Jeffery Kissoon

Jeffery Kissoon
Born	(1947-09-04) 4 September 1947 Trinidad
Residence	United Kingdom
Education	Christopher Wren School
Occupation	Actor theatre director
Years active	1970–present
Organization	Royal Shakespeare Company Royal National Theatre Citizens Theatre Company
Home town	London, England
Board member of	Shared Experience Warehouse Theatre Company
Awards	Peloponnesian International Film Festival Best Lead Actor Award (2012)

Jeffery Kissoon (born 4 September 1947) is a Trinidad-born actor with credits in British theatre, television, film and radio. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company at venues such as the Royal National Theatre, under directors including Peter Brook, Peter Hall, Robert Lepage, Janet Suzman, Calixto Bieito and Nicholas Hytner. He has acted in genres from Shakespeare and modern theatre to television drama and science fiction, playing a range of both leading and supporting roles, from Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra and Prospero and Caliban in The Tempest, to Malcolm X in The Meeting and Mr Kennedy in the children's TV series Grange Hill.

A regular director of theatre, Kissoon is a member of the board of directors of the Shared Experience company and the Warehouse Theatre in Croydon, London. He has tutored younger actors, writers and directors, and values the rehearsal process. He played the lead role in the Mark Norfolk film Ham and the Piper (2011), and also directed Norfolk's theatre production Naked Soldiers, staged in 2010 at the Warehouse Theatre. He reprised his role as Antony in Suzman's production of Antony and Cleopatra, appearing opposite Kim Cattrall as Cleopatra, at the Liverpool Playhouse in 2010.

Early life and career

Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Kissoon emigrated to London with his parents at an early age. While attending the Christopher Wren School in Shepherd's Bush, he joined the student drama group. In 1970, under Robert Tanitch and Eric Rickman, he made his first appearance as an actor in the film Like You, Like Me, an inter-racial romance.

Although he trained as a drama teacher, Kissoon has worked as an actor since the early 1970s. In 1972, he joined the Glasgow Citizens Theatre Company and, for two years thereafter, played leading roles in a number of productions, including Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine The Great and Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera. During this period, he worked with director Keith Hack, who cast him as Tamburlaine for the 1972 Edinburgh Festival, and as Caliban for the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1974 production of The Tempest at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon. Kissoon had his first prominent television role playing Sam in Beryl's Lot for Yorkshire Television (in 1975), after which he played PC Robbins in an episode of Z-Cars and Sonny in a BBC Play for Today titled "Rocky Marciano is Dead" (both in 1976). He portrayed Dr. Ben Vincent in seven episodes of Gerry Anderson's science-fiction series Space 1999 between 1976 and 1977.

In 1985, Kissoon played Karna in Peter Brook's nine-hour stage adaptation of The Mahabharata. The three-year project opened at the Festival d'Avignon in France and completed a world tour, ultimately leading to a film adaptation running to six hours. It also resulted in a lasting professional association between Kissoon and Brook, which witnessed Kissoon play two roles in the director's production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Kissoon is a veteran cast member of both RSC and Royal National Theatre productions, regularly collaborating with director Sir Peter Hall. In 2003, he participated in a rehearsed reading of Wrong Place at the Soho Theatre, marking the start of an association with playwright Mark Norfolk.

Kissoon's recent screen and stage credits include Julius Caesar (Royal Shakespeare Company), Ham & The Piper (Mark Norfolk, 2011) Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears, 2002), Crossing Bridges (Mark Norfolk, 2006), Holby City (BBC, 2006), Casualty (BBC, 2008), War and Peace (Hampstead Theatre, 2008), Amazonia (Old Vic, 2009) and The Meeting (Warehouse Theatre, 2009). He played the lead role in Norfolk's film Ham and the Piper (2011), for which he won the Best Lead Actor Award at the 2012 Peloponnesian International Film Festival, having directed Ewart James Walters, Elisabeth Dahl and Adam Sopp in Norfolk's play Naked Soldiers at the Warehouse Theatre the previous year. He later directed the same author's Where The Flowers Grow, again at the Warehouse Theatre. Kissoon reprised his Mark Antony, opposite Kim Cattrall's Cleopatra, in a production of Antony and Cleopatra, directed by Janet Suzman and performed at the Liverpool Playhouse, in October 2010. This was followed by Waiting For Godot at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (co-starring Patrick Robinson) and the RSC's production of Julius Caesar (in the title role).

