by Lynn Ahrens
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Based on a novel by Rosa Guy
Education resources
Produced by Sarah Stephenson and Fiona King
Contents
Introduction
Play synopsis/Cast/Themes/SEAL themes
Interview with Susie McKenna, director
Photos of the set design
Rehearsal photos
Post show drama lesson
Post show Primary resources and cross-curricular ideas
Welcome to the Once on this Island
education pack!
The aim of this pack is to provide you with post show activities, additional ideas,
and information that will directly support the play.
We hope that you will find the pack helpful and a time saving device in the world
of lesson planning.
With best wishes
Sarah Stephenson, Nottingham Playhouse Education Officer
Fiona King, Birmingham Rep Education Officer
Play synopsis
Once on this Island tells the story of a beautiful peasant girl who falls in love
with a wealthy city boy when she saves his life.
However, the course of true love is put to the test. The young girl must prove to
the island’s mythical gods that the power of love is stronger than death.
Cast and production team
Asaka (Mother Earth) Sharon D Clarke
Agwe (God of Water) Johnny Amobi
Erzulie (God of love) Lorna Brown
Papa Ge (Demon of Death) Jo Servi
Mama Euralie Melanie La Barrie
Tonton Julian Mensah Bediako
Ti Moune Shyko Amos
Daniel Beauxhomme Wayne Perrey
Little Ti Moune Saskia Hayman/ Nicole Stoney/ Olivia Thomas-Tapper
Director Susie McKenna
Designer Lotte Collett Smedley
Lighting designer Philip Gladwell
Sound designer Paul Gavin
Musical Director Orphy Robinson
Themes
-
Myths and legends
Class, status and wealth
Race
Ritual
Bloodlines
Fate and destiny
SEAL Themes
Going for goals – Ti Moune risks her life for what she believes in. Persistence
and resilience.
Relationships – Love between a boy and a girl and a girl and her adopted
parents.
Changes – Some you have no control over- fate.
Social Skills – Belonging to a community
Further plot breakdown with songs
Prologue
On a stormy night a group of peasants tell a crying child a story to calm her.
They explain about the prejudice on the island and how hard their lives are
(including a comparison to the lives of the wealthy). They also explain that the
gods control fortune and misfortune on the island. At the end of the song they
introduce the story of the girl whose life was spared in a storm who was sent on
a journey to test the strength of love and death between two classes.
One Small Girl
In the morning two elderly peasants walk by and after some debate they rescue
the stranded girl (Timoune) from a tree and take her home to care for her. They
explain how they have looked after her and how she grew up to become a
daydreamer.
Waiting for a Life
The girl, now grown up into a young woman watches a rich stranger in a car
and prays to the gods that she can join him in the car and escape her peasant
life for more.
And the Gods heard her prayer
The gods listen to her prayer and decide how to respond. Agwe (God) decides
to send her on a journey where the rich and poor meet.
Rain
Agwe casts a spell to make it rain and be a dark night. She also makes the girl
walk by the sea and have the man in the car driving too fast so he crashes.
Discovering Daniel
Timoune discovers the crash, calls for help but nobody comes. So she goes to
help him herself. She realises why the God’s saved her life in the storm when
she was young.
Pray
The peasants debate whether or not to rescue the man as they are bitter about
his wealth. Timoune asks the God’s to spare his life, they agree to do so but
insist that Timoune looks after him.
Pray Part II
Mama and other peasants are worrying about the repercussions with the gods
of Timoune caring for the man but she is insistent about looking after him.
Tonton, the girl’s adoptive father, has left to find the boy’s family but Mama
fears that he will get lost or if the boy dies his rich family will have him arrested.
Pray Part III
Tonton gets to the boy’s home but the gatekeeper refuses to let him in and
threatens to kill him.
Forever Yours
Timoune sings a love song for the boy (Daniel) and imagines that he is healthy
and is singing back to her. However Papa Ge (God) wants him to die. So
Timoune offers to give her soul to the Gods so they will spare his life.
The Sad tale of the Beauxhommes
The peasants tell the story of a family who gave birth to a mixed race son in
Napoleonic times. When they lost the war they cursed their son and all the
sons that were yet to come and said that they could never leave the island and
return to France. They explain that Daniel is one of these sons. The peasants
take Daniel away and Timoune tries to save him and cries out that she wants to
marry him.
