Running away to find yourself: a review of ‘Fugitive Songs’

On November 24th, get ready to hit the highway when director Lucas DeLuca presents Fugitive Songs at The Gordon Best Theatre in downtown Peterborough. A “song cycle” written by Chris Miller and Nathan Tyler, Fugitive Songs is Amber Coast Theatrical’s long-awaited follow up to last year’s First Date: The Musical.

An unusually structured show about the wanderlust of six unconnected individuals in their 20s, Amber Coast’s production brings together a group of my personal favourite performers in an evening that is rich with musical performance. While the piece is powerful in that regard, it cheats both the performers and the audience with uneven and often underdeveloped plot lines.

However, Lucas’ company under the leadership of musical director Justin Hiscox and vocal director Brian MacDonald manage to take the musical material presented, salvage it from the weaknesses of the play, and carve it into a highly charged musical experience filled with emotion and beauty.

Fugitive Songs made its off-Broadway debut in March 2008. Written by the team of Chris Miller and Nathan Tyler, it was defined as a “song cycle” and not a drama. This means the production is made up of separate songs around a theme, which are put in a certain order to create a narrative. In Fugitive Songs, that theme is presented through six individuals who are fed up with the life they are living and run away in search of something better.

While motivated by their own separate reasons, the thread that binds all six together is a search for their own identities and sense of self. In one instance, the two stories combine into one, but in all others the individual stories remain separate. The result is less of a play and more of a concert, albeit one that has a narrative.

Throughout Fugitive Songs, I often found myself getting so wrapped up in the performances that I often lost the narrative. I’m not certain what the problem was; at times I could very clearly understand the drama and the story playing out in front of me, while at other times I had no idea at all what was going on. If not for the explanations provided by a friend I brought to the preview, I would have missed certain story lines altogether.

But I need to stress that this is not the fault of the cast, who all give musically powerful performances: it’s the challenge of the source material. It isn’t an easy production. The key to Fugitive Songs is to not allow yourself to drift into the musical performances, but to focus on each and every lyric. The stories are sung and felt but for the most part are not acted out on the stage. You can’t lazily drift through Fugitive Songs. You really do need to pay attention.

One of the unconventional narrative points of Fugitive Songs is that most of the characters don’t have names, but are personifications of the performers who take on the roles. The Amber Coast Theatrical production brings together an incredible group of vocalists and musical theatre performers: Lucas DeLuca, Brenna Goldie, Caitlin Currie, Keely Wilson, Conner Clarken, and Erik Feldcamp. Each playing an individual character with an individual story, the members of the cast know their craft and deliver powerful musical performances. The challenges lie in the individual strengths of their given narratives.

One of Peterborough’s most solid and steadfast musical performers, Lucas DeLuca plays a photographer who, while working in a photo lab developing other people’s photos, decides to pick up and leave to take photos of his own adventures. Along the way he meets and falls in love with Keely Wilson’s character, a free-spirited woman in touch with the spirit of Mother Nature. Although the two don’t necessarily fit into each other’s world, they develop a sweet romance, presented in two of the the most beautiful songs of the night, “Lullaby” and “Wildflowers”.

In Caitlin Currie’s storyline, she plays a girl who has everything but is in a terrible relationship with a man who takes her for granted. In “Annie’s Party”, she sings about how her partner has skipped out on her party, and in “Lost” (possibly Caitlin’s best number of the night), she sings about how her boyfriend literally loses her in the woods. Caitlin Currie is a unique musical performer, and her quirky vocal style fits this role perfectly, often allowing her to create one of the more colourful characters of the night, filled with both humour and a vindictive triumph.

While Caitlin’s is one of the most coherent storylines, Erik Feldcamp’s starts off strong but then trails off into something more incoherent. Mourning his breakup with his girlfriend Tracy, Erik’s character hits the road to somewhere, and he does something. Perhaps you can figure it out better than I could. The irony of this narrative weakness is that many of Erik’s songs are the most beautiful and rousing of the show, especially his stand-out performance of “Shine”, one of the highlights of the show. Erik is an incredible vocalist, and Fugitive Songs is one of the best performances I’ve seen him give. