Wesley Gibbings
The 2018 version of Rawle Gibbons’ incomparable calypso musical Sing De Chorus brings some of the brightest young stars of the local stage in communion with older hands for one of the more memorable live performances of the year.
Louis McWilliams, who directed the original 1991 performance, returns for this encore describing the presence of accomplished, young talent as having brought “new energy” to the production.
Phillip Murray (Black Sage) returns from the 1991 production to anchor a lead role alongside veteran David Bereaux; while Roderick “Chucky” Gordon, Krisson Joseph, Adam Pascal, Syntyche Bishop, Nicole Carter, and Alana Ash appear for the first time in the musical.
Notable absentees are Brian Honore and Errol Jones, who have since passed. They appeared in 1991 alongside people like Leon Roach (Timer), Clem Haynes (Battle), former journalist Ucill Cambridge (Louise), and Prof Rhoda Reddock (the Grand Old Lady) as part of the original cast.
Llewellyn “Short Pants” MacIntosh—strategically seated in the audience—even delivered a cameo performance in honour of Lord Executor at Central Bank Auditorium on October 12. This was after two audience members took up the show’s “extempo challenge”.
Set mainly in 1930s Port-of-Spain, Gibbons’ storyline scans the conditions of colonial Trinidad as part of the background to the growth of calypso as a force for social and political change. “Winston”, played by Gordon, is the dramatic link between the oppression of urban life and the rising tide of discontent in the oil-producing southland under Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler.
Winston, the young calypso upstart comes to POS from then rural Siparia and impresses with his voice. But to tent veteran “Radio” (Bereaux), Winston needs to go further with his lyrical content—which he eventually does as he joins the Butler campaign for better wages but lands himself in prison for two years.
By the time Winston returns from jail, the “Yankee dollar” has taken over town during the US presence in Trinidad during World War II and things have changed dramatically. It’s a mixed bag, because by then several calypsonians, including Saga, have benefited from relatively lucrative performance assignments in the USA.
The “Inspector General” (Lalonde Ochoa) remains as a reminder of the surrogate hands of the colonials, though he appears more relaxed and comfortable among the Yankee sailors.
Through the music of the time and a generalised pronouncement on the accompanying historical circumstances, Gibbons’ narrative successfully captures the ethos of changing times—its tensions, follies, and ironies.
“If Butler represented the workers, calypsonians represented the unemployed, both sectors disadvantaged and disenfranchised,” says Gibbons in his producer’s note. “If the strike (of 1937) was Butler’s weapon, the calypsonian’s was his art, with which he analysed and fearlessly critiqued social injustices.”
McWilliams duly directs with an acute awareness of the intended dynamics. He says the production is useful for younger audiences since it “brings back a sense of history…the struggles we had”. Among them was the ever-present spectre of official censorship.
That Sing De Chorus paints such a clear historical picture through the calypsoes of the time attests to the role of the calypsonian as a griot—an unfettered chronicler of contemporary life whose work can be relied upon to forever capture the essence of an era. The playlist comprises 38 songs.
Musical director, Marva Newton, and the La Cou Kaiso Band competently and almost flawlessly fill roles originally played in the music pit by national awardee Desmond Waithe and his musicians who are featured on the recorded soundtrack to the 1991 version of the musical.
Set and costume design are at the expert hands of Judith Laird who did the honours 27 years ago and whom the showtime programme says “embraced the challenge of taking the work further in the 2018 production”.
Though the production initially took the Carnival 1991 stage by storm, McWilliams said he tried not to “photocopy the original”.
The production is being presented during Calypso History Month by Gibbons’ Canboulay Productions in association with the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies.
Further performances are now scheduled for Naparima Bowl in San Fernando on October 19 and 21 and Shaw Park Complex on October 27 and 28.