Timoune
Timoune talks to her parents and explains her love for the boy and Mama tries
to convince her otherwise but eventually concedes and Timoune leaves home
to find the boy.
Mama Will Provide
As Timoune walks away the gods sing to her about her life and all the things on
the island that she doesn’t appreciate and will miss.
Waiting For Life (Reprise)
Timoune sings a short love song for Daniel saying that she will take care of him
Some Say
The peasants speculate about where Timoune is on her travels and eventually
finds Daniel’s house and works there as a cleaner until she finds him. At first he
does not recognise her but eventually she convinces him to let her care for him.
Human Heart
A love song sung by the chorus for Timoune and Daniel.
Pray (Reprise)
Gossipers speculate about Timoune’s and Daniel’s romance and that she has
managed to heal him when doctors did not. Daniel’s father and the gossipers
say that he cannot marry Timoune as he is promised to Andrea.
Some Girls
A love song sung by Daniel about how Timoune is different to other girls and
why he loves her.
Ball/Some Girls (Reprise)
Andrea and other guests at the ball are gossiping about Timoune. When she
arrives at the ball, she dances and everybody loves her but Andrea reveals that
Daniel is promised to her. He explains that there will always be a place for her
but they cannot marry and that he cannot change his background.
Forever Yours (Reprise)
Timoune is upset and the gods tell her how he has betrayed her. They give her
a knife and say that she can go back to her old life if she kills him. Timoune
almost kills him but stops at the last moment, and is cast out of Daniel’s Home.
She waits outside for 2 weeks becoming weaker and weaker; when Daniel and
Andrea are married they go outside the hotel to give the beggars money.
Daniel sees Timoune but to her horror gives her a coin, she curls up in despair.
A Part of Us
Timoune’s parents sing that Timoune will always belong to them and be loved
by them as Timoune walks into the sea to die and a tree is born within the walls
of Daniel’s home. This tree shelters rich and poor alike and Daniel’s son plays
in it with a young peasant girl.
Why We Tell the Story
The story returns to the little girl and the peasants, and they talk about how
Timoune overcame pain, love, grief, death and hope to find forgiveness.
THEMES
Class, status and wealth
Myths and Legends
Before she met him, Ti Moune was
always dreaming that Daniel would
take her away in his car. However,
when they fell in love he was unable
to marry her because he said that he
could not forget his background.
At different points throughout the play
the gods acted in different ways
towards Ti Moune. Agwe saved Ti
Moune from the storm but Papa Ge
allows Ti Moune to trade her soul for
Daniel’s life and gave her the knife at
the end.
Why do you think Daniel’s
background so important to him?
The peasants blamed the gods for all
the good and bad things that
happened on the island.
Do you think Daniel should have
married Ti Moune regardless of her
wealth? Why?
Although the peasants believed in the
gods, Daniel did not, why do you think
this is?
At the end Daniel thought Ti Moune
was begging and gave her a coin.
This made her lose all hope. Why do
you think this was?
Why do you think that the Gods were
sometimes nice to Ti Moune and
sometimes nasty?
Bloodlines
In the play we heard the story of when a father blamed his mixed race son for losing the island to
the black people.
Why do you think he was blamed for this?
Daniel’s family and friends said that he could never marry a black girl.
Why do you think that they thought this?
Fate and Destiny
Ritual
Ti Moune thought that she had
been saved from the storm for a
reason, and when she saw
Daniel’s car crash she thought that
it was her destiny to nurse him
back to health.
When Ti Moune was praying to the
Gods to leave her old life and join
Daniel in his car, this was an
example of a ritual.
Can you think of any rituals which
you take part in?
Do you think that it was fate or
chance that made Ti Moune and
Daniel meet?
(setting the table, church)
What do you think the difference
between a routine and a ritual is?
When Ti Moune traded her soul for
Daniel’s life with Papa Ge, he said
that it is Daniel’s fate to die and
that Ti Moune cannot hold it back.
(being part of a group, beliefs
relating to that ritual)
Do you think that we can control
our own destiny?
Race
On the island the black inhabitants were the peasants and the white inhabitants were
wealthy.
Daniel’s family and friends were prejudice towards Ti Moune. Do you think this was
because of her race or her background?
How do you think Ti Moune felt when she found out that Daniel would never marry her?
