[NEohioPAL] REVIEW: AIDA at Canton Players Guild Theatre

[Tom Wachunas]

Elaborated Lives

By Tom Wachunas

 

…Too many choicestear us apart / I don't want to live like that / Too many choices tear us apart/ I don't want to love like that / I just want to touch your heart / May thisconfession be the start

- lyrics from “Elaborate Lives” by Tim Rice, from AIDA

  In the beginning of the Players Guildproduction of Aida, the Tony Award-winningmusical by Elton John and Tim Rice, several people are strolling about thebeautiful set designed by Joshua Erichsen in a convincing evocation of visitingan ancient Egypt exhibit in a museum. Emerging from a display niche, a statueof Amneris (Sarah Marie Young), daughter of a Pharoah, comes to life andintones the song, “Every Story is a Love Story.” It’s a richly sung summary ofwhat will soon unfold, wherein we hear the solemn reminder, “…This is the storyof a love that flourished in a time of hate.”

   In this highlymoving chronicle of forbidden love, divided loyalties, and treachery in an eraof tyranny and war, we meet Aida (Joy Ellis), a Nubian princess stolen from hercountry and enslaved in Egypt. There she struggles mightily to reconcile hergrowing love for Radames (Brandon Michael) – a imposing Egyptian soldieralready betrothed (for nine years!) to Amneris – with the pressing burden ofremaining a faithful leader to her own beleaguered people.  

   As he has done forso many past productions, director Jonathan Tisevich has assembled a wondrouslygifted group of performers. Amid the ethereal lighting designed by ScottSutton, the sonic magic from the live, 11-piece orchestra conducted by SteveParsons, and further energized by Michael Lawrence Akers’ exotic, often sensualchoreography, this 27-member cast effectively morphs the smallness of theGuild’s arena theater into a place of epic dimensionality.

    Tisevich has always been a thoughtful ministerto his performers’ agency for articulating emotional and psychologicalauthenticity in their characters. And nowhere does that agency have more depth thanin the portrayals of Aida, Radames, and Amneris. 

  In expressing,indeed exclaiming, all of Aida’s tortured heart and crisis of conscience, JoyEllis is a thoroughly riveting presence. Her singing is a mesmerizing force initself – plaintive and wounded when she sings the bitterly ironic “Easy as Life”;alternately fierce, plaintive, and tender elsewhere. Among of the evening’smost touching and powerful passages are her duets with Radames, such as“Enchantment Passing Through,” and the soaring “Elaborate Lives.”   

   It’s fascinating towatch Brandon Michael, a wholly compelling singer in his own right, as henavigates the changing tides in the heart of Ramades. The conquering soldier isconquered by Aida’s nobility and courage. He falls inexorably in love with aslave, though not without a price.  

   Speaking ofchanging hearts, an equally fascinating catharsis transpires as you watch SarahMarie Young’s stunning portrayal of Amneris. Through half  of the story she’s a feckless, self-possessed,swaggering imp with an inflated sense of entitlement. In the hilarious “MyStrongest Suit,” she and her women-in-waiting strut about the palace like somany fashionistas sporting ridiculously bizarre outfits and headwear (marvelouscostumes by Stephen Ostertag). But as Ramades grows more distant and cold, thereality of her plight becomes all too clear. Now humbled and resolute, she poursout her woundedness, her surrender, in one of the show’s most heartrendingsongs, “I Know the Truth.”

   The evening flowsfairly consistently with other memorable characters and interludes. DavidEverett plays Zoser, the stern and sinister father of Ramades, and who isslowly poisoning the Pharoah (Corey Paulus). Jeremy Clarke plays Mereb, aclever and tender-hearted Nubian servant who knows his way around the royalbureaucracy. He sings with palpable urgency in “How I Know You.” Aida pleadedwith him to not reveal her true identity to the rest of the Nubians, butdoesn’t keep her secret for very long. Destiny was calling. 

   An electrifyingchoral high point comes at the end of Act I with “The Gods Love Nubia” – athunderous cry for release from suffering, sung by Aida, her friend Nehebka(played by Sunayna Smith), and the Nubian captives. That anthemic singlemoment, replete with gravitas and grace, with its stratospheric harmoniesgripping and soulful, embodied the entire spirit of this production. Call it aprayer of longing, love, and hope, and hauntingly relevant to our own time andcircumstances.     

AIDA, in the CantonPlayers Guild W.G. Fry Theater, 1001 Market Ave., N. Canton, Ohio /  THROUGH NOVEMBER 18, 2018 / Shows Friday andSaturday at 8 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m. / additional performance at 8 p.m. on Nov. 18/Single tickets $32, 17 an younger $25, Seniors $29 / www.playersguidtheatre.com / BoxOffice at 330.453.7617

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