Once on this Island is structured as a story within a story, with the people telling the story take up roles in it. A young girl frightened by the storm is distracted from her fear by a story about another frightened young girl. This girl, named Ti Moune, was saved from a storm by the gods, and given to an older couple to raise as their own. Much like the mermaid Ariel, she falls in love with a man from another world who is injured while passing through her own. Ti Moune cares for Daniel until he is sent home, then follows him because she believes she is the only one who can heal him. They live happily together for a while, until Daniel informs her that even though he loves her, a man from the upper class can never marry a peasant girl. But despite the tragic ending, Ti Moune is still the hero of her own story, a story that is continually retold to inspire other little girls to be the hero of their own stories.*
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| photo by Roosevelt Mansfield |
This Ahrens/Flaherty score is fun and catchy and beautiful, filled with rhythms from the Caribbean and Africa that make it difficult to sit still while watching. Music Director Sanford Moore leads the small but mighty five-piece on-stage band, partially visible sitting just behind the performance space. I'm not sure how Artistry lured Broadway performer Nikki Long here, but her choreography is absolutely thrilling. Such energy and bold movements, with an authentic Afro-Caribbean feel. And this talented cast performs it with a joy and passion that's infectious.
Kelli Foster Warder directs the piece (and provides some additional choreography) with beautiful staging on the circular raised platform on stage that's the color of sand, reaching the heights of emotion. Leading this talented cast is Antonisia Collins, who is absolutely radiant as Ti Moune. Her clear and lovely voice rises to the rafters, and her emotions can be read on her face and in her physicality even from the back of the theater. Other highlights include Gabe Woodard as her sweet but ultimately unworthy Daniel; Charla Marie Bailey and Darius Gillard as Ti Moune's adoptive parents; Erin Nicole Farsté, Adair Gilliam, Nambi Mwassa, and Ninchai Nok-Chiclana as the four fabulous gods; and 8th grader Mathias Brinda in a charming performance as the little girl to whom the story is told and the young Ti Moune. The cast is dressed in a gorgeous array of full skirts and loose pants in bright colors and floral patterns that might inspire you to plan your winter getaway to the tropics, as will the lush greenery on stage (scenic design by Eli Sherlock, costume design by Zamora Simmons).
Once on this Island tells a familiar story in a new way, for a wholly entertaining show that also weaves in issues of colonialism, slavery, classism, and colorism. It's a story of hope, of love, of faith that things will be better, of the importance of telling our own stories. I'll leave you with the inspiring final song of the show.*
We tell the story
We tell the story!
Life is why
We tell the story
Pain is why
We tell the story
Love is why
We tell the story
Grief is why
We tell the story
Hope is why
We tell the story
Faith is why
We tell the story
You are why
We tell the story
Why we tell the story
Why we tell the story
Why we tell the story
So I hope that you will tell this tale tomorrow
It will help your heart remember and relive
It will help you feel the anger and the sorrow
And forgive
For all the ones we leave
And we believe
Our lives become
The stories that we weave