Can you think of a time that someone was prejudice towards you?
Above sections by Caroline Siveyer
Interview with Susie McKenna, director
What is it about ‘Once On This Island’ that interests you?
I first saw the play when it was being performed in London over 15 years ago
and fell in love with it musically, story telling wise; everything about it. It is a very
well crafted piece of musical theatre that brings joy to your soul. As it is nearly
20 years old for me now it’s about bringing a 21st century approach to the play
with regards to the culture depicted in the play. That has been the biggest thing
to bring to the stage. I felt it was a show that needed a longer life than it had 15
years ago. It hasn’t been performed professionally since then and for me it was
time to revive it.
The play is based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy. Is the play
similar to the book?
Yes, very similar. Certain aspects of the book have been cut out of the show so
it is a very economically written piece of musical theatre. It is almost all sung
through from beginning to end with some dialogue underscored and in order to
tell the story in an hour and a half, certain things needed to go. That’s been my
challenge; I wanted to bring more of the book to the show. The book’s about the
ecological side of Haiti, the fact that it burnt all its forests down and there was
deforestation, which is all very ‘now’. Once On This Island is ahead of its time in
so many ways; it talks about race, black on black racism and culture but at the
same time it talks about the ecology of Haiti and how it was devastated by
deforestation both economically and agriculturally. I think that the book does
deal with that more. We’ve now added a little bit, just a couple of lines directly
from the book into the show, but I hope that it will have resonance. We also
have a slightly more upbeat ending. It is a sad ending in the show, but we talk
about it within the idea of the tree of life being ever evolving which means there
is joy at the end as opposed to sadness.
Why are the Gods important in the play?
Gods are very important in Haitian culture. Haiti was a French colony island,
and Catholicism was brought to the island. As with many cultures (including our
own) there are pagan symbols within Christianity. In Haiti, Christianity was
brought to the island, but there already existed the idea of the worship of the
land, the worship of the sea. Haitians are people who live and die by the land;
they live and die by weather that can devastate them in one foul swoop in about
an hour. I think when people live off the land the idea of worshipping the land is
as much about worshipping any God. If one worships ones land - and is good to
its ecology, good to its animals, actually appreciates the miracle that is the earth
- it is worshipping something, and in Haiti they very much continue to worship
their Gods of the earth the water and many others. The original Voodoo beliefs
of Haitian people and the Catholicism brought in by the French are interlinked.
In the show we deal with modern day Haiti but we are telling a story that has
been passed from generation to generation.
What do you think of the music and how it is used to tell the story?
The music is a real mix of Caribbean and African feels. If you look at the culture
of Haiti you have a real variety, from pure African and Caribbean to French and
western music. Stephen [Flaherty – composer, Once on This Island] and Lynn
[Ahrens – Book and lyrics writer, Once on This Island] are incredible, they really
know their stuff they understand the genre very well. What we have done with
the music is beef it up a little bit more. What Stephen and Lynn are amazing at
are writing soaring beautiful melodies that are incredibly infectious.
In the story Ti Moune is rejected by Daniel and they don’t end up together.
Do you still think it is a happy ending because she has helped to change
things for the future?
That is exactly what it is. This is a play about story telling and generations telling
this story to remind people that these were the mistakes their ancestors made.
The fact that they don’t end up together, but in future generations Daniel’s son
and the young girl, who is from a different caste, do get together under the tree
that is Ti Moune. Trees are very symbolic; the tree of life is a huge symbol in
Haitian art, culture and religion. It’s about regeneration, ancestry and roots. It’s
a very big symbol in our show and in Haitian culture. Many trees have been
here longer than man might be able to remember. Think about what they
witness, think about what happens to them, think of how much they have learnt
and have given back. Every year the leaves die and then they come back.
Trees are symbolic, think of Christmas trees and the story of why they are
brought into the house.
What aspects of your role have you found most challenging?
Once On this Island is a celebrated, award-wining piece of musical theatre, so it
isn’t something that you want to mess around with. However, what I really
wanted to bring to it, particularly after talking to the performers and
choreographer, was that I wanted to celebrate black culture, in a way that was a
little bit more ‘rootsy’ than it had been done in the past. It was important that in
2009 that we didn’t represent Haiti as a mystical island and that the audience
could tell where it was set. Having said that an audience will look at the set and
could say it is St Lucia or Jamaica and that’s the whole point - it could be
anywhere. It could be Birmingham - it’s just a scene from where we tell the
story.
Do you think the themes are relevant to people today? For example; are
we prepared to give up everything for love, even if we might be rejected?
The idea of forgiveness, hope, and the idea of someone giving up everything for
love, is actually such a strong message. It doesn’t matter what religion, colour
or age you are. People are making sacrifices for love all the time. It sounds
really deep to take that from this story, but actually the themes are all there.
Sometimes I think people use the word love and they’re just talking about
romantic love, but actually love is much to do with having a social conscience,
and about society protecting those who may need it.
‘Two different worlds never to meet’
Set Design by Lotte Collett Smedley
•
The show is set in Haiti and has a present day, realistic feel. Once the
show has begun it becomes more magical as the storytelling unfolds.
•
The show will be very stylised. Props will be used by the actors in a
very impromptu way. Pieces of corrugated iron, hats, tyre, umbrellas,
etc, can be used to represent cars, rain, etc. Susie will also use a
sequined fishing net draped over broken umbrellas to represent rain.
•
There is a ‘paper cutting’ theme running throughout. There are cut out
dolls, gods and the tree of life at the end of the show is a
representation of a magical, cut out paper tree.
•
The storms are highly significant in the piece. There will be wind
machines and dramatic use of lighting, sound and projection to
represent the storms of the Rain God.
Rehearsal photos
Photos by Robert Day
‘A journey that would test the strength of love’
Post show drama lesson
Suitable for Years 4-7
PHYSICAL THEATRE
In the play the cast create inanimate objects out of their bodies. In large groups
create the following, as referred to in the play:
•
A car
•
A large, iron wall (could be combined with mimes of Ti Moune crouching
at the wall with her hand stretched out begging and Andrea and Daniel
on the other side of the wall throwing coins over)
•
A vine (one person can play Ti Moune climbing up it)
•
A heart beating like a drum (someone in the middle could have the drum
or it could be created vocally)
•
Whole class: The shape of the island
•
A tree (‘layers’ of the tree can then peel away with each revealing
different memories from the play or part of the story)
DANCE
Create your own group ritual dance to ward off evil. You could use music to
accompany. If you have any lighting effects available these could be used to
indicate lightning.
MIME WORK
Paired mime work – Ti Moune nursing Daniel
HOT SEATING
Hot seat the character of Daniel. Why did he decide to follow what was
expected of him rather than what his heart told him? Another way of presenting
this would be for the whole class to play Daniel and teacher in hot seat at Ti
Moune asking why. Any of the class can answer.
PROPS AND STORYTELLING
Gather together some of the key props as used in the play, e.g. tyre, fishing net,
umbrella. Create your own stories where humans are controlled by the Gods
and elements performing these in a storytelling style (the props are not used
literally but as symbols).
STATUS ACTIVITY AND DISCUSSION
(Resources needed: a pack of cards)
Hand out a card from a pack of playing cards. Pupils are not allowed to look at
them. They have to walk around the space and show their card to other pupils
but not look at it themselves. The other pupils should react according to the
number on the card – so if they are a 10 then they should treat them as
someone of importance and if they are a 2 they should be looked down on. After
a few minutes they have to form a line, along the room with the high numbers at
one end and the low at the other. The pupils have to place themselves at the
point of the line they think most appropriate according to how people have
treated them.
•
Discuss how it felt if you were a low/high status card. How in our
world are people classified into high/ low status? E.g. work, age,
gender, appearance, money. Hopefully this discussion may touch
on race. You could explain how people viewed race in this country
in the 1960s compared to how it is viewed today.
FREEZE FRAMES
Create some of your own freeze frame images or mimes in groups to
accompany some of the songs from the play:
One small girl
One small girl
In a tree
Torn from her mother
Crying in fright
One small girl
Tossed by the sea
And left to face
The stormy night
One small girl
Holding tight.
‘Some girls you
marry. Some you
love.’
Rain
Let there be no moon
Let the clouds race by
Where the road meets the sea
Let the tide be high
Let there be a girl
Walking by the sea
And let there be…rain!
Rain
Listen to your prayers
Full of hope and pain
As she stares down the road
In the pouring rain
Rain on the road
Rain on her face
Rain on the road such a dangerous place.
