

"It was wrong to run away from one's problems; if I did it once I would always run from other problems. So I took her advice and went to school that morning, scared like hell."

Kissoon, who is quite a small man, added that from his class he could have seen Benjamin's home:

"I peeped from the door in my class and I saw Mano leaving home heading towards the school. I was really shaking seeing the massive frame of Mano coming in the direction of the school, his face stern as a raging bull.

"But when he reached one of the grottos near the school he paused, took a cigarette out of his pocket, lit it, had a smoke and as if God had answered my prayers, when he finished smoking, shook his head, turned away from the school and went to work.

"I said to myself he changed his mind because he knew his child deserved the spanking she got."

Described as a leading light in Caribbean theatre, Kissoon who was the first person to write a book on West Indian creative drama and who also wrote most of the script for Trinidad and Tobago's first full-length movie, "The Right and the Wrong," is loathe to pronounce on other local productions.

"Please ask me anything else but that, please," steadfastly refusing to say whey he prefers to bypass that topic.

He is not about to call it a day and in the midst of writing the new episodes for "Calabash Alley" he is also overseeing the producing and presentation of "We Crucify Him," with the assistance of King and Daniel.

The play, which was first presented in 1967, has been accepted by all Christian faiths, and is being presented at several churches during this Lenten season. The Strolling Players is also presenting three short plays at City Hall in Port of Spain, on March 30, March 31, and April 1.

So when would Freddie Kissoon be taking his final curtain call?

"You must be joking…I ain't going no way now at all…I now start," with his signature laugh.

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