A tragic tale rollicking with positive energy, the 1990 musical Once on This Island gives the Little Mermaid and its sacrificial heroine a twist of Romeo and Juliet’s star-crossed conflict. Ola Ince’s forceful new production identifies its Caribbean setting with Haiti – an implicit reminder of a fragile natural world.
Ti Moune (a storming Gabrielle Brooks), a resourceful orphan rescued from a flood by a peasant couple, saves the life of Daniel, one of the island’s snooty aristocrats (the pale-skinned grands hommes). She offers the gods her own life in exchange for his.
Two young girls are on stage throughout (except for the sexy bit) to hear this legend of their island’s origins. There’s an innocence to the storytelling: the unassuming chime of Lynn Ahrens’ lyrics and Stephen Flaherty’s emotive melodies, piqued by what the era called “world music”. Yet in their adaptation of Rosa Guy’s 1985 novel My Love, My Love, the divide between the lovers’ worlds is sharpened by class, colourism and the long tail of colonial rule: “What can a peasant do for a grand homme but shine his shoes?”
Ince’s fluid, forward-facing production confronts the story’s cruelty and channels some terrific choreography by Kenrick “H20” Sandy. A tangled throng will suddenly snap into patterns, or hymn nature with curving hips and circling arms. On Georgia Lowe’s undecorated stage, it’s the cast that summon the environment – carolling like birds, waving like trees. Only gradually is the stage licked by flame or filled with the gods’ own tears.
These gods sport superb spangled headgear: the sea god’s galleon hat, or death’s purple topper, crowned with a diamond-eyed skull. Melissa Simon-Hartman’s costumes certainly deliver, and Lejaun Sheppard’s death is implacable yet disarmingly sweet-voiced. There are some stonking voices here: if this outdoor theatre had a roof, Anelisa Lamola’s earth goddess would raise it.
The hole in the story is its unworthy hero: Daniel (Stephenson Ardern-Sodje in shiny pyjamas) is swanky and patronising and folds under family pressure – he can’t deserve Ti Moune’s extraordinary sacrifice. Yet Brooks’s propulsive performance makes this tale urgent and resonant. She gives every number big finale energy and her voracious, hurtling curiosity – eyes gleaming, braids flying – is always stirring.
At Regent’s Park Open Air theatre, London, until 10 June
