Theatre Review: Leaving Eden Gets Biblical On Feminism
Synopsis: In the beginning God created man and woman; Adam and Lilith. Lilith has some questions, Adam has some rules, and in a modern metropolis, Eve must deal with a mess of her own creation. Leaving Eden is a musical that asks: Is there wisdom in the Garden? And will we have to leave Eden to really know?
Before there was Eve, according to Jewish tradition, there was Lilith: a woman born at the same time and from the same clay as Adam (The First Man). Written by Jenny Waxman and Ben Page, with musical direction by JoAnne Harris and direction by Susanna Wolk, Leaving Eden questions why Lilith, Adam’s equal, became a demon. In turn, it observes how religion’s molding of women as subservient and dangerous to men barricades both men and women from true love as much as equality.
You cannot truly love someone you never allow to be themselves or, at least, their own strength. You are loving your idea of them, but not their person, because you never see who they are. More importantly, you work to assure they do not either. Case in point: Ancient Adam. Ian Ward makes Adam the most lovable dunce. He loves his God and his Lilith, but feels like he cannot love both because Lilith challenges him and, in turn, challenges God. Yet, Sarah-Anne Martinez dominates as Ancient Lilith. She is a beacon of strength, curiosity, and light, of which those very qualities are why Adam/ God see her as dark. We never see the Lord in this musical, but he is present as the main excuse for why its characters, particularly its women, feel either useless or righteous.
Janet Krupin as Modern Lilly has one of the richest vocals I have ever heard, which makes you gravitate to the wealth of her character. She is smart, funny, and completely broken by her miscarriage. She can no longer have children, and feels like her main purpose, on this earth and as a woman, has been stripped from her. So then what? Naturally, viewers gravitate towards her storyline because it is of a person that feels like they lost their value as human being and must redefine herself. At her side are the supportive Adam (Azudi Onyejekwe ) and Eve (Gabrielle McClinton), who do not know how they fit into her world now that she feels lost in it. Onyejekwe’s Modern Adam is more compassionate than Ancient Adam, but still struggles to understand the depth of a women’s heart and their oppression, while McClinton is so steady and admirable in playing Eve during ancient and modern times. Still, altogether, their roles and songs are meant to prompt where women stand, especially in self-love and care, when men seem obsessed with “protecting” them.
Whether it is Modern Adam or Ancient Adam, there was a “suffocating” quality to how their characters treated their women; trying to make them the beings they protected without letting them heal themselves. Thus, they defined protection as not allowing the women in their life have their own thoughts, feelings, and bodily choices because to own yourself means to hurt yourself. Therefore, it was no wonder that Ancient Adam felt close to God because, in many ways, he made himself god to women. It is a fascinating, nuanced point built into 2 stories/ musicals into an enrapturing ode to women’s needed equality. See Leaving Eden July 21 at 5 and 9 PM at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre Click Here To Buy Tickets
