by Helena Allum

“Boy yuh have it!” This was John Agitation’s comment on seeing Felix Edinborough perform for the first time as the Pierrot Grenade.

And it may well be used to describe Felix’s other undertakings: playwright, teacher, principal, UN observer for human rights violations in Haiti, chief examiner for the Caribbean Examinations Council, cuatro player, director of the Catholic Communications Studio, emcee, Best Village judge.

Add to the list, brother, husband, wine connoisseur and most traveled man.

He is best known for his role as Pierrot Grenade and his opening lines:
“ Good evening every lady and every gentleman
I am the Pierrot Grenade by name
And spelling is my favourite game
But I do not spell letter for letter
Oh no, that so is for ABC school teacher
My method is a thousand times better
You see every word for me is a story
And sometimes I even use allegory...”

Felix recalls as a child his mother admonishing him for behaving like a pierrot. He did not know what she meant, but it seems as though the spirit of that “lovable wandering poet” brought to the Caribbean by the French, really resided within Mrs Edinborough’s son, for it was the pierrot grenade he used as his narrator many years later when he wrote a Carnival skit for his community of Petit Valley for the Best Village competition. “I used my own imagination and what people told me the pierrot was like, to write the play.”

Not satisfied that any of those auditioning for the part of narrator was true to the character of pierrot grenade he did it himself. That was in 1979 and that was the start of his alter ego as that master speller.

One year later he and Paul Keens Douglas scripted the parts of a play Mas’ in Yuh Mas’ depicting a battle between the Pierrot and the Midnight Robber. Of course Felix was the Pierrot Grenade a role he again took on in his next play King Jab Jab a satire on the government of the day.

His role as this character was confirmed when in 1983 Paul Keens Douglas started Talk Tent. Since then Felix has been on that post-carnival show every year. In the early years of doing it he continued to research the character, talking especially to old people who knew what the character used to be.

Apart from Agitation he remembers with gratitude Jocelyn Sealy lending him a book written by Andrew Carr about the character. Jean Sue Wing also lent him a book from the museum. He learnt that the original pierrot grenade spoke patois with some English words. Trinidad Carnival a book written by Errol Hill was also a source of information. Using his imagination and these bits of documentation he resurrected the character.

Doing so was natural to him. In Petit Valley where he grew up the people spoke patois and English. When they spoke patois they did so with what Felix describes as a “broad accent.” In the nearby Cameron village patois was spoken.

He adopted this accent for the dialect English he used for the character. Over the years the responses he has received has confirmed that his imagination was right on track. His accent is really the one used by the original pierrot grenade.

As has happened with other local characters, the pierrot is in demand not only as an item on a programme or emcee at shows for carnival but also at Awards Ceremonies for businesses. At these ceremonies he uses satire on the actual awards being given or on a recipient’s name. He admits to preparing some of this beforehand but also liking to improvise on the spot. “It gives it a freshness,” he says with a smile.

Whenever Felix is asked about this carnival character he plays, he always takes time to explain that there is the Pierrot and there is the Pierrot Grenade. A concise history is part of the liner notes of his album and is also the first of 28 tracks on the compact disc. The other tracts are spellbinding stories.

This history tells of an origin in Italy and over to France and across to the Caribbean. The style of dress and speech is explained: “When the French came to the Caribbean they naturally brought their theatre with them so that when carnival came to Trinidad and the street characters began to mimic what they saw among the French bourgeoise the Pierrot came onto the streets and into the carnival. ….The Pierrot Grenade as the name implies is the Pierrot who came from Grenada and is said to mimic the more elaborately dressed Pierrot.

In developing the character Felix admits to introducing rhyme into his verses to make them more interesting. “The speeches of the various carnival characters all have their own rhythm. Without it they fall flat.”

The last Pierrot Grenade, he knew was a man named Archibald from Siparia. Felix has trained some young girls originally from Mucurapo Girls’ RC School who have performed with him at Talk Tent and are writing CXC exams this year. Two sisters admit to performing at home when the family has guests. He is pleased with them and looks forward to some young men taking up the craft.

Felix’s schoolmaster father was from Tabaquite and his mother from Flanagin Town. He is the seventh of eight children. He laughs as he recalls that after moving to Petit Valley from Rio Claro, a move to get the children to access college education, his peers at Belmont Boys’ Intermediate and St Mary’s College still considered him a country boy. Petit Valley was country. “From the time you pass Four Roads was country, total bush.”

On leaving secondary school he taught at Mucurapo Boys’ RC for one year, then went on to Mausica Training College. After a stint at Belmont Intermediate he went to the University of the West Indies where he studied French and English.

In his quest to master French he went to Martinique to teach and later to France to do post-graduate work. On two-year scholarship in France with him were Maurice Brash and now Editor of Catholic News June Johnston. He chose to attend University of Bordeaux. Here he remembers fondly the weekend outings organised by the university visiting the châteaux, learning about wine-making and getting to sample the best wines.

Having finished his post-graduate studies in one year he embarked on his Phd on “The Novel in Ghana”. When his original two-year scholarship was up he had to return home without finishing this latest study.
Although disappointed he looked at the bright side of coming home and settling into marriage. While in England he married his Trinidadian girlfriend Judy whom he had met while at Mausica College.

Often it is difficult to tell when Felix is serious and when he is joking. Whenever he speaks about Judy his sincerity is clear. He still misses her. She died suddenly in 1982 as the result of an aneurysm in her brain. “That was a big loss for me, “ he says.

Although he settled into teaching at Belmont Boys’ his stay there was interrupted as he went off as an exchange teacher to England, and later (1994) as a UN/OAS observer for human rights violations in Haiti after a military coup in which President Aristide was thrown out.

Here again his study of French and his knowledge of patois were put to good use. He worked in radio communications keeping the other observers all over Haiti abreast of news, all the time using codes. In 2002 he returned to Haiti as one of the elections monitors.

Now in Trinidad he is continuing his work in communications as Director of Catholic Communications, using every opportunity to bring good news. Felix whether in his role as Pierrot Grenade or observer, teacher or principal continues his spell-binding work. His compact disc is a treasure and a great year round gift.