A More Fair Fantastical Retelling

I’ve never been to a play that made me cry before. Maybe it was my attachment to this characters or solely how great the performers were, but whatever it was, it made for one compelling story. Truthfully, I was wary at first. There were some pauses in the music, which I know were intentional from what I have seen in rehearsals that I’ve dropped into, but I kept waiting for someone to fill them. Everyone looked really cool though- Charlotte and Giana especially. The backdrop looked great and the costumes were colorful but clearly distinguished the peasants from the rich. But I recognized some pre-opening night jitters and had a hard time seeing my peers as their characters. But after Maggie’s song, I was watching the Jewel of the Antilles. Her costume looked great under the lights and I believed that this was Agwe- that this was the gods enacting their will. I liked the gods, but I kind of wish there was more of them. I picture them as these Hercules-esque characters,  which I think was achieved well through the positioning of them on the pedestals and their various poses, but I don’t know, maybe I’m just so used to the gods in our adaptation putting their two sense in every other minute, but I wanted to hear more from them. But admittedly somewhat hypocritically, I appreciated that they weren’t so in your face. I think Agwe and Asaka were more distant in this retelling than is portrayed in the book, but I liked how Erzulie and Papa Ge took the lead. Erzulie’s direct intervention into Desiree’s life paints her as a fairy godmother character. She’s the good guy among her more meddling, self-serving peers. Papa Ge was perfectly evil, but not entirely despicable. She acted more as a dose of reality than as an ever- looming reminder of impending tragedy. The gods are really crucial members of Desiree’s story, especially to me, so I really appreciated the work that went into the nuances of their arm foldings and facets of their personality.

My favorite part of this entire show would have to be Tonton Julian and Mama Euralie. They, Tonton especially, will do anything for Desiree. They love her unconditionally and unabashedly. I think the book makes it seem as if it was logical to leave her parents behind. We see things more from Desiree’s side and we root for her to find her dreams, but Once On This Island shows both sides if not focus on her parents’ perspective. Tonton Julian risked his life to bring news to a man who didn’t care if he lived or died. He risked his life to help save that of a boy only because Ti Moune asked him to. They gave their livelihoods to this girl and she just shoved them away. He was still sarcastic, but so,so caring. The same can be said for Mama Euralie. Her “conversation” with Ti Moune in Pray was sooooooo good- like so good. It was a dose of reality that I missed in My Love, My Love. But they let their daughter go to chase a boy who they do not trust because they love her and they can't stand to send her out on her own without even their reluctant blessing. What killed me in the end was when the kneeled over Ti Moune and promised that they would love her forever and that they were still together. This became not a failed love story, but a story of the strength of the love of a family and how they will always be there for you even when you feel as if you have no one to fall back on. Ti Moune was so obsessed with achieving this dream and it wasn’t until she died that we can all see that she had already achieved her great love story so many years before. It was a bittersweet ending that stayed true to its Little Mermaid influence.

I think the play may give Daniel too much of an easy out. The song he had was too pretty and made me feel sympathy for him even though I didn’t want to. He gave into the pressure of his family, which shows that he had a weak backbone, but the storyline made it seem as if it wasn’t entirely unwarranted of him to kick her out on the street. He’s a weakling who wouldn’t marry her, but when she held that knife to him, it gave him an out. The whole scene reminded me of that scene in Ella Enchanted when she’s ordered to kill the prince and when she overcomes the very real power that was being held over her only to have the prince so horrified that she had raised a knife to him in the first time. Except this time, there was no happy ending. Even though this play embraced magical realism perhaps even more than the book, it stayed closer to reality. It didn’t hide Desiree’s naivety behind clouds of superstition and was not afraid to paint her as ignorant. They also gave Daniel some more redeeming qualities. The story showed the gods as all-powerful, but also rested the final decision in Desiree’s hands. It removed some of the extremes of the story and allowed the story to be seen from all sides. It was no longer just about Desiree and her unchangeable fate. It was about her family and Daniel’s family and our roles in determining our own destiny. I really liked it even though it left me with a post-cry headache. It think everyone that helped with the play should be immensely proud of their efforts.