Kissoon performed in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Rudy's Rare Records (2008–12) as Rudy's friend Clifton. He also featured in Norfolk's "Broken Chain", a segment of Radio 4's The City Speaks (2008), which is credited as the first "feature film for radio" produced in collaboration with Film London and Arts Council England.

Work

Theatre

• Julius Caesar (as Julius Caesar), Royal Shakespeare Company, dir. Greg Doran, 2012–13
• Waiting For Godot, West Yorkshire Playhouse, dir. Ian Brown, 2011
• Antony and Cleopatra (as Antony), Liverpool Playhouse, dir. Janet Suzman, 2010
• The Meeting (as Malcolm X), Croydon Warehouse Theatre, director Jeffery Kissoon, 2009.
• Amazonia (as Don Antonio), Young Vic, dir. Paul Heritage/Joe Hill-Gibbins, 2009
• War and Peace (as Prince Bolkonsky), Hampstead Theatre and tour, dir. Nancy Meckler, 2008
• An African Cargo (as Equiano and Lord Mansfield), Greenwich Theatre, Nitro (formerly Black Theatre Co-operative), dir. Felix Cross, 2007
• Orestes (as Tyndareos), Tricycle Theatre and tour, dir. Nancy Meckler, 2007
• Tamburlaine the Great (as Bajazeth), Bristol Old Vic and Barbican Centre, dir. David Farr, 2005
• Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 (as Earl of Northumberland), Royal National Theatre, dir. Nicholas Hytner, 2005
• Fix Up (as Brother Kiyi), Royal National Theatre, dir. Angus Jackson 2004
• Resurrection Lichfield Garrick Theatre, dir. Annie Castledine 2003
• Nathan the Wise, Chichester Festival Theatre, dir. Steven Pimlott, 2003
• The Meeting (as Malcolm X), Croydon Warehouse Theatre, dir. Malcolm Fredericks, 2002
• The Tragedy of Hamlet, (as Claudius and Ghost) world tour, dir. Peter Brook, 2001–02
• The Free State (as Alexander), tour, dir. Janet Suzman, 2000
• The Dove, Croydon Warehouse Theatre, dir. Jeanette Smith, 1999
• Life is a Dream (as Basilio), Edinburgh and London, dir. Calixto Bieito, 1999
• The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Royal National Theatre, dir. Simon McBurney, 1997
• Oedipus the King, Royal National Theatre, dir. Peter Hall, 1996
• The Tempest (as Prospero), Birmingham Repertory Theatre, dir. Bill Alexander, 1994
• Julius Caesar (as Brutus), Royal Shakespeare Company's The Other Place, video and tour, dir. David Thacker, 1993
• Othello (as Othello), Birmingham Repertory Theatre, dir. Bill Alexander, 1993
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (as Theseus/Oberon), Chichester Festival Theatre, dir. Gail Edwards/Steven Pimlott 1992
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, (as Oberon) Royal National Theatre, dir. Robert Lepage, 1992
• The Coup, Royal National Theatre, dir. Mustapha Matura, 1991
• A Taste of Honey
• Antony and Cleopatra (as Antony), Merseyside Theatre and Bloomsbury, dir. Yvonne Brewster, 1991
• In the Solitude of Cotton Fields, Almeida Theatre, 1991
• As You Like It, Royal Shakespeare Company, dir. Trevor Nunn.
• The Merchant of Venice (as the Prince of Morocco), Phoenix Theatre, dir. Peter Hall, 1989
• The Gods Are Not To Blame, Riverside Studios, dir. Yvonne Brewster, 1989
• Troilus and Cressida (as Diomedes), Barbican Centre, dir. Howard Davies, 1986
• The Mahabharata (as Karna), Festival d'Avignon in France, tour and film, dir. Peter Brook, 1985–89.
• Cheapside, Croydon Warehouse Theatre, dir. Ted Craig, 1985
• Oroonoko, Glasgow Citizens Theatre, dir. Phillip Rowse, 1983
• Marino Faliero, The Young Vic, dir. Keith Hack, 1982
• Dr Faustus, Royal Exchange, Manchester, dir. Adrian Noble, 1981
• The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, The Warehouse, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978
• Barbarians: A Trilogy: Killing Time, Abide with Me, In the City, Greenwich Theatre, dir. Keith Hack, 1977.
• City Sugar, Bush Theatre, dir. Stephen Poliakoff, 1976.
• Measure for Measure (as Provost), dir. Keith Hack, 1974
• Glorious Things
• Great and Small
• King Lear
• Kingdom of Barth
• Last Missionary
• The Tempest (as Caliban), RSC's The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, dir. Keith Hack, 1974
• Love's Labours Lost
• Macbeth, The Young Vic
• Macbeth, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
• Colonus
• Othello, Bristol Old Vic, dir. Paul Unwin
• Reflections
• Streamers
• The Island
• The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
• The Way of the World
• Macbeth (as Meru), The Roundhouse, dir. Peter Coe
• Marat/Sade (as Safter), The Citizen's Company, dir. Rick Stroud, 1972
• The Threepenny Opera (as Tiger Brown), The Citizen's Company, dir. Rick Stroud, 1972
• Tamburlaine The Great (as Tamburlaine), The Citizen's Company, dir. Keith Hack, 1972
• Vision of Youth

Television

• Doctors as Denny (1 episode, 2010)
• Casualty as Lyndon Marshall (1 episode, 2008: "Before a Fall")
• Kiss of Death (2008) as Commissioner
• Holby City (2 episodes, 2002–06)
  • "Bad Blood" (2006) as Trevor Heron
  • "Last Chances" (2002) as Douglas Payne
• Agatha Christie's Marple: "The Sittaford Mystery" (2006) as Ahmed Ghali
• Grease Monkeys as Bertrand Baptiste (1 episode, 2004: "Jail Bait")
• Doctors as Lewis Parnell (1 episode, 2003: "A Question of Priorities")
• EastEnders as Milton Hibbert (various episodes, 2002)
• Dirty Pretty Things (2002) as Cab Controller
• The Tragedy of Hamlet (2002) as Claudius/Ghost
• Dalziel and Pascoe as Mr Graham (1 episode, 1999: "Time to Go")
• The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: "Tales of Innocence" (1999) as El Hadji
• Only Love (1998 TV film) as Rashid
• Brothers and Sisters (1998) as Russel Leonard
• The Bill as De Silva (2 episodes, 1995)
  • "Street Life"
  • "Uncle Bob"
• The Mahabharata (1989) as Karna
• Grange Hill as Mr Kennedy (33 episodes, 1986–87)
• Very Like a Whale (1981) as Customs Officer
• Space: 1999 as Dr Ben Vincent (7 episodes, 1976–77)
• BBC Play for Today as Sonny (1 episode, 1976: "Rocky Marciano is Dead")
• Z-Cars as PC Robbins (1 episode, 1976: "Manslaughter")
• Beryl's Lot as Sam (4 episodes, 1975)
  • "A Day at the Races"
  • "Home Again"
  • "Safety First"
  • "Devil to Pay"
• Like You, Like Me (1970)

Radio

• Gone, BBC Radio 3, debbie tucker green, 2010
• Broken Chain, Mark Norfolk, 2008
• Tamburlaine: The Shadow of God, BBC, Marc Beeby, 2008
• Rudy's Rare Records (Series 1–3), BBC, Lucy Armitage, 2008
• The City Speaks: Broken Chain, BBC Radio 4, Toby Swift, 2008
• Dionysos, BBC Radio Three, 2003
• The Ministry of Performing Arts, BBC Sound, Mustapha Matura

Film

• Ham and the Piper (2012) as Burt
• The Nativity Story (2006) as Herod's Architect
• Crossing Bridges (2004) as Buster
• Hamlet (1996) as Fortinbras's Captain

