There are two ways to appreciate this latest work of musical theater by Heather Christian, which is part of the eleventh annual Prototype festival of opera theater and musical theater.
One is simply to enjoy the tunefulness of Christian’s compositions, suffused with rousing soul music, soothing folk, and inspiriting hymns, which are energetically staged at The Space at Irondale by a cast of some three dozen women, who sing, dance ,work with props and play musical instruments, moving before, behind and around an audience that sits in a double row on all four sides of the room, never far from the performers.
The other way to appreciate “Terce” is to take it in as a work of erudition infused with the spiritual and the political, which Heather Christian calls “A Practical Breviary” and “A Pentacost of the Divine Feminine.” It is a reimagining of a 9 a.m. Mass conducted by cloistered nuns and monks in the 11th century.
The lyrics of Christian’s songs, she informs us in a note in the program, adapt texts from the original Latin masses as well as writings by three mystics of the age, Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Robin Wall Kimmerer. The point, as Christian told us in a talk-back after the show, was to go back to the original language before it was “tamed or changed” by a “very patriarchal Catholic Church” This perspective underscores how The Space at Irondale was once a church, and requires us to see the cast as a community choir of mothers and caregivers and to understand their movement from a feminist, or at least a female, perspective. This is why Heather Christian at one point uses a vacuum cleaner, why part of the set suggests a makeshift kitchen, and why the script mentions the word “mother” dozens of times:
“Rise mother rise…
Rise up rooted like a beast that surrendered to the Mother’s art/
the mother’s smart
while the word “father” appears in just one verse.
Christian’s scholarship is impressive; her reimagining sophisticated. I don’t know if her liturgical deep dive would beguile non-theologians without Christian’s lovely music and Keenan Tyler Oliphant’s lively direction. But I do know the reverse is true. If I can’t say I felt spiritually uplifted, I was certainly entertained.
The night I saw “Terce,” there was a glitch that prevented the projection of the lyrics onto two screens, which were blank throughout the hour-long show. The words are clearly important to Christian: For her Oratorio for Living Things , she gave each audience member a complete libretto, including translations of the Latin. But the absence of this visual focus on the lyrics felt like a blessing, because I could let the beauty of “Terce” wash over me without feeling the need to parse Christian’s show as a meticulous new take on a Christian prayer.
Terce: A Practical Breviary
HERE at The Space at Irondale through February 4
Running time: 60 minutes
Tickets: $40 to $155
Written, composed, created, choreographed by Heather Christian
Directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant
Music direction by Mona Seyed-Bolorforosh & Jacklyn Riha
Environment Designers, Nick Vaughan & Jake Margolin, lighting designer, Masha Tsimring, Costume Designer Brenda Abbandandolo. sound designer Nick Kourtides, instrument fabricator Terry Dame, libretto Illustrations, Alice Leora Briggs, Koomah, Lovie Olivia
Cast: Heather Christian (piano, organ, vocals), Terry Dame (percussion, saxophone, vocals), Viva DeConcini (electric guitar, vocals), Mel Hsu (cello, bass, vocals), Mona Seyed-Boloforosh (piano, vocals), and Maya Sharpe (violin, acoustic guitar, vocals). They are joined by Rima Fand (violin, vocals), Jessica Lurie (wind, vocals), Divya Maus (vocals), and Kait Warner (vocals), along with a community chorus featuring Raquel Cion, Marisa Clementi, Ciera Cope, Nadine Daniels, Sandra Garner, Audrey Hayes, Mercedes Hesselroth, Frances Higgins, Davina Honeghan, Beau Kadir, Rachel Karp, Sarah Lefebvre, Aris Louis, Teri Madonna, Grenetta Mason, Mickaila Perry, Eleanor Philips, Avery Richards, Kayleigh Rozwat, Amy Santos, Kayla Sklar, Sharyn Thomas, Vanessa Truell, Grace Tyson, Madrid Vinarski, Jessie Winograd, and Allison Zhao.
