KALI­FA SARAH CLYNE

In T&T, his­to­ry is not on­ly chron­i­cled by schol­ars and his­to­ri­ans. One very lo­cal method of doc­u­ment­ing his­to­ry is be­ing used to tell the sto­ry of the life of the coun­try's first prime min­is­ter, Dr Er­ic Williams. That method is ca­lyp­so. Ca­lyp­so mu­sic has many pur­pos­es. It can be used and en­joyed sole­ly as a source of en­ter­tain­ment. But it has of­ten been used to de­tail the so­cial and po­lit­i­cal iden­ti­ty of T&T through­out the past decades. Now it is be­ing used to tell the tale of one man's jour­ney. Through the voice of the ca­lyp­son­ian, Iere The­atre Pro­duc­tions will at­tempt to take au­di­ences on a jour­ney through Er­ic Williams' life, from birth to death, in the play Er­ic: The Mu­si­cal, by Zeno Con­stance. Williams was not on­ly the first Prime Min­is­ter of T&T but al­so a hero in the eyes of many, hav­ing led T&T to In­de­pen­dence in 1962-one of the rea­sons why the Min­istry of the Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism has agreed to host the play as part of its ac­tiv­i­ties to cel­e­brate T&T's 50th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence. Di­rec­tor of Cul­ture at the min­istry In­grid Ryan-Reuben said the or­gan­is­ers of the play brought a pro­pos­al to the min­istry and the min­istry agreed. The play's di­rec­tor, Vic­tor Ed­wards, said the play was com­mis­sioned last year by the Unit­ed Na­tions Ed­u­ca­tion­al, Sci­en­tif­ic and Cul­tur­al Or­gan­i­sa­tion (Un­esco) as part of a youth the­atre project to mark the cen­te­nary of Williams' birth.

It us­es 36 ca­lyp­soes from ca­lyp­so­ni­ans such as Chalk­dust, Spar­row, Kitch­en­er, De Fos­to, Black Stal­in and Valenti­no were care­ful­ly se­lect­ed for the two-hour play. Ca­lyp­soes such as Valenti­no's Dis Place Nice, Pen­guin's Bet­tie Goat­ie and Spar­row's Get to Hell Out of Here are al­so used to tell Williams' tale. "Er­ic Williams was born in a land where the peo­ple love care­free liv­ing and to strug­gle in a hap­py-go-lucky way." The play was based on com­mon knowl­edge about Williams, but seeks to ed­u­cate young peo­ple about the late prime min­is­ter. The play de­picts both Williams' life from his time at Queen's Roy­al Col­lege through his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer and life in T&T dur­ing that time. It most­ly fo­cus­es on his pub­lic life as the tale is told through the use of ca­lyp­so, per­formed live by the cast. "The sto­ry starts with his death and goes back­ward to give the sto­ry of his child­hood. It will look at his ed­u­ca­tion and sev­er­al is­sues com­ing out of his his­to­ry, like the Black Pow­er Rev­o­lu­tion and the Ch­aguara­mas is­sue," Ed­wards said. Spar­row's Jean and Di­nah was used to high­light the oc­cu­pa­tion of the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment of the Ch­aguara­mas naval base up un­til 1967. He said ca­lyp­so was al­so used to show Williams' in­ter­ac­tion with the coun­try dur­ing the Black Pow­er Rev­o­lu­tion, when thou­sands of cit­i­zens protest­ed against dis­crim­i­na­tion. Ed­wards said the on­ly oth­er po­lit­i­cal fig­ure who ap­pears in the play is Li­onel Seuk­er­an, a politi­cian and mem­ber of the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Labour Par­ty. He was known as the "sil­ver-tongued or­a­tor" and as a mem­ber of the op­po­si­tion par­ty was of­ten praised as a de­ba­tor.

"The rest of the char­ac­ters are most­ly ca­lyp­so­ni­ans and the FABs," said Ed­wards. He ex­plained that the FABs or "Fat A-- Brigade" were fe­male Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment fol­low­ers who worked with Williams. Ca­lyp­so was used to il­lus­trate dif­fer­ent is­sues that sur­round­ed Williams' as the leader of T&T. The play boasts a young cast, with broad­cast jour­nal­ist Joseph Lopez tak­ing the lead role and char­ac­ters rang­ing in ages from as young as 15 to as old as 26. Lopez de­scribed Williams as a dif­fi­cult char­ac­ter to por­tray. "The script is good and it brings to­geth­er di­a­logue that is most­ly ca­lyp­so songs, but Er­ic is a chal­leng­ing role," said Lopez. Lopez said he on­ly found a few videos on­line when re­search­ing for his role as Williams, which made it dif­fi­cult learn­ing to em­u­late Williams acu­rate­ly. How­ev­er, he felt con­fi­dent that he could por­tray Williams well. Williams' daugh­ter Er­i­ca will be played by Re­bec­ca Daniel and Shauntelle Strak­er. The cast staged two per­for­mances at the Na­pari­ma Girls' High School in South?Trinidad and five shows at the Lit­tle Carib The­atre dur­ing the Car­ni­val sea­son. On­ly two shows are planned on Au­gust 17 and 18 at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) in Port-of-Spain. In a tele­phone in­ter­view, Op­po­si­tion MP Amery Browne said there was no bet­ter time than dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tions of T&T's 50th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence to ed­u­cate young peo­ple about the tremen­dous con­tri­bu­tions made to the lives of the peo­ple of T&T by Williams. "We need to al­so find oth­er ways to ho­n­our the con­tri­bu­tions made by those in our past," he said.

