Heaven Sent

Once on This Island

by Mark Cofta

Plucky young Theatre Horizon resists classification. Past summer productions in the shopping-heavy/theater-thin King of Prussia area have ranged from a raucous outdoor Grease to an in-your-face version of The Laramie Project. This year's mainstage production is a professional, polished rendition of the Caribbean romantic fable Once on this Island.

Based on Rosa Guy's novel My Love, My Love, Lyn Ahrens (book & lyrics) and composer Stephen Flaherty's 1990 musical might seem a light, sunny choice, but its 100 minutes actually share an emotionally powerful, universally meaningful Romeo-and-Juliet story about class and race in Haiti.

Ade Laoye plays TiMoune, an orphan "chosen by the gods" to survive a deadly storm. She's raised happily by an elderly couple (Ryane Nicole Studivant and Jerrell Henderson), but grows restless, "waiting for life to begin." It arrives the moment Daniel (Justin Damm), a rich young man from town who drives past TiMoune's peasant village, catches her eye. When he crashes in a storm, she's there to save him � with a little help from the gods of Earth (Chanta Layton), Love (Rachel Camp), Water (Walter Tucker) and, reluctantly, Death (Justin Jain), who won't concede Daniel without something dear in return.

Laoye fills TiMoune with wide-eyed wonder, and her spirited moves and robust voice lead this talented young cast through the challenges of the show's continuous singing and dancing.

Director Matthew Decker makes the comfy new Upper Merion Middle School auditorium feel intimate, with a tropically framed raked thrust stage (by designer Dan Soule). Musical director Peter Hilliard's offstage combo provides constant accompaniment, with percussion assistance from the cast. Kristin Snyder's bright costumes and Andrew Cowles' colorful lighting also enliven the island setting.

What makes Once on this Island soar, however, is its storytelling framework. The ensemble (also including Emmanuel Carrera and Janet McWilliams) performs multiple roles � poor peasants and rich townies, of course, but also trees, frogs, even a car � but all are, first and last, a family of villagers sharing a comforting tale with a young girl (India Mayo) frightened by a storm. Through multiple layers, what might be merely delightful song-and-dance becomes a musical history lesson with a profound, but not preachy, moral. "Our lives," they reveal, "become the stories that we weave."

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Once on This Island

Through July 15Theatre Horizon 450 Keebler Road, King of Prussia610-283-2230, www.theatrehorizon.org