Fate, Destiny, and Musicality Make for a Great Show

Fate and Destiny:

- “But the wealthy in towns, protected from the excesses of the gods’ furies, claim to be   masters of their own destiny. The peasants accept the the will of the gods as theirs.”

-This is on the first page of the novel. It is made pretty clear from the beginning of the book that for the purposes of this story, the gods are very real, sentient beings.

-The peasants in particular have pledged their loyalty to their will.

-Everything that happens to them is a direct result of the gods’ plans for them and they accept whatever is that life throws at them because of the belief that there are so far superior to them.

-The gods control everything. All of her decisions, everything she does, is because of a plan they set in motion.

-She goes to visit Daniel because she “[has] been sent by the gods.”

- She begs them for help, convinced that they will assist her- “Agwe you who are responsible for my life.”

-This is not just a belief. They are very real to these people. The book is magical realism- we see the gods and we watch them interact with each other, albeit briefly. “Agwe roared.” and  “To her watchful eyes, a shadow appeared against the outside darkness, a shadow that became thicker, larger, then formed itself into a man…”

Formation of Idea:

- I wanted the gods to be telling the story because that’s Desiree’s reality. But just look at that word they. They who? The gods are an ever present power looming over her world. It’s that untouchable, unreachable, otherworldly they that got me interested in their role in the story. We see bits and pieces of these gods’ complex personalities, but we never get the full picture. We know that Erzulie is “vain” and that Agwe is “brash-sounding,” but what are their motivations. I wanted to know what they are thinking. What is running through their heads? What prompted Agwe’s rant? I wanted to answer these questions. I also wanted to run with this theme of destiny. Desiree’s actions are all the result of destiny, or at least that’s what she thinks. I took that literally in our interpretation. The gods control everything. They oversee all decisions. A person’s fate is the result of the gods’ ministrations, not their own free will. I came up with the idea of placing them in an office. They file away people’s fates and make daily decisions on how their lives are going to go, how happy they are going to be, how much food they will have to eat. They are ruling these people. The world and its people are the gods’ “pawns, [their] game pieces.” The office setting provided a clinical distance between these people and the gods’ decisions. Everything is up to them and everything, to them, is just another business decision and the only motivation is their own self-satisfaction. I named our script G.O.D.S: The Global Overseers of Decisions Service. This separated the gods from the world entirely and placed them in this otherworldly, but so relatable and recognizable, location. We then began to develop our characters.

Character Choices:

• This is a book of dualities.
• Papa Ge and Erzulie- tone(high and fast vs. low and slow)
• Costume choices- hints of nature and otherworldliness under business casual
• Asaka is preachy and ver pro-earth, but she’s young. In the story, she has a depressed period that leads to her killing a lot of people. I picture her young.
• Everyone has relatable human characteristics- poking fun at the ridiculousness of the situation. These people are selfish and are motivated by their own emotions, but are in charge of literally everything.
• Underlying conflict was between Agwe and Asaka. Desiree is a ploy to get them back together.
• “infidelity”- mentioned in the book in passing, but I latched onto because, well, I have a preference for the dramatic.
• Quotes to show Agwe-Asaka relationship through our only glimpse of them in the story-  "It's you who causes Asaka pain, Agwe. It's your rage that destroys her."
  "The houses they must build, their ships, the statues that must be carved, the charcoal they have to burn. It is they who are thoughtless." Agwe
  "Gasps from villagers who had lost homes, lost lands, lost families in the most recent storm."
  "These gods locked as they were in their world of power and vanity did not care about her, about the peasants." Desiree's thought
• Agwe wants to protect Desiree for Asaka- Asaka grows attached to her
• Erzulie- sort of a ring-leader; wants the best for Asaka- " I am Erzulie, your loa of love. I do not hold you to that vow you made on that stressful night." - Kind, forgiving- we drew parallels
• All think of people as less than them even if they don’t hate them.

