One of the great things about theatre is how it manages to amalgamate so many disciplines into a single experience – or as Ed Kleban wrote to Marvin Hamlisch’s music, “One singular sensation”.
Blow, Winds is singular, but far more than a single sensation. This year’s Shakespeare in the Streets production is about St. Louis and its fragmentation, overlaid on the story of King Lear. It’s a remarkable event, not achieving perfection but achieving excellence in many ways – much, come to think of it, like what we hope for in terms of the region.
As many of us know, this was originally scheduled to run this past September, but the protests that followed the verdict in the Jason Stockley trial led to the decision to cancel it. Since then, they have reworked Nancy Bell’s original script with the help of the Festival’s first Playwriting Fellow, Mariah L. Richardson, to even more completely reflect a discussion of where we are and how we can progress from this point.
But it’s more than a story told with words. Tom Martin directed. There’s original music and lyrics from music director Lamar Harris jumping with the Genesis Jazz project for the large and live sound. We have the Central Baptist Church choir for vocals, and the outstanding group The Gentlemen of Vision Step Team. (And if you haven’t seen step, you need to.) The ears will be very happy indeed.
As to the eyes, it’s pretty amazing. Peter and Margery Spack have used the facade of the building as a screen for beautiful and often-changing work, from the facade of King Louis’ (and in this case, it’s “Lewis” for the pronunciation, like the city, not “Louie”) castle to a wonderful patchwork quilt made of various parts of the metropolitan area. From end to end, the building is encased in the light show.
The tale is told by a fool – in this case, the king’s fool, played by Adam Flores, who’s about as far from foolish as possible. Flores is absolutely charming, playing it broadly, a not unreasonable choice given the story and setting. Joneal Joplin is King Louis, the patriarch-ruler soliciting professions of love, preferably in huge quantities, from his three daughters, but not so much from his illegitimate son Edmund. This, he explains, will win them part of his kingdom, shown on a giant map of St. Louis and St. Louis County. The offspring all went to different high schools, a clear way to indicate something about them to most of the audience. Jeanitta Perkins plays Goneril, the eldest; Regan, the middle daughter, is Katy Keating. Both are delightfully superficial and annoying after the opening suck-ups to their royal daddy. Cordelia, the youngest, Erika Flowers Roberts, refuses to tell us her alma mater, and asks her father not for her share of his kingdom but for justice. This goes over rather poorly and Louis offers her up to her two previous suitors, only one of which wants a king’s daughter with no dowry. They stomp off to his territory – which is Illinois. Edmund the Illegitimate is angry at constantly having his nose rubbed into his sub-legal status, but manages to end up with the last section of the kingdom, North County. The smoldering Edmund is Reginald Pierre, who loves his sister Cordelia and understands her thirst for justice. Michelle Hand plays the increasingly vivid Kent, an advisor to the king, or, more accurately, someone whose advice the king ignores
The overall theme revolves around really seeing the people who populate our community and mentally walking a mile in their shoes rather than looking away and taking stereotypes as truth. And sitting in the middle of a downtown street, a few fireworks from the stadium occasionally booming, in the midst of a community of different people but with many commonalities like an interest in art, we could begin to believe that such an idea could spread. Even the weather relaxed and the breeze felt pleasant after the terribly hot day.
It is/was a singular experience, rarer even than celebrating a World Series championship on those streets. It only ran Friday and Saturday nights. Somehow, Blow, Winds should be seen again, in lots of places.
Blow Winds
Shakespeare in the Streets
sfstl.com/in-the-streets/blow-winds