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The Prince of Egypt meets his destiny Main
stars By Marisa
de Silva On our arrival
however, the hustle and bustle took a turn from creating sets and
props to clearing up the stage and making a bee-line for costumes.
I saw complete gender transformations take place before my eyes
(what beautiful women and girls some of them made). Finally, after
the last touches on make-up, costumes and wigs were made, the show
was about to roll. Enter a gigantic
camel, minus eyelashes and peep-holes. The cute creature was a part
of the puppetry, one of the many unique features of this production
by St. Joseh's College. Now... on with
the show The opening
scene is undeniably poignant, depicting Moses's separation from
his mother and siblings and his handing over from Yocheved (his
mother) to the water nymph, who carries him through turbulent waters,
right up to the Queen's hands. Juanita The play moves
straight into the tortured slave sequence, where the slaves sing
"Deliver Us", a desperate plea asking God to rescue them
from the cruel hands of the Egyptians. Making his
debut on stage is Leon Arendtsz (19) who plays Rameses. And how
does this young man see his big role? "Rameses is an interesting
character to portray because he has a very colourful personality
with varied emotions ranging from happiness to anger, and hurt to
jealousy, so it's never monotonous. Jehan (director Jehan Aloysius)
made Bryce (Moses) and I do an in-depth analysis of our characters
and helped us build some chemistry as it's essential to have a good
rapport when working so closely with each other." "It's
been hard, especially as I have to sit for my A/L's in a few months
time but, all in all, it's been worth it," Leon adds. The play moves
on to the carefree antics of the two brothers. The chariot race
between the two is brought out to perfection, even though it's restricted
to the boundaries of the stage. From the lifelike sounds of the
horses to the structure of the chariots, it's quite apparent that
much attention and effort has gone into little details. "I feel
like I'm in the shade, when I look at all these beautiful girls,"
laughs Juanita Beling, indicating some of the female characters
in the play. "Taking part in the Prince of Egypt has been quite
an enjoyable experience," she comments, especially since it's
been a few years since her last musical. "It's ideal for an
evening out for the entire family," she adds. "We don't
see much family entertainment in theatre these days, but Music plays
a large role in the narration of the play, as it is also a very
effective medium in conveying the range of emotions depicted. The
challenge of adapting the music for this production fell to the
multi-talented Deshan Cooray. "I'm obsessed with fusion music
and so is the choir," he says passionately. When he listened
to the Original Sound Track of the POE and heard the blend of Arabic
and Middle Eastern music mixed with contemporary syncopation, he
was inspired. The 20-25 strong
backstage choral group, consisting of members of the Old Joes' Choir
and a few female guest singers, do a brilliant job in bringing to
life Deshan's melodies. The harmonies sometimes even break into
six parts. Each part does its bit to enrich each song and give depth
to this very spiritual soundtrack. Certain songs were sung in unison
so, I literally 'tore' them apart and added on harmonies, said Deshan.
"I owe it all to Rev. Sr. Veronice, for teaching me all I know,"
he says. The 'Prince
of Egypt', Bryce Kern (19), is a seasoned actor having taken part
in all-island Shakespeare Drama Competitions and other dramas both
here and abroad. But this is his first full-length production. "I
can personally relate to certain characteristics of Moses and there
are yet others that I can learn from and adopt to my everyday life,"
he says thoughtfully. He plays his
role with just the right mix of mischief and sensitivity. His character
demands many extreme emotions in a short span of time and he rises
to the challenge. "It's
quite embarrassing..." says Shanil Jayamanne (19), on dressing
up as the Pharoah's wife. Draped completely in golden garb, the
Queen (Shanil) discreetly punches a fellow actor in the stomach
on being made the butt of a joke against 'her highness'. He then
regains his 'royal' composure and gracefully glides on to the stage. "Playing
Jethro is more my scene as it requires me to sing, dance and be
merry" he says with a wide grin. It's a perfect cameo role
because he gets to do what he's best at and doesn't have to change
much from his true nature, he says. The main man
behind the scenes, Director Jehan says that he hates a pre-packaged
deal. "I hate what is called 'deadly theatre', where a director
gets caught in the same groove and tends to become repetitive and
monotonous. I'm taking something small and making it big but ensuring
that it's new and different," he says. POE being a
musical gives him more room to play around with and become inspired,
he says. Moving it from page to stage and adapting it from the epic
saga, cartoon and novel too has proved to be quite a challenge,
he adds. Since the backstage
crew, consisting of old Joes and professionals in the field, have
worked with Jehan on numerous occasions, everything should run smoothly,
he adds confidently. In short, the
Prince of Egypt will be a spectrum of colour, music and dance. The
action-packed, emotion-filled musical brings out many social and
family issues that could easily relate to the average person. See Moses take
on the mighty Pharoah and his army at the Lionel Wendt Theatre on
February 13, 14 and 15, to deliver his people to the promised land.
The box plan is available at the Wendt. Ranjith Page is the principal sponsor of the play with media sponsors being Dynavision, Sun FM, Gold FM and The Sunday Times. |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
work,
hammering nails, stripping 'rigifoam', making ribbon flowers etc.
Talk about a dedicated bunch!
Beling's
soothing lullaby, right throughout this exchange, creates just the
right mood for the moment.
this
drama is different."
