Once On This Island

Once On This Island

The musical Once On This Island had many theatrical elements. There was earth, water, love, and death. Each one was represented by a separate color: green, blue, red, and black. Also, when one of the actors would talk a colored light would shine on each of them to show a distinction between each character. While the play was performed on stage the audience watched the performance on stage as well. It was strange at first to watch the actors sing and dance within feet of you but it was very interesting. It allowed the audience to partake a different theatrical experience due to being so close to the performers. When the storytellers were explaining the plot they talked about TiMoune meeting the man who she was cursed to love, Daniel. He was driving in a car and it was raining. To let the audience get a sense of reality the storytellers had blue pieces of torn sheets of paper and they interpreted the sheets into the dance. At the beginning of the play little TiMoune is found in a tree by Mama and Tonton. Instead of the tree being a part of the stage, the storytellers lifted her and had there hands in positions that imitated a real tree. In the middle of the musical TiMoune went to find Daniel. She knew it would be hard to do because she and her family were peasants and Daniel came from a different backround whose family and friends were extremely wealthy. When she goes she finds out at the dance that Daniel and Andrea were planned to get married since they were born. Death comes and convinces her to kill Daniel in order to save her own life. When she drops the knife behind Daniel's back, Daniel finds out that she was planning to kill him and sends her away. As she leaves his home the gates close behind her. All of the storytellers were the gates. As she would face toward each gate to go back in towards Daniel the people would turn their back towards her to determine that the gates were closed. It