Post show primary resources
Storytelling
The play is created in a storytelling style (see notes next to the picture of the set
design). How could you create the following beach objects, referred to in the
play, out of materials found around school?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Moss (sponge painted and damp)
Rocks
Sand
Plantain
Breeze (fans)
Grass
Mosquitoes
Literacy
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian
Anderson
The Little Mermaid lives in a Utopian underwater
kingdom with her father the sea king; her
grandmother; and her five elder sisters, born one
year apart. When a mermaid turns 15, she is
allowed to swim to the surface to watch the world
above, and as the sisters become old enough, one
of them visits the surface every year. As each of
them returns, the Little Mermaid listens longingly to
their descriptions of the surface and of human
beings.
When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she
ventures to the surface, sees a ship with a
handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a
distance. A great storm hits, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from neardrowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here she
waits until a young girl from the temple finds him. The prince never sees the
Little Mermaid.
The Little Mermaid asks her grandmother whether humans can live forever if
they do not drown. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter
lifespan than merfolks’ 300 years, but that when mermaids die they turn to sea
foam and cease to exist, while humans have an eternal soul that lives on in
Heaven. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul,
eventually visits the Sea Witch, who sells her a potion that gives her legs, in
exchange for her tongue (as the Little Mermaid has the most intoxicating voice
in the world). Drinking the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed
through her, yet when she recovers she will have two beautiful legs, and will be
able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, it will constantly
feel like she is walking on sharp swords, and her feet will bleed most terribly. In
addition, she will only get a soul if the prince loves her and marries her, for then
a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he
marries another woman, the Little Mermaid will die broken-hearted and
disintegrate into sea foam.
The Little Mermaid drinks the potion and meets the prince, who is attracted to
her beauty and grace even though she is mute. Most of all he likes to see her
dance, and she dances for him despite her excruciating pain. When the prince's
father orders his son to marry the neighbouring king's daughter, the prince tells
the Little Mermaid he will not, because he does not love the princess. He goes
on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, but adds that the
Little Mermaid is beginning to take the temple girl's place in his heart. It turns
out that the princess is the temple girl, who had been sent to the temple to be
educated. The prince loves her and the wedding is announced.
The prince and princess marry, and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks. She
thinks of all that she has given up and of all the pain she has suffered. She
despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters
bring her a knife that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long
hair. If the Little Mermaid slays the prince with the knife and lets his blood drip
on her feet, she will become a mermaid again, all her suffering will end and she
will live out her full life.
The Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his
bride and, as dawn breaks, she throws herself into the sea. Her body dissolves
into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warmth of the sun; she
has turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters of the air tell
her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to gain an
eternal soul. She will earn her own soul by doing good deeds, and she will
eventually rise up into the kingdom of God.
•
Discuss the similarities between the original story and the story of Once
On This Island
Design
•
Create your own charm necklace like the one that Ti Moune gives to
Daniel
•
Create your own secret mask to wear to the ball
•
Create in pairs your own waltz that you can wear the masks to.
•
Draw a picture of what you think the island would look like with the divide
between the two different classes of people.
•
Create you own paper chain of trees
Music
Create a storm sound building up with
percussion instruments and voice.
Include thunder. This could be then
layered over some of the drama work.
History
Hispaniola’s earliest inhabitants arrived around 2600 BC in huge dugout
canoes, coming from what is now eastern Venezuela. They were called the
Taínos, and by the time Christopher Columbus landed on the island in 1492,
they numbered some 400, 000. However, within 30 years of Columbus’ landing,
the Taínos were gone, wiped out by disease and abuse.
The Spanish neglected their colony of Santo Domingo, and through the 17th
century it became a haven for pirates and, later, ambitious French colonists. In
1697 the island was formally divided, and the French colony of St-Domingue
followed soon after. The French turned St-Domingue over to sugar production
on a huge scale. By the end of the 18th century it was the richest colony in the
world, with 40, 000 colonists lording it over half a million black slaves.
Following the French Revolution in 1789, free mulattos (offspring of colonists
and female slaves) demanded equal rights, while the slaves themselves
launched a huge rebellion. Led by the inspiring slave leader Toussaint
Louverture, the slaves freed themselves by arms and forced France to abolish
slavery.
•
Research the island of Haiti, which the island in the play is based around,
past and present.
Haiti today
‘Two different worlds never to meet’