Personal Character Choices:

• Asaka is the earth. She cares about how her fellow "workers" treat the environment even though we know that she is responsible for the starvation and misfortune experienced by the humans on earth. I worked hard to develop a character that is a tiny bit hypocritical, but not entirely unlikeable. She's a little whiny and she is depressed. She cries at the end of scene one and cries "everyone leaves me." She's a little overdramatic and fond of storming in and laying done some serious criticism of her peers. She's not afraid to shame, but when confronted with the same questioning of her methods, she kind of blows up or shuts down(the very beginning and her storming out of the office after her conflict with Erzulie.)

Staging:

• Set up as an office. Asaka and Agwe on one side and Papa Ge and Erzulie on the other. We paired up these opposing pairs to further show their differences as they stood next to each other.
• There is a "portal" to Earth. There is a projector hooked up to a computer and we even had technical problems. Such an important task as checking up on the status of earth is made into a small inconvenience. We wanted to focus on the irony of the situation and how that gives way to a universe of magical realism.

Just Another Day at the Office… That Controls the World

The gods all work in an office. It’s called G.O.D.S. They wear business casual while deciding who gets to be in love, who has enough to eat, who gets to live. I don’t actually remember where the idea for this came from. I had just watched Hercules so that probably has a lot to do with it. The whole concept is kind of ridiculous, but awesome (Well at least, I think so.) I wanted the gods to be telling the story because that’s Desiree’s reality. The gods control everything. All of her decisions, everything she does, is because of a plan they set in motion. But just look at that word they. They who? The gods are an ever present power looming over her world. It’s that untouchable, unreachable, otherworldly they that got me interested in their role in the story. My Love, My Love is magical realism so we know that at least in this fictional reality that the gods are real. We get glimpses of them at the summoning and in Erzulie’s presence as the lady with the comb. We get snippets of their characters in the dying but still beautiful earth and the constantly raging waters. But we don’t know what’s going on up there. What is running through their heads? What prompted Agwe’s rant? I wanted to answer these questions. I also wanted to run with the idea of destiny. Desiree’s actions are all the result of destiny, or at least that’s what she thinks. We took that literally. The gods control everything. They oversee all decisions. A person’s fate is the result of the gods’ ministrations, not their own free will. Erzulie plans weddings centuries ahead because she knows what’s going to happen. Papa Ge’s character especially shows that the gods are above all of this human nonsense. Establishing that and then having them struggle over Desiree’s situation shows enough of a contrast that we tell the audience that this is a special incidence- that something about this girl is unusual, special. I really like how they are in an office. I think it’s ironic and ridiculous enough that we can make a scene that had a dramatic storyline but was able to support buckets of one-liners.  

We’ve, unfortunately, lost a member. It sucks because this part was literally written for Michael, but hopefully everything will work out well in the end. (After all, my character can technically send the universe an email that makes sure it does.) I’m really proud of all of the progress we have made with our characters. When writing the script, we all got a good idea of who are characters were and what they would say, what would anger them, what they would scoff at.  We were sure early on of their identities. It’s really helped when we have been trying to figure out ways to establish our desks as ours. I think our tones are on point and we have a good sense of where we are on stage even if the stage directions are slightly ambiguous. We do, though, have an awful problem with pacing. We are all apparently incapable of saying a sentence normally. Part of the problem probably comes from running through lines at a breakneck speed to get them memorized, but seriously it was only twelve minutes. Twelve! We have eight pages of dialogue that only came out to twelve minutes. We really need to slow down and I think we can add a couple of minutes. Even if we slow down, we are going to need to add some dialogue. We got into such a groove for the scenes that we do have that we are having trouble figuring out where and when we should add lines. We made some progress today, and because we know our characters so well, I’m not too worried.

The biggest success of this entire project is the script. I’m so happy with it. I didn't think we could pull it out, but we did and we made it through. A lot of funny parts were the result of ad-libbing when we were getting a feel for the characters, but on that fateful Saturday morning when Charlie and I were working for the long haul, we made an epic eight page script. I am in love with it and our concept. I think our idea is solid and, even though we humanize the gods and put faces to them, it shows that they were in control in My Love, My Love. We get a new perspective by putting it in an office. Literally world-changing decisions are happening in something so recognizably human. It pokes fun, but also allows for our characters to express opinions on what's happening in the book and draw connections without having to monologue. I think it's inventive and hilarious and I’m mighty proud of it.