External links

• Jeffery Kissoon at the Internet Movie Database

• Adrian Hamilton, The Independent, 20 August 2005.
• Shared Experience Education Pack.
• http://www.offwestend.com/index.php/plays/view/4106
• Kim Cattrall and Jeffery Kissoon in Antony and Cleopatra, News, Everyman Playhouse, Liverpool, 30 April 2010.
• Catherine Jones, "Sex And The City's Kim Cattrall to make Liverpool stage debut as Cleopatra", Liverpool Echo, 30 April 2010.
• Terri Paddock, "Kim Cattrall, Jeffrey Kissoon to Star in Antony and Cleopatra at Liverpool Playhouse", Theater Mania, 30 April 2010.
• BWW News Desk, "Cattrall & Kissoon Confirmed for ANTHONY & CLEOPATRA in Liverpool, 10/8-11/13", Broadwayworld.com, 30 April 2012.
• Mark Shenton, "Kim Cattrall Confirmed to Play Cleopatra in Liverpool; Dates Announced", Playbill.com, 30 April 2010.
• Memories of White City.
• British Film Institute Film and Television Database.
• http://laurancerudic.wordpress.com/giles-havergals-glasgow-citizens-theatre-company/the-citz-season-1972-73/
• Michael Pennington's website.
• Jeffery Kissoon on IMDb.
• Catacombs Credit Guide.
• Frank Rich, New York Times, October 1987.
• Michael Billington in The Guardian, 20 December 2000.
• http://www.alanhoward.org.uk/oedipusthebes.htm
• Michael Coveney, "Alan Howard was not immune to the curse of Thebes. He fell off the stage and broke his wrist", The Observer, 8 September 1996.
• BBC London.
• Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
• Ham and the Piper, British Films Directory, British Council.
• http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/32497/where-the-flowers-grow
• Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse.
• Rudy's Rare Records, BBC.
• Rudy's Rare Records, The British Comedy Guide.
• Warehouse Theatre.
• Amazonia Website.
• Rhoda Koeni, "War and Peace, Hampstead Theatre, London", The Independent, 16 April 2008.
• "An African Cargo" at Nitrobeat.
• "Intro to Nitro: An African Cargo", BBC Africa Beyond, Celebrating African Arts in the UK: October 2007 Events.
• Michael Coveney for FirstPost, November 2006.
• Philip Fisher, "Tamburlaine" (review), British Theatre Guide, 2005.
• FT.com, "The Bitter Sweet Refrain of Life's Transience", 6 May 2005.
• Michael Billington, "Fix Up" (review), The Guardian, 17 December 2004.
• Fix Up reviews on National Theatre Website November 2004.
• Terry Grimley, "Culture..."Birmingham Post & Mail, 2003.
• Michael Billington, "Nathan the Wise" (review), The Guardian, 3 May 2003.
• Warehouse Theatre Website.
• Karen Peterson, University of Wales for Shaksper, The Global Electronic Shakespeare Conference.
• Kate Bassett, "Chekhov plays away", The Telegraph, 14 March 2000.
• International Playwriting Festival history, Warehouse Theatre website.
• Ben Brantley for the New York Times, 14 October 1999.
• Complicite website.
• Irving Wardle, "THEATRE / The best little whorehouse in Dublin", The Independent on Sunday, 18 September 1994.
• http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/content/view/234/234
• "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar", The RSC Shakespeare.
• Othello, Birmingham City Council.
• "Interview: Jeffrey Kissoon on playing Oberon", eStage.
• Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project.
• Sheridan Morley, "The Trinidad Follies", New York Times, 24 July 1991.
• Talawa Theatre Company Website.
• Gallery, Kim Dambaek website.
• AHDS Performing Arts Database.
• Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue.
• "The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida", The RSC Shakespeare.
• History of the theatre 1977–2005.
• http://laurancerudic.wordpress.com/giles-havergals-glasgow-citizens-theatre-company/the-citz-season-1983-84/
• http://library.kent.ac.uk/library/special/Programmes/PRG1982.HTM
• "17 Sept – 24 Oct 1981, Dr Faustus", Royal Exchange Theatre website.
• RSC Archive Catalogue.
• Rob Wilton: Theatricalia, 1970–1979.
• Random House Modern Library RSC Stagings History.
• AHDS Performing Arts.
• "Gone by Debbie Tucker Green", Drama on 3, BBC.
• The City Speaks 1/2 (Pushing By/I Am Not You Are Not Me/Broken Chain). Internet Radio Database.
• "Tamburlaine: Shadow of God by John Fletcher", Drama on 3, BBC.
• Greeks: Radio Plays.
• Ham and the Piper, Drama.
• British Council Britfilms Catalogue.