The Color Purple must close 6 November. Image by Belinda Strodder Photography.
‘Too Beautiful For Words’ is not just the title of a song from the first act of The Color Purple sung by Shug Avery (Thando Sikwila) to Celie (Jayme-Lee Hanekom). It is also more than likely an accurate description of your post-show feelings. You know you just experienced something special, but aren’t quite ready to process what you just saw or put it into words just yet.
Every now and then a show comes along which is completely deserving of all the hype and excitement surrounding it. The Australasian premiere of The Color Purple produced by StageArt is one such show. With sell out performances, an extended season, and audience members returning multiple times there is definitely something about The Color Purple which is resonating with the people of Melbourne.
You don’t have to love musicals – or the source material – to fall completely in love with this show and the story of Miss Celie. You just have to be human.
The Color Purple tells the story of Celie an African-American women growing up in the South in the early 20th Century. It is the faith and spirit of both Celie as a character and Hanokem as a performer which drives the musical. While the focus of the story is one woman’s life, the musical is quite epic as it introduces multiple characters and relationships and follows their development and influence – both positive and negative – on Celie over a number of decades. At the heart of the story is the relationship between Celie and her younger sister Nettie (Anna Francesca Armenia) and it is the love between the two sisters which keeps Celie motivated and alive as she faces unthinkable hardship over the years.
For people unfamiliar with the story the plot can be difficult to follow at times. The show has an intentionally simple design to allow for the audience’s imagination to use the characterisations and songs to create their own world, and as the story can skip forward a few years with something as simple as a lighting change, or a rearrangement of wooden benches it can take a few moments for audience members to reorientate themselves in the world. For the most part though it is the emotional and spiritual journey of Celie which you follow rather than the physical time or place.
All elements of the show work well together by adding to, rather than distracting from the storytelling. Sound, lighting, sets, props and costumes all create a believable base world from which the imagination develops. Most of the show is quite subdued in terms of colour scheme, so the vibrant red of Shug Avery’s costumes, along with brightly coloured traditional African clothing in ‘Africa’ and homemade pants featured ‘In Miss Celie’s Pants’ provide an insight into the people and things which make Celie’s life more vibrant and joyful.
The cast are incredible. You get goosebumps and cry from joy or sorrow from their vocals alone. This is a testament to both the talent of the performers, and their Musical Director Caleb Garfinkel. Hanokem has the audience captivated from the beginning and can absolutely destroy the crowd with two words – ‘Dear God’, ‘She’s alive’, ‘I’m here’.
The least credible thing about this show is the fact that Celie is repeatedly told how ugly she is and the audience is expected to believe it. Vanessa Minjivar as Sofia has the audience laughing hysterically with nothing more than her self-assured saunter or a side smile. Long suffering son Harpo played by Iopu Auva’a elicits ‘awwww’s from the audience with a simple sheepish bow of his head. There are so many great moments and performances it is impossible to acknowledge them all. The cast is relatively small, only 16 on stage with a further three ‘offstage vocalists’, but the doubling of roles, power of their voices, and energy makes it seem as if the cast much larger.
At times it feels as if you are at a church revival as the audience doesn’t necessarily feel the need to sit silently and control their emotions. People cheer and gasp and laugh and cry throughout the show as they are right there with the characters experiencing highs and lows as they happen. This comes down to the believability of the performances and their ability of the cast to express their emotions so well through physicality, dialogue and song. Audience engagement may have been distracting for the performers at first, but three weeks into their season they seemed accustomed to the audible reactions of the audience.
Don’t miss out on this truly beautiful premiere production. Book a ticket. Pack tissues. Take a loved one to hold onto. Experience something special .
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
StageArt’s The Color Purple
Based upon the novel written by Alice Walker and the Warner Bros./Amblin Entertainment Motion Picture
Book, Music and Lyrics By: Marsha Norman, Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray
Executive Producer: Katherine Armstrong
Executive Producer/Director: Robbie Carmellotti
Musical Director: Caleb Garfinkel
Choreographer: Jayden Hicks
Chapel Off Chapel, Prahran
Must close November 6 2016
