[NEohioPAL] REVIEW: RAGTIME at Players Guild Theatre

[Tom Wachunas]

A Sublime Witnessing

By Tom Wachunas

…And I'll tell it andthink it and speak it and breathe it /And reflect it from the mountain so allsouls can see it / Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin' / ButI'll know my song well before I start singin' / And it's a hard, it's a hard,it's a hard, it's a hard / It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.  – Bob Dylan, from “A Hard Rain's a GonnaFall” 

 

    E.L. Doctorow (1931-2015), author of the 1975historical fiction novel, Ragtime (adaptedfor an eponymous drama film in 1981 and a Broadway musical in 1998), once stated, “Good writing is supposedto evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but thefeeling of being rained upon.” He also observed, “Writers are witnesses. Thereason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.”While Doctorow was referring to the 20th century, I would add onlythat in 2018, and still for the same reasons, we need all the arts.

   So there is indeed an aura of timely, relevanturgency that emanates from this soaring Players Guild production of Ragtime, directed by Jonathan Tisevich.He also plays a central character in the story. It’s a thoroughly exhilarating partnershipwith his cast of 40 performers. Together they sing and move with infectious,dazzling proficiency through the vivacious choreography by Michael Lawrence Akersand the wondrously crisp, warm melodic pastiche from the live orchestraconducted by Steve Parsons. Though set in America’s volatile early years of the20th century leading up to World War I, these eminently versatileperformers make the then of the storyso unnervingly familiar and real that it stands as a sobering reflection of ournow – afflicted as it is by a malaiseof weighty sociopolitical issues including, among others, racial bigotry,poverty, and immigration. 

   In this drama ofsocieties in conflict, Tisevich plays Tateh,an intensely solicitous and resourceful Jewish immigrant and father lookingfor a new life in America. His singing voice is a marvel of opulentexpressivity, and particularly magical when he intones the gentle imagery ofthe song “Gliding” while embracing eight year-old Sophia Tsenekos. She playsTateh’s daughter, and throughout the daunting circumstances encountered by herfather, she’s consistently agile and endearing - an adorable spirit ofuncorrupted hope.

   In his role of theHarlem ragtime pianist named Coalhouse Walker Jr., Christopher Gales is analtogether compelling presence with a beautifully sonorous voice - equal partsauthoritative muscle and disarming sweetness. He’s a riveting embodiment of Coalhouse’s desperate (and violent)search for justice and equally desperate efforts to win back the heart of Sarah,whom he had abandoned before knowing he had fathered her child. As Sarah, JoyEllis is a charismatic powerhouse who portrays the complex pathos of hercharacter with remarkable panache. Her achingly tender voicing of “Your Daddy’sSon” is one of the evening’s most heartrending moments, as his her electrifyingduet with Coalhouse in “Wheels of a Dream.” 

   It’s fascinating towatch the magnetic Heidi Swinford in her role as the frustrated matriarch of anaffluent white family. Her impassioned duet with Tateh, “Our Children,” ispowerfully optimistic and tender. More powerful still, a little later sheprogressively sheds her fears and vulnerability to free herself frompatriarchal oppression, and declares as much in her searing ballad, “Back toBefore.” Meanwhile, Christopher Hager turns in a convincing counterpart as herhusband – often absent from the household, self-absorbed, and struggling todeal with the forces at work in the world around him. Additionally, there’syoung Ezra Bernstein as the prescient, often bemused son, full of curiosityabout, and commentary on, the situations unfolding around him.

   Offsetting thegravitas threaded through this narrative, there are refreshing moments of adifferent if not lighter nature. Among those is the hilarity of a riotous,all-male chorus gathered to watch a baseball game; the unforgettably giddyinterludes from Sarah Marie Young as the bubbly, sassy, and slightly daftshowgirl, Evelyn Nesbitt; and Joshua Erichsen making delightfully dashingappearances as the disappearing Harry Houdini. 

   Never disappearingfrom this musical epic of colliding cultures, though, is an ever-present senseof yearning, of offering up a collective supplication, a plea for relief fromthe hard rains that have fallen on our divided society. This is most apparentwhen the full ensemble is gathered to sing “Till We Reach That Day” at the endof Act I, and again in Act Two during the stirring climax of the Epilogue. Thesplendorous polyphonic power of the ensemble singing is utterly heart-rattling.

   Call it a gloriousprayer, then. Truly sublime art, such as this radiant Players Guild production,can be like that.

 

  Ragtime /  Players Guild Theatre Mainstage,Cultural Center for the Arts, 1001 Market Ave. N, Canton, Ohio / THROUGHMARCH 4 - Shows at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday / TICKETS:$29 ages 18 to 54, $26 ages 55 and older, $22 for 17 and younger / Order at330-453-7617 and 

www.playersguildtheatre.com  

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