"Once on this Island"
is a Gorgeous Folk Opera About Color and Class in the Caribbean
"Once on This Island"
Book & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty, directed
by Michael Arden, choreographed by Camille A. Brown.
Circle in the Square, 235 W 50th St at 8th Avenue, New York City.
Tickets: (800) 447-7400; https://onceonthisisland.com/
Opened Dec 3, 2017.
 |
| "Once
on This Island" cast. Photo by Joan Marcus |
Don't arrive late to this charming,
surreal and politically sharp-edged play. When you claim your seats,
you may be almost touching distance from a sandy oval filled with
a few chairs, discarded plastic bags and cups, a real goat being
fed by a peasant guy, and a caged rooster that is grabbed and petted
by a peasant lady. A lake is edged in sandbags. The livestock will
disappear, but the sense of magical realism created by director
Michael Arden will not.
Lynn Ahrens' charming folk opera is about class and race, and the
way that gets muddled in places like the Caribbean, where the lighter
skinned descendants of European invaders now lord it over the dark-skinned
peasants. This is an island where four generations ago, Armand,
a Frenchman, arrived, built a fortune, married a white woman, and
fathered a son with a black peasant. Then at the time of Napoleon,
his son and other locals overthrew the colonials:
" Blacks fought against French
And the hated Napoleon.
They fought for their island
And finally won"
Armand fled. But he cursed his son and future generations that their
black blood would keep them forever on the island while their hearts
yearned for France. The mixed-race progeny couldn't leave, they
would not be welcome in France, so they stayed. They would ironically
be named the Beauxhommes, the beautiful men.
 |
| (L-R)
Norm Lewis as Agwe, Lea Salonga as Erzulie, Alex Newell as Asaka,
Hailey Kilgore as Ti Moune, and Tamyra Gray as Pape Ge. Photo
by Joan Marcus. |
The story tellers of the current day
would recount:
"They despise us
for our blackness,
It reminds them where they're from
The sad, sad tale
Of the Beauxhomme!"
Stephen Flaherty's music is a cacophony of gorgeous art songs, rock,
calypso, gospel. Sometimes it seems almost classical.
In the village, peasants dance with aesthetic fury to the gods,
turning in religious fervor to Camille A. Brown's Afro-Caribbean
choreography. "Ah, such powerful, such temperamental gods rule
our island. Asaka (Aurelia Williams), Mother of the Earth. Agwe
(Norm Lewis), God of Water. Erzulie (Lea Salonga), beautiful Goddess
of Love. And Papa Ge, (Tamyra Gray) sly Demon of Death."
We hear, "The murmur of the river and the roar of rain. And
if the Gods decide to send a hurricane we dance….we dance
to their everchanging moods." When there is thunder and lightening,
you feel the wind.
 |
| (L-R)
Mia Williamson as little girl, Alex Newall as Asaka, Hailey
Kilgore as Ti Moune. Photo by Joan Marcus. |
The people are superstitious. They
believe threats represented by Papa Ge (the terrific Tamyra Gray),
a creature with scales of flattened coca cola cans, and follow the
fantastic movements of Agwe (an otherworldly Norm Lewis) the water
god with a necklace of blue and white plastic bags and tin foil.
A young girl, Ti Moune (Hailey Kilgore, with an ethereal voice)
had been adopted by a kind couple after her parents died in a storm
years ago and is now a charming ingenue.
In the present, Daniel Beauxhomme (Isaac Powell),
has joined other mixed-race inheritors of plantations and wealth
in the upper class. "On the other side of the island, safe
behind high walls and iron gates, the grands hommes dance to a different
tune….They drink champagne. Entertain tourists at their fine
hotels. And tell their servants, 'Polish up the Mercedes!'…
The peasants labor and the grands hommes… eat!"
 |
| Hailey
Kilgore as Ti Moune. Photo by Joan Marcus. |
The jarring vision of that reality
occurs when Daniel (Isaac Powell) drives into the village in his
Mercedes, cleverly created by designer Dane Jaffrey with held pieces
of cardboard, a windscreen, flashlights.
Ti Moune has desires for more of life. Daniel drives fast in his
Mercedes. "A stranger! Racing down the beach, racing to places
I was meant to reach….My stranger, one day you'll arrive,
the car will stop, and in I'll hop. And off we'll drive…We'll
drive!"
But the car crashes in the rain. She saves him, falls in love, cares
for him, and when she learns after the accident that the "devil,"
Papa Ge, will take his life, she trades hers for his.
Daniel survives, goes back to the gated upper-class redoubt. She
follows him, sneaks into the château and shares his bed as
she helps his recovery.
 |
| Isaac Powell as Daniel. Photo by Joan
Marcus. |
He is fascinated: "Some girls
take courses at all the best schools in France, rising their horses
and learning their modern dance. They're clever and cultured and
worldly wise, but you see the world through a child's wide eyes."
But, "Some girls you marry, some you love."
It's thrilling at a big party when Ti Moune
is asked to dance and, after stumbling in high heels, throws them
off and does wild peasant-African movements. Servants join, going
back to their roots. But it is a wedding party, and she meets Andrea
(Alysha Deslorieux) , Daniel's fiancée, a light-skinned lady
in a yellow ball gown.
Ah, as we know in the real world, race and class take precedence.
This fable does not change the system it describes. But in this
case, it's not just race, it is color. Ahrens, who wrote "Ragtime,"
has dealt brilliantly before with the politics of race.
Philip Boykin as Ti-Moune's adoptive father Tonton Julian has an
impressive baritone. His wife Kenita R. Miller stands out with a
strong soprano. Lea Salonga exudes sweetness and a bit of magic
as the Goddess of Love.
 |
| Philip
Boykin as Tonton Julian. Photo by Joan Marcus. |
And I repeat that I loved Tamyra Gray
as Papa Ge, the slithering cruel unforgettable Demon of Death.
The production has a charm whose mood stays, and you smile as you
see departing audience members tracking sand onto the theater lobby
carpet.
