Magical performances at ‘The Prince of Egypt’
It was a glittering night for the girls of Ladies’ College when old and young flocked to the hall, weaving the school colours of red and white into the audience milling around. The senior school was bringing to the stage the biblical story of Moses with the dramatic, adventurous musical, ‘The Prince of Egypt.’
They had managed to bring to that staid hall all the antique glory and splendour of the land of the Pharaohs. Two majestic giant structures of Anubis flanked the stage and hieroglyphs, black on gold, decorated the apron. All eyes were strained as the lights went out; how exactly will the ‘ladies’ make their progress to Mount Sinai?
The rendition, directed by Jehan Bastians and Neidra Williams, showed promise from the first moment. It began with the sad plight of the Hebrews under the yoke of the Pharaohs. Their dramatic lament, the song ‘Deliver Us’, sounded soulfully as they worked together, dodging or falling under the brutality of the guards’ whips.
The massacre of the Hebrew baby boys by the Pharaoh Seti set a violent, brutal tone for the beginning, highlighting the cruel reign. But as Yocheved (Diyaana Edirisuriya) sets her baby son Moses afloat on the Nile among rushes, there is great hope for the future interlaced into the ‘River Lullaby’ alongside the poignancy.
The central character of Moses was played by Jessica Jayasuriya. Moses, after being adopted by the Pharaoh, leads a princely existence. The crisis starts when he follows the escaping Midianite woman, Tzipporah, who has been offered him as a concubine. He comes across his real siblings Aaron and Miriam outside the palace. At first he refuses to believe the truth they speak of their shared parentage. But the moment of reckoning comes when all of it is confirmed by a dream and by the Pharaoh himself.
Jessica portrayed well the confusion, angst and self-deploring (the central moment of emotional crisis) as on top of the revelation she accidentally kills a guard who harasses a Hebrew, and runs away to the desert.
In the desert Moses saves three girls from brigands, only to find out that they are the three sisters of Tzipporah. At the camp of the girls’ father, Moses is made welcome.
The lively tune of ‘Through Heaven’s Eyes’ sung around the fire at night was a colourful performance that gave the chance for the girls to fan out their skirts and do some lively footwork to the infectious eastern tune of Ai-lai-lai/ lai-le-lai-lai.
A comparison here with the original DreamWorks animated musical would seem unfair. It is obviously not possible to recreate physically the nostalgic biblical landscapes, the magical buoyancy of the animated characters – and least of all the miracles. But the LC cast managed to maximize on the dimensions not available to DreamWorks: the interaction with the audience and the physical closeness.
The comical quartet of priests may not have been exactly as twisted and hilarious as your squabbling Disney (or DreamWorks) villain, but they came close to it.
The choreography was well done, from the beautifully synchronized group scenes that represented teeming humanity- from vast sites of labouring slaves in Egypt right down to the Exodus. The rippling river Nile and Moses’s staff which transforms into an Egyptian cobra- sinuously dancing to haunting music- were uncannily memorable.
The last segment of the musical is the most intriguing, dark, impressive and spell binding, when Moses clashes with the Egyptians to free the Hebrews.
The dramatic frenzy of the song ‘The Plagues’, when the first nine plagues of Egypt are unleashed on Egyptians, does not deter the Pharaoh to grant freedom to the Hebrews. This is followed by the tenth plague- the death of the first-borns including Ramses’ own son.
The moment when Moses and the Hebrews are chased by Ramses and his army was full of suspense and dramatic tension, even for those who knew the Book of Exodus, as both groups cleft though the audience and jumped on to the stage from the front.
The finale was heart rending: a mellow red crack of dawn- a silent one following all that tempestuous calamity, when Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. It was a moment ripe of meaning; a climax beautiful and poignant because it marks more of a beginning than an end: an epilogue only to a great saga.
Following the curtain calls, the cast and crew hugged and there were happy tears flowing freely. No one would have thought they were being carried away. It was undoubtedly a brilliant, if not a magical, performance, taking the audiences to a long-ago world from the scriptures, bringing it alive through a wonderful prism of fantasy.
Scenes from the play. Pix by Nilan Maligaspe