The
Phantom strikes
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The
great challenge
Celebrating their tenth anniversary with what will probably
be their biggest and most spectacular production ever,
the Workshop Players and director Jerome De Silva will
bring alive the Phantom that has haunted countless stages
from London's West End and Broadway to Vienna and the
Far East to little Sri Lanka with her limited facilities
yet abounding in talent, dedication and love for theatre.
The
Workshop Players, since their inception in 1992 have
staged many sensational musicals such as Lost in the
Stars, Cats, West Side Story, Lés Miserables
and Lion King.
"Producing
Phantom of the Opera is a huge challenge," says
Jerome who will not only direct and design the entire
production but also play the lead role of the Phantom.
Wouldn't it be added stress to both act and direct in
a production? "I don't advise directors to act
in their own productions," states Jerome, "but
I feel that Workshop has reached a level of maturity
where, once I have designed the initial stages of the
production, some of the seniors who have also seen the
Phantom in the West End, will be capable of directing
me." Playing the lead in one of his productions
after almost eighteen years Jerome knows what a big
challenge it will be for him to play this "massive
role."
What's
the Workshop's biggest hurdle in producing the Phantom?
"Sponsorship. The Phantom of the Opera will cost
more than any of our other productions. So we need as
many sponsors as possible."
Any
final comments Jerome? "Yes, come in your hordes
and make the Phantom come alive."
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By
Rochelle Jansen
The Opera Ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed,
a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition
of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable
brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the
box-keepers, the cloak room attendants or the concierge. Yes,
he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete
appearance of a real phantom; that is to say, of a spectral
shade." So states Gaston Leroux in the opening of his
book The Phantom of the Opera, published in 1911.
The Phantom
of the Opera is no ghost. Yet he is beginning to haunt the
Lionel Wendt theatre and has sent a note to the managers stating
he will walk the stage for two weeks in October, bringing
into the hearts of all who will feel his presence, his hurt,
pain, joy and betrayal.
His story
in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is a fairy tale come alive.
For Webber, who was asked if there was any subject that can't
be made into a musical, and answered that you have to find
"a dramatic hook to hang the whole thing on" felt
that the Phantom hangs on its "high romance." And
that too the Phantom's followers will experience.
The story
goes like this: Born with a grotesque disfigurement of his
face the Phantom retreats underground to hide from a cruel
world. And from his underground labyrinth he discovers the
power to wreak havoc and terrorize all who cross his path.
He finally finds joy when he meets a young opera singer Christine
Daae and starts giving her singing lessons. Christine soon
discovers that her belief that the Angel of Music who had
come to her from the heavens from her late father is indeed
a living and breathing human being. Mesmerized by him she
disappears with him to his home underground. Most worried
at her disappearance is her childhood sweetheart Viscount
Raoul de Chagny. Upon her return she asks to be left alone.
In the
meantime, the new managers of the Paris Opera House choose
to let her rival Carlotta sing the lead in 'Il Muto' while
Christine is given a silent role. This angers the Phantom
who taunts Carlotta and makes her voice resemble a toad.
A body
dropped on stage, a mysterious voice in Box Five (the Phantom's
box) and a chandelier that crashes to the ground, increases
the people's fear of the Phantom.
Meanwhile Christine becomes secretly engaged to Raoul. She
keeps it a secret so the Phantom would not find out, but he
knows all at his opera house.
He then
starts giving more orders to the management. This time it
is for the opera house to perform his production, Don Juan
Triumphant. This is his life's work and he expects all to
participate.
The management,
after some amount of argument about letting Christine, the
Phantom's protégé play the lead, decide to stage
his opera with the ulterior motive of finally trapping the
Phantom, because if Christine sings, the Phantom will definitely
come to the opera. Raoul and the others plan a trap for the
Phantom. But, while Christine sings (as Aminta in Don Juan
Triumphant), the Phantom murders Signor Piangi (Don Juan)
and takes his place on stage with Christine.
The final
stage is proving that he is indeed the Phantom. After singing
"All I ask of you" the Phantom covers Christine
with his cloak and they both vanish into his labyrinth of
despair and darkness.
The mob
seeking to "track down this murderer" soon find
the lake. Raoul who is among them demands Christine's release.
Deceiving Raoul under the guise of a welcome greeting, the
Phantom captures him and asks Christine to chose between Raoul's
freedom and a life with the Phantom or watching her lover
(Raoul) die. Christine then surprises Raoul with her display
of understanding and compassion for the Phantom. This ultimately
leads the Phantom to relent.
When he
also sees that there is no way out as he hears the rapidly
approaching mob, he orders Christine and Raoul to take the
boat and leave him there. He then walks to his throne. Yet
when the mob arrives, all that is left of the Phantom, is
his mask.
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