“Celebrate Arkansas” recently chatted with Once on This Island’s Jahmaul Bakare for their January issue. In this article, Jahmaul shares more about the plot of the show, the meaning of its message and how the elements impact both the story and the audience. Once on This Island plays Walton Arts Center February 11-16. Tickets can be purchased here.
By the time Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day roll around, most of us in Arkansas will be tired of winter’s cold and frost, but Walton Arts Center has just the remedy. Nationally touring Broadway musical Once On This Island will bring the heat and spice of Caribbean colors, rhythms, and dance to the Northwest Arkansas stage mid-February, and you won’t want to miss it.
Jahmaul Bakare as Agwe
“Audiences are in for a treat,” says Jahmaul Bakare, who plays island water god Agwe in the show. “There’s amazing dancing, great singing, consummate acting. One moment, you’ll be laughing and smiling and having a good time, and the next you’ll be thinking about something thought-provoking, and then you’ll probably be crying. You’ll be engaged and captivated from the beginning. That’s how the show is. Once it starts, there’s not a dull moment.”
Winner of the 2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, Once On This Island is the sweeping, universal tale of Ti Moune, a fearless peasant girl in search of her place in the world, and ready to risk it all for love. Guided by the mighty island gods, Ti Moune sets out on a remarkable journey to reunite with the man who has captured her heart.
Bakare’s character, Agwe, is god of the water and is, in fact, the one who starts the chain of events that leads Ti Moune to meet her beloved Daniel Beauxhomme. In his song “Rain,” Agwe arranges for a storm Agwe arranges for a story to cause Daniel’s car to crash so that Ti Moune may find him and restore him to health. She tells him, “The gods have sent me to make you well,” and because of her faith, Daniel is healed.
Much of the tension in the story comes from the fact that Ti Moune and Daniel come from two different classes of society. Daniel descends from black Haitians who mixed with French colonists and, thus, is lighter skinned and a member of the wealthier, upper class. Ti Moune, meanwhile, has darker skin and is a poor peasant. Most characters in the play see their relationship as doomed from the start. “The Sad Tale of the Beauxhommes” tells the history of race relations on the island and is one of Bakare’s favorite songs in the show, he says, because its content forms the root of all story’s drama.
The Company of Once on This Island
A core player throughout Once On This Island is mother nature herself. The four island gods represent water, earth, love, and death. They all use forces of nature to manifest their will on the island, and the elements are real — real water rains down on the stage. Sand and fire are present, too. Bakare himself spends most of the 90-minute performance (no intermission) within an actual pool filled with water. Additionally, throughout the show, cast members create a magical, authentic island experience by making background sounds of birds, frogs, mosquitoes, drums, tom toms, djembes, rain, breezes, and more.
The cast invites audience members to take in these natural elements on a very spiritual level. “We don’t always pay attention to the things all around us that make life easier for us,” Bakare explains. “Since being a part of Once On This Island, I’ve tried to pay attention to all the things around me from a spiritual standpoint so that things will be a bit easier, so that I can go on stage and make a great experience for the audience every night.”
The overall message of Once On This Island is to “love in spite of,” Bakare says. At the end, Ti Moune makes a difficult choice between self-preservation and self-sacrifice. It is in choosing the latter that she proves loving someone in spite of their wrongdoing is a way to clear the air and bring life that overcomes death.
Meet Jahmaul Bakare
Roots: Born in Chicago, Illinois, to Nigerian and American parents
Performance Bacgkround: Began singing and acting at age 9; performed with Congo Theater Company
Education: Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College and Master of Fine Arts and Music from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas
Career Genres: classical theater, film and TV, musical theater, opera
Favorite credits: Flick in the LA premiere of Violet; Scar in The Lion King in Hong Kong
Dream Roles: A part in Hamilton; Coalhouse in Ragtime
Goals for the Future: To be in another Stephen Flaherty musical and to remain in entertainment for the rest of his life