History written in the ‘Stars’
When a newly freed plantation slave warns that “the South hasn’t changed that much,” she ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie.
The Civil War and its aftermath provide more than a backdrop for the “Romeo and Juliet”-style historical romance in Carole Eglash-Kosoff’s 2011 novel, “When Stars Align.”
Newly adapted for the stage by Eglash-Kosoff and director John Henry Davis in a handsomely staged and well performed guest production at the Odyssey Theatre, the drama powerfully depicts the nation’s original sin of human beings reduced to property. The moral questions and heartbreaking consequences it evokes remain very much with us.
Playwright Eglash-Kosoff is no stranger to troubled race relations. Last year the Odyssey hosted “The Human Spirit,” adapted from her nonfiction chronicle set during South Africa’s apartheid era. “When Stars Align” hits closer to home, with its story of a star-crossed romance between a white tomboy (Haley McHugh) and a black slave (Jason Woods) who is the illegitimate son of the estate’s degenerate heir (Nick Ballard).
More Creole ingredients in the genetic stockpot cook up well crafted plot twists. However, in trying to adapt a 400-page novel, the approach here is mired in longform narrative rather than theatrical moments, with all the limitations that entails: a carousel of subplots and myriad characters who resort to extensive exposition to summarize events and their states of mind.
Trying to cram in a succession of broader historical events further crowds the serviceable melodrama’s natural breathing room. .
That’s all the more reason to appreciate how Davis’ music-infused staging keeps the sprawling story threads in focus and draws vivid performances from his 14-member cast. The show’s best moments are personal rather than epic — in particular, the haunting starlighted tryst between the young lovers, in all its fleeting beauty.