Er­ic Eu­stace Williams was born on Sep­tem­ber 25 1911.

He at­tend­ed Queen's Roy­al Col­lege and won an is­land schol­ar­ship in 1932 which al­lowed him to at­tend St Cather­ine's Col­lege, Ox­ford. In 1935, he re­ceived first class ho­n­ours for his B.A in His­to­ry, and was ranked in first place among Uni­ver­si­ty of Ox­ford stu­dents grad­u­at­ing in His­to­ry in 1935. He formed the po­lit­i­cal par­ty, Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment in 1956 and be­came the first Prime Min­is­ter of T&T that same year. Williams re­mained the Prime Min­is­ter of T&T un­til his death in 1981.

It us­es 36 ca­lyp­soes, from ca­lyp­so­ni­ans such as Chalk­dust, Spar­row, Kitch­en­er, De Fos­to, Black Stal­in and Valenti­no, which were care­ful­ly se­lect­ed for the two-hour play. Ca­lyp­soes such as Valenti­no's Dis Place Nice, Pen­guin's Bet­tie Goat­ie and Spar­row's Get to Hell Out of Here are al­so used to tell Williams' tale. "Er­ic Williams was born in a land where the peo­ple love care­free liv­ing and to strug­gle in a hap­py-go-lucky way." The play was based on com­mon knowl­edge about Williams, but seeks to ed­u­cate young peo­ple about the late prime min­is­ter. The play de­picts both Williams' life from his time at Queen's Roy­al Col­lege through his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer and life in T&T dur­ing that time. It most­ly fo­cus­es on his pub­lic life as the tale is told through the use of ca­lyp­so, per­formed live by the cast. "The sto­ry starts with his death and goes back­ward to give the sto­ry of his child­hood. It will look at his ed­u­ca­tion and sev­er­al is­sues com­ing out of his his­to­ry, like the Black Pow­er Rev­o­lu­tion and the Ch­aguara­mas is­sue," Ed­wards said. Spar­row's Jean and Di­nah was used to high­light the oc­cu­pa­tion of the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment of the Ch­aguara­mas naval base up un­til 1967. He said ca­lyp­so was al­so used to show Williams' in­ter­ac­tion with the coun­try dur­ing the Black Pow­er Rev­o­lu­tion, when thou­sands of cit­i­zens protest­ed against dis­crim­i­na­tion.

Ed­wards said the on­ly oth­er po­lit­i­cal fig­ure who ap­pears in the play is Li­onel Seuk­er­an, a politi­cian and mem­ber of the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Labour Par­ty. He was known as the "sil­ver-tongued or­a­tor" and as a mem­ber of the op­po­si­tion par­ty was of­ten praised as a de­ba­tor. "The rest of the char­ac­ters are most­ly ca­lyp­so­ni­ans and the FABs," said Ed­wards. He ex­plained that the FABs or "Fat A-- Brigade" were fe­male Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment fol­low­ers who worked with Williams. Ca­lyp­so was used to il­lus­trate dif­fer­ent is­sues that sur­round­ed Williams' as the leader of T&T. The play boasts a young cast, with broad­cast jour­nal­ist Joseph Lopez tak­ing the lead role and char­ac­ters rang­ing in ages from as young as 15 to as old as 26. Lopez de­scribed Williams as a dif­fi­cult char­ac­ter to por­tray. "The script is good and it brings to­geth­er di­a­logue that is most­ly ca­lyp­so songs, but Er­ic is a chal­leng­ing role," said Lopez. Lopez said he on­ly found a few videos on­line when re­search­ing for his role as Williams, which made it dif­fi­cult learn­ing to em­u­late Williams ac­cu­rate­ly.

How­ev­er, he felt con­fi­dent that he could por­tray Williams well. Williams' daugh­ter Er­i­ca will be played by Re­bec­ca Daniel and Shauntelle Strak­er. The cast staged two per­for­mances at the Na­pari­ma Girls' High School in south?Trinidad and five shows at the Lit­tle Carib The­atre dur­ing the Car­ni­val sea­son. On­ly two shows are planned on Au­gust 17 and 18 at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) in Port-of-Spain. In a tele­phone in­ter­view, Op­po­si­tion MP Amery Browne said there was no bet­ter time than dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tions of T&T's 50th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence to ed­u­cate young peo­ple about the tremen­dous con­tri­bu­tions made to the lives of the peo­ple of T&T by Williams.