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Children of Eden
Presented by: One Community Church
Venue: One Community Church Auditorium, Blackburn
Reviewer: Adam Rafferty - Theatre People Editor
Date Reviewed: 19th July 2008
Children of
Eden
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and this production - can be summed up simply with one word.
‘Unusual’. But in the good sense of the word - that is to mean
‘extraordinary’ and ‘remarkable’.
Children of Eden
is ‘unusual’ for a number of reasons, one of which is that as a show
that has never seen the spotlight of a Broadway stage, it is still
reportedly amongst the top 20 most frequently licensed properties of
publisher Music Theatre International – quite extraordinary. This
will have a lot to do with the religious plot line, based on the
first nine chapters of Genesis; which being part of the Old
Testament means it reflects not only Christian beliefs, but Orthodox
and Jewish beliefs as well. Combine that with the fact the show has
a very flexible format allowing small and large cast sizes and you
have a recipe for success with churches, synagogues and schools the
world over.
To dwell on Children of Eden’s all encompassing appeal though
could belittle the fact that the show itself is very well structured
and contains some truly glorious music from Wicked composer
Stephen Schwartz (in fact, Children of Eden displays where
Wicked got some of its chord changes from!)
This particular production is ‘unusual’ though because it is
performed literally in the One Community Church’s sermon area (and
as a final encore performance, was to replace evening mass on the
night following this review) – quite remarkable, considering most
churches don’t have enough space or inclination to allow for the
production of a full book musical under their chapel roof!
But the One Community Church in Blackburn is a modern set up - in
fact from the outside it looks more like a pokies venue than a
church (a cunning ploy!), but inside its auditorium the movable
seating is surprisingly comfortable and the organisation itself very
welcoming indeed. What’s more, this extraordinarily ‘unusual’
production of Children of Eden has no dedicated orchestra at
all. Instead, the cast play all the required instruments to
accompany themselves throughout the story. Unusual. Extraordinary.
Remarkable!
Director James Cutler and Musical Director Luigi Lucente have taken
advantage of the ‘unusual’ playing space and through a vision of
having nothing but a small cast of simply costumed players working
with their instruments in front of a colourfully lit cyc, they
create every scene, setting and sound required for the two epic
tales (one per act) of Adam, Eve, Cain & Abel; and Noah & the
flood.
The trend of having your cast also play the role of the orchestra is
becoming familiar nowadays with the likes of the recent London
and Broadway productions of Sweeney Todd and Company
setting the standard – and to a lesser extent, Sam Mendes’ version
of Cabaret, where the Kit Kat girls played instruments.
However, this production displays the most inclusive example of this
model I have seen on an amateur stage in
Melbourne
(Fab Nobs’ Return to the Forbidden Planet did feature cast
members as instrumentalists also I will admit, but they were backed
by a costumed band and therefore weren’t entirely reliant on their
own playing skills, as in this performance.)
Cutler and Lucente have taken the idea of the cast accompanying
themselves to an even greater level with this production. As the
cast are expected to play all the biblical animals when they are
‘named’ in the first act and then as they enter Noah’s ark in the
second, the Co-Directors have made use of the cast’s busy hands by
having the instruments help to create the shape and image of the
animals. Percussion clicking sticks become the ears of a kangaroo,
the beater or stick from a glockenspiel when held to the head
becomes a unicorn horn, and most impressively, a saxophone becomes
an elephant’s trunk in a full size replication that received a
spontaneous round of applause from the audience.
Many of this production’s performers astound with the versatility of
their instrumental skills, but none more so than Evan Englezos who
played the piano, bass and acoustic guitar, glockenspiel and harp
amongst numerous other instruments throughout the show. Evan’s
portrayal of Abel was also impressive, proving that Evan has mastery
of his vocal instrument to boot.
David Peake, as Adam and Noah, also showed diverse musical skills
and brought incredible strength and warmth to both roles. Peake’s
portrayal of Adam as initially goofy and then progressively stronger
was balanced perfectly and was vocally dynamic especially in the
difficult ‘A World Without You’. Likewise, his depiction of Noah was
well meted and beautifully touching in ‘The Hardest Part of Love’ –
a duet with Father.
Gerard Lane
played Father in a strong and vocally confident performance. Lane
had the difficult task to appear as though he was significantly
senior to the other cast members, who are in reality his peers,
while at times sliding back amongst them as a member of the
ensemble, but he achieved this through a sturdy physical performance
and dignified interpretation of the role.
Emma Caldwell as Eve and Mama Noah proved she could keep up with her
contemporaries when it comes to instrumentation, but really stood
out with her vocal performance – particularly of the show’s most
well known number, ‘Spark of Creation’. Emma used her physicality
deftly to depict the varying ages of her characters – from the
mischievous young Eve to the elderly Eve on her deathbed – and to
straddle the show’s varying musical styles.
As her fugitive son Cain, Adrian Portell gave an appropriately tough
edge to the boy who kills his brother in jealousy and then softened
his performance aptly as the more loving Japheth who hides his
wife-to-be Yonah, (played by Ella Henry, in a delightful debut
performance) who bears ‘the mark of Cain’, on the ark.
Adrian’s
strong lead on the piano also held together a lot of the orchestral
performance of the show.
If there were a weakness in this production, it would be the lack of
conductor to keep the instrumental performance in unison. While this
wasn’t a major issue throughout most of the performance, numbers
that relied more on percussive instrumentation than piano did seem
to be without a solid foundation.
Sets for this production were non-existent, but John and James
Cleverley’s Lighting Design and Direction created moods, ambience
and the essence of locations that added significantly to the overall
impact of the show. Considering the vast cyc and availability of
projection facilities, it might have been nice to include some other
visual stimulus to the show, even if just a show logo for the
opening and closing of each act.
The highlights of this production were two-fold for me. The first
was the quality of the performance from all the cast as an ensemble,
as their work together as one intuitive group without the assistance
of a conductor was simply extraordinary – underlined by their
stunning choral work, particularly in the title number.
The other highlight was the direction and performance of the number
‘Close to Home’ where Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel sing together as a
family. The extraordinary symbolism of them all singing in
counterpoint and helping to play the song on the piano was extremely
moving.
The One Community Church should be extremely proud of this foray
into producing a musical as, with the no doubt significant
contributions of James Cutler and Luigi Lucente (and their cast),
they have created a piece of art that stands out as one of the
musical theatre highlights of 2008 so far.
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