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.[2] He played the lead role in the
Mark Norfolk film Ham and the Piper (2012), and also directed Norfolk's theatre productions Knock Down Ginger, staged in 2003, Naked Soldiers, 2010 and Where the Flowers Grow, 2011, at the Warehouse Theatre.[3] 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.[4][5][6][7][8]
Early life and career
Born in
Trinidad and Tobago, Kissoon, of
Dougla heritage, emigrated to London with his parents at an early age. While attending the Christopher Wren School in
Shepherd's Bush,[9] 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,[10] an inter-racial romance.
In 1985, Kissoon played Karna in
Peter Brook's nine-hour stage adaptation of The Mahabharata.[15] 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.[16] Kissoon is a veteran cast member of both RSC and
Royal National Theatre productions, regularly collaborating with director Sir
Peter Hall.[17][18] In 2002, he participated in a rehearsed reading of Wrong Place at the
Soho Theatre,[19] continuing his association with playwright
Mark Norfolk whose play ″Knock Down Ginger″ he later directed at the Warehouse Theatre the following year. The play starred former EastEnders actors
Judith Jacob, Sylvester Williams [20] and marked the stage debut of
Troy Glasgow.
Kissoon's more recent screen and stage credits include W1A (TV series) (BBC, 2017), Star Wars: The Force Awakens, EastEnders (BBC, 2015), Julius Caesar (Royal Shakespeare Company), Ham & The Piper (
Mark Norfolk, 2013)[21]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).[22] He played the lead role in Norfolk's film Ham and the Piper (2013),[23] for which he won the Best Lead Actor Award at the 2012 Peloponnesian International Film Festival, after having directed Ewart James Walters, Elisabeth Dahl and
Adam Sopp in Norfolk's play Naked Soldiers at the
Warehouse Theatre the previous year.[3] He later won a Best Actor at the Eko International Film Festival, Nigeria for his performance in Ham & The Piper. In 2011, Kissoon directed Norfolk's Where the Flowers Grow, again at the Warehouse Theatre.[24] 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.[25] 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). In 2016 Kissoon featured in the Unicorn Theatre's My Father, Odysseus written by
Timberlake Wertenbaker and later directed a stunning Hamlet[26] in a contemporary adaptation by Mark Norfolk. The Egyptian-themed production for Black Theatre Live[27] toured nationally in the UK and was noted for its narrative clarity as well as being the first all black company of Shakespeare's tragedy in Britain, including an all black creative team. Kissoon utilised the ancient African martial art form, Ka Zimba during rehearsals, employing professional drumming and movement practitioners to explore how the breath and the natural spirit combine to conjure up character. He and writer, Norfolk maintained their collaboration in 2018 with Kissoon directing Norfolk's play about the world of finance, Dare To Do (The Bear Maxim)[28][29] for Ka Zimba Theatre at the Space. Rehearsals took place in Notting Hill as a way of engaging with a traumatised community after the recent Grenfell Fire tragedy and they later teamed up again, producing staged readings of edgy new plays at the Muse Gallery & Performance Space in Notting Hill, London, including plays such as The Misclarification of Sulieman Dewani and short plays Dinner With Bono by Mark Norfolk based on the short story by Jackee Butesta Batanda and Birdbath by Leonard Melfi. In 2019 he also directed Norfolk's post Windrush 3-hander What A' Fe' Yu' which performed over three nights at the Actors Centre, Tower Street, London as part of its Johnthreehaw Initiative under the theme of Motherhoods.[30] The cast featured Linda Mathis, Benjamin Cawley and Lenox Kambaba in a narrative that explored family expectations and legacy in contemporary Britain and went on to perform at the Muse Gallery. More recently Kissoon has been appearing as Justice Wainwright on the west end in Agatha Christie's Witness For The Prosecution at County Hall, London.
Kissoon performed in the
BBC Radio 4 sitcom Rudy's Rare Records (2008–12) as Rudy's friend Clifton.[31][32] 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.
In 2001, Kissoon joined the cast of the BBC
soap opera, EastEnders, in which he played a friend of
Patrick Trueman (
Rudolph Walker). In 2015, Kissoon returned to EastEnders, this time playing the part of Judge Anthony Abego who oversees
Max Branning's (
Jake Wood) murder trial. A year later, he reprised his role of the judge, this time overseeing the murder trial of the killers of
Paul Coker (
Jonny Labey).
Work
Theatre
Vision of Youth
Tamburlaine The Great (as Tamburlaine), The Citizen's Company, dir. Keith Hack, 1972[11]