Child of the
stars
Bringing hope to a broken world
We can head down a new road
Led by this boy and this girl.
C'est bien.
Down to the
Bayou
That's where I'm I'm gonna go
Out on the water
See my Craw-daddy-O
Mon Dieu
Mon Dieu
How did He ever design
Water so black so rich so fine?
I'm going down
to the river
To catch my dinner
Catch me a crawdaddy
A big prize winner
I catch him
by the tail
I'll eat him with tomato
He's ten feet long
Mon Dieu an alligator!
©2001 MHSurface
and DMaddox
(all rights reserved)
Book by Mary Hall Surface
Lyrics by Mary Hall Surface and David Maddox
Music by David Maddox
The
myth of Perseus set in the chaotic world of post-Civil War Louisiana. To save
the Bayou from greed and destruction Percy journeys to the edge of the human
world. He becomes a Hero, fulfilling the promise of this beautiful story of
supernatural and Heroic deeds. Percy saves his Mamon and he and Andomeda are
placed in the stars for all time. Cajun music plus lots of Alligators. C'est
bien!
"Perseus
Bayou" is a triumph of atmosphere and theatrical imagination...
a smart, charming, extremely well-produced show that kids and grown-ups can
watch together.
Washington Post
Award-winning Original cast album available at
Amazon.com
Distributor
Availability for CD:
TheOrchard (212-529-9109;
www.theorchard.com)
Baker & Taylor (800-775-1800; www.btol.com)
Super D (949-225-1170; www.sdcd.com)
For performance rights, contact:
Dramatic
Publishing
815-338-7170 or email
Other shows by Surface & Maddox
Authors'
Notes
Production Details
Audio
Clips
Washington
Post Review
More Photos
Wille Bell Music HOME
The Washington Post review of Perseus Bayou
Theater 'Perseus
Bayou': Magical Myth Tour
By Nelson Pressley Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 16, 2001
Page C01
In "Perseus Bayou," the Greek myth that playwright-director Mary Hall Surface and composer David Maddox have transposed to post-Civil War Louisiana, actors in alligator masks snap giant jaws at Percy, the young hero. Percy glides away on a single skate, pushing himself forward with a pole as if he were on a backwater flatboat. Set designer Tony Cisek surrounds Theater of the First Amendment's stage with mesh panels and a canopy bathed in Dan Covey's blue, green and purple light; a sloping ramp twists upstage with the graceful curves of the Mississippi River. The environment feels like a swampy overgrowth and a mysterious underworld. In other words, "Perseus Bayou" is a triumph of atmosphere and theatrical imagination. Surface and Maddox are the same team that set familiar fairy tales in Appalachia for last year's "Sing Down the Moon" at the same venue, and they have again created a smart, charming, extremely well-produced show that kids and grown-ups can watch together. The story takes a few liberties with the Perseus myth, but the essence of the tale is the same. Danae, pregnant with a child (Percy) sired by stars that flutter from the fly space, is banished by her angry father. She is set adrift down the river, where she meets a kindly fisherman named Doucet. Danae, Doucet and Percy become a family that is threatened by Polydectes, Doucet's rich cousin. Polydectes has eyes for Danae; he kills Doucet and tricks young Percy into promising he will slay the snake-haired Medusa. With that, Percy's growing-up journey begins in earnest. Surface and Maddox work almost seamlessly together. Though the show's music is basically continuous, there are few true songs. Characters speak more often than not, yet it's not uncommon for them to sing a quick line or repeating refrain. Maddox's melodies, played by a five-piece band (guitar, piano, accordion, fiddle and bass) generally have a jaunty Cajun feel. He has a gift for moody incidental music, too: When Percy's quest gets perilous, the score grows as shadowy and foreboding as Covey's lighting. Surface keeps the action pressing forward, and she sometimes folds narration into the dialogue. When Percy is suddenly smitten by a tomboy named Andromeda, he looks at the audience and says, "She made Percy's head spin." Surface works in a storybook style, handled with a light comic touch. The actors settle into that approach nicely. Dwayne Nitz is earnest and spunky as Percy, and Sherri L. Edelen's Danae is a winsome young mother in distress. Andrew Ross Wynn is a cape-twirling villain as Polydectes, while Eric Lee Johnson is a hardworking role model for Percy as Doucet. Wanda Kelly, in Afro-Caribbean garb by costume designer Jelena Vukmirovic (who also created the show's animal and ball masks), patrols the action in the slightly underwritten role of the magical Miss Athena. Colleen Delany is Percy's adventure-loving match as Andromeda -- "Andy," the tomboy insists. The script loses its way a little as Percy loses his. A character named Panther Hermes (Paul Takacs, garbed like a great cat) is both helpful and suspicious. After his less-than-direct advice to Percy, the audience is as likely as the hero to lose track of what his journey is about. The show's other minor flaws have to do with performance. Some of the group singing, especially during a witty number about three ghostly women who share a single eyeball, is sloppy, and Percy's climactic battles are staged as a slow blur. They lack the anticipated ring of triumph. But these small problems are far outweighed by the fluid staging and the distinctive way Surface and company flesh out the script with such an appropriate density of music and images. They take their make-believe seriously, which makes "Perseus Bayou" a true enchantment.
Perseus Bayou, written and directed by Mary Hall Surface,
music and musical direction by David Maddox, lyrics by Surface and Maddox.
Choreography, Beth Davis. With Steven Tipton, Dori Legg and Michael Bryant.
Through April 1 at Theater of the First Amendment, George Mason University,
Fairfax. Call 703-218-6500.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
Audio
Clips
Click the "Listen"
buttons at right to hear brief MP3 clips from Theater of the
First Amendment's World Premiere Production of Perseus Bayou.
The
Family: Doucet, Danae, and Percy. Perseus
and his mother
Danae are adopted by the Cajun fisherman Doucet.
The
Grey Sisters.
Percy meets the three Grey Sisters,
who squabble over the one eye they share.
Finalé.
C'est bien,
its good to be here on the water.
Perseus Bayou takes the classic Greek myth of the boastful young Perseus and his quest to find the snake-headed Medusa and resets it in the rich world of post-Civil War Louisiana. Like all heroic myths, Perseus Bayou follows a young man's journey into the unknown. He faces trials, confronts deepest darkness but finally returns as a better man to right the wrongs he has left behind. In the world of our musical, the Bayou suffers in the aftermath of the Civil War. Fortunes have been lost and won, greed prevails, cultures collide and nature itself is filled with the dangers of the swamp. Into this world a boy is born -- half mortal, half divine -- who must grow up to confront this chaos and renew the world.
As in the Greek myth, our Perseus Bayou becomes a Hero once he learns to embrace the values on which a new moral and just world can be built. All of the central characters from the original myth have been retained, but we have given them distinctive Louisiana personas. Athena becomes an African conjur woman. Hermes is a sly spirit-cat from Louisiana folklore. Acrisius is a new-money millionaire in New Orleans. Polydectes is the evil landlord of what was once family land in his Bayou parish. Doucet is the counterpart of the Greek fisherman Dictys. The Grey Sisters are ghost-like swamp creatures and the sea-monster becomes a giant alligator. Our greatest liberty is taken with the character of Andromeda, now a feisty tomboy who helps Percy become who he will be.
The music is based on and inspired by the traditional Cajun music of Louisiana, but also incorporates elements of blues, Zydeco and theater music. Performed by a band of five (accordion, fiddle, bass, guitar/banjo, and piano), the music is almost continuous. It is highly interactive with the action and text onstage, creating virtually another character. There are five primary singing roles: Perseus, Athena, Danae, Doucet and Andromeda.
Our musical demands a vividly theatrical approach to its staging. Attempts to fully realize the locales and many of the effects would place a deadly weight on the piece. The original set consisted of an oval playing area, with an elegantly curving ramp raking upstage. Woven panels made of a material called "contra" created a surround which, when lit, could become anything from columns in Polydectes' plantation house to hanging Spanish moss. A dock rolled on for the family scene. Our goal when devising how to achieve effects throughout the play was to make them as actor-centered as possible. Danae's raft was a small platform on casters manipulated by four actors who held onto triangles of blue water fabric. Percy's pirogue (his boat for slipping through the swamp) was created by an actor on a single roller skate, propelling himself across the stage with a long pole. The swamp came to life with four actors shifting positions, carrying ÒumbrellasÓ of raffia and contra. Masks were key in the depiction of the Gator-Men and the Cajun Marti Gras-inspired wedding party guests. Our Giant Gator was built off of a rolling chair, in which an actor sat (thus sitting inside the gator's mouth and opening and closing its giant jaw). Two other actors were behind the chair, manipulating the Gator's eyes, as well as creating its front legs.
The world of Perseus Bayou is essentially magical, a boundary at which nature and supernatural creatures lurk at the edge of the human world. Perseus ventures across this boundary to save his world from greed and destruction. Or rather, he crosses and returns to help the people of the Bayou create a new world. In his return to leadership Perseus becomes a Hero, fulfilling the promise of this beautiful story full of supernatural and Heroic deeds. Percy saves his Mamon and he and Andy are placed in the stars for all time. And, of course, there are lots of exciting sword fights.
Mary Hall Surface
and David Maddox
Washington, DC & New York City
Nine actor/singers (5 men, 4 women)(smaller cast is possible through doubling)
Five (or six)
musicians**: accordion, piano, bass, violin, guitar/banjo double (drum part
available)
(**If a recording for performance is preferred, an excellent recording--identical
to the cast album-- is available for rental)
Perseus
Bayou
Conceived by Mary Hall Surface and David Maddox
Written by Mary Hall Surface
Lyrics by Mary Hall Surface and David Maddox
Music by David Maddox
Directed
by Mary Hall Surface
Musical Direction by David Maddox
Scenic
Design by Tony Cisek
Costume and Mask Design by Jelena Vukmirovic
Lighting Design by Dan Covey
Choreography by Beth Davis
Properties by Sue Senita Bradshaw
Fight Choreography by Brad Waller
Technical Direction by Ethan Osborn
Stage Managed by Cynthia Clark
Perseus
Bayou premiered on Wednesday, 14 March 2001
at Theater of the First Amendment,
George Mason University's Professional Theater Company
Fairfax, Virginia.
Original Cast:
Miss
Athena...............................................................Wanda
Kelly
Acrisius....................................................................Steven
Tipton
Danae....................................................................Sherri
L. Edelen
Panther Hermes............................................................Paul
Takacs
Doucet....................................................................Eric
Lee Johnson
Percy...........................................................................Dwayne
Nitz
Polydectes..........................................................Andrew
Ross Wynn
Gator-Men......Dori Legg, Michael Bryant, Paul Takacs, Steven Tipton
Andy.......................................................................Colleen
Delany
Les Fantomes Gris......Dori Legg, Sherri L. Edelen, Andrew Ross Wynn
Cassey.............................................................................Dori
Legg
Beaucepheus.........................................................Michael
Bryant
The Medusa....................................................................Dori
Legg
The Giant Gator..........Paul Takacs, Eric Lee Johnson, Steven Tipton
The
Band:
Accordion....................................................Zoltan Racz
Violin........................................................Bruno Nasta
Guitar........................................................David Maddox
Bass..................................................................Ralph
Gordon
Piano..........................................................Jon Carroll
Drums.........................................................David Lopez
