by Tony Kushner
Directed by Robert McQueen
An Acting Up Stage Company in association
with Obsidian Theatre Company Presentation
at the Berkeley Street Downstairs Theatre
January 21-February 12, 2012

            Tony Kushner’s chamber opera (with music by Jeanine Tesori) is skilfully wrought and is beautifully performed. Its story is not at all unique but it is pungent with social significance as it revolves around the self-contained, stoical, uncompromising figure of Caroline Thibodeaux (Arlene Duncan), a black housekeeper for a white Jewish family in Louisiana in 1963. The era is one of JFK (just prior to his assassination), Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Right Movement, but this background turbulence that sends ripples through the plot is subsidiary to the emotional turbulence of the central tale where nine-year old Noah Gellman (Michael Levinson) is struggling to deal with the world after his birth-mother’s death from cancer and his stepmother’s new rules and where Caroline is also struggling to keep afloat emotionally and economically. Caroline (like the majority of Americans of her era) is especially tense about the lack of money. Her three under-privileged children (Kaya Joubert Johnson, Derrick Roberts, and Sabryn Rock) add to her anxiety. These are really ordinary characters struggling against extraordinary circumstances, but what heightens the musical is the manner of its tale-telling, for Kushner has seized upon the connotations of “change” and spun out a musical that is all the more powerful for being eclectic in its musical style.

            The smallest connotation of “change” is in the coins (the loose change) that Noah leaves carelessly in his clothes pockets. But the larger connotations have to do with the socio-political change in America and the radical changes in Caroline’s life—first with her husband’s service overseas during the war, then his return home that quickly sours with violence and dissatisfaction, and following this, with Caroline’s running afoul of Rose Stopnick Gellman (Deborah Hay), the new wife to clarinet-playing, emotionally distant Stuart Gellman (Cameron MacDuffee). The domestic situation and its ensuing conflicts, complications, and resolutions are but the textbook realism of the piece—and they are fine by this standard for a musical, for they are given added weight by Grandma and Grandpa Gellman (Mary Pitt and Nicholas Rice) and added texture by grizzled, soused, socialist Mr. Stopnick (Shawn Wright) —but what is truly extraordinary is the blend of fantasy with this realism by theatrical devices that incorporate surrealism. So, there are such things as a singing Washing Machine (Londa Lormond), singing Dryer (Sterling Jarvis), a mournful Bus (Sterling Jarvis again) showing up dramatically to announce and lament JFK’s murder, a performing Radio (the trio of Neema Bickersteth, Jewelle Blackman, and Alanna Hibbert dressed and sounding like the Supremes), and a spectacular Moon (Neema Bickersteth) who is an exotic cabaret figure in herself in addition to being a chorus and symbol of change).

            In a striking way, Caroline proves to be postmodernist musical collage, referencing everything from Motown and Mozart to rhythm and blues, jazz, blues, gospel, and folk song. The songs are cleverly arranged and distributed, and the lyrics never succumb to mawkishness or facile patterns. While not exactly elaborate or opulent verbally, they are intelligent, purposeful, and passionate. Moreover, this production presents them superbly, starting off with Arlene Duncan’s currents of rage, helplessness, and dignity, continuing with the swirling melodies for young Michael Levinson and the Thibodeaux children (with one special highlight coming from Sabryn Rock who sounds Emmie’s teenage disquietude), the marvellous euphony of Hibbert, Blackman, and Bickersteth, and hitting a stunning climax with Sterling Jarvis’s strong lament for JFK and then a final climax with Arlene Duncan’s aria that exalts Caroline’s inner strength and indestructible character.

            The shortcomings in the show are Kushner’s: his lyrics seem to issue from his clever head rather than from a spontaneous heart. They also sometimes swell with calculated declaration rather than with organic musical exploration, and though Caroline is an imperishably strong figure at the end, she is sometimes nudged aside by Kushner’s interest in the social period. However, there is no denying the efficacy and power of the music or this excellent production—surely one of the very best representations of the modern American musical in Canada.

photos: Joanna Akyol

pic 1: Arlene Duncan as Caroline

pic 2 (L-R): Jewelle Blackman, Arlene Duncan, Alana Hibbert, and Neema Bickersteth

pic 3: Arlene Duncan (Caroline) and Michael Levinson (Noah)




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