Adam and Eve

Two Fridays ago I went over to ACMA, which is a fine arts high school in Beaverton for their production of "The Apple Tree." My mom was hired to play the piano for the musical and she was doing it with her friend Jody who was on the synth. You never know what to expect from high school productions. I have been to my share of shows that make you want to sneak out the back before intermission. But occasionally I see something that really impresses me.

This was a very unique production. It was basically three short, seemingly unrelated, stories. The first was called Passionella and was set in like the 1940s. It was about a chimney sweep who wishes to be a movie star and gets her wish only during certain hours of the day. She falls in love with another movie star who doesn't want to give her the time of day because she is so "fake." Little does he know. Passionella is played by my friend Kyley who is a fabulous dancer and adds quite a bit of humor and glamour to this role. (She is giving the thumbs up with me to the left) Anyway, the two movie stars do end up getting married and they both discover in the end that they have both had some fairy godmother help to be "famous" and they both turn into their regular everyday average self as the curtain closes. Hmmmm...interesting.

Next short is set in like the fifth century or something like that. It felt very Romanesque in costume and feel. It is about a princess who is in love with a soldier. When their love is discovered he is sent to be judged. Now in this land the queen has set up a very odd system of justice. The accused is given the choice of two doors. At one door is a lion. If he chooses that door then he is obviously guilty and obviously immediately punished. If he chooses the other door, he is innocent and there awaits a woman that he then marries. So this soldier is given a choice and the princess finds out from the lion keepers which door the lion is behind. But she is also a jealous person and can't stand the thought of him marrying the person behind the other door. So in the end of this short act, we see her point him in the direction of a door and we never get to know if she chose death for him or not. Doubly, interesting. What does that have to do with the first short? These are written to go together. Hmmmm....?

The final half of the show follows Adam and Eve as they are first created and getting to know each other and their environment. I was supremely impressed by the two actors who staged this entire act. Their acting was compelling and the story made you think about something that gets entirely glossed over in Sunday school with the flannelgraph. They explored things like how did Adam and Eve know how or what to name the animals. In what ways were men and women different from each other before socialization ever had a chance to direct otherwise. Did Adam and Eve ever fall in love. What did that process look like? When you have no past to learn from and no teacher, how do you learn about the world? It was a very thoughtful, humorous and, in the end, touching show.

Now I am still trying to figure out how the three parts flowed together. They did mention the color brown during each show but I have no clue why. I also found out later that it was written by Mark Twain and was intended to be show in the opposite order of acts. Adam and Eve were supposed to start it all and Passionella was supposed to conclude it all. That piece of knowledge didn't really solidify anything for me. Oh well. It was a fun night. Since you couldn't take pictures during the show I don't have any to show you except these. Many of the actors and their parents showed up at Red Robin later where my parents and I were grabbing grub. The guy in the middle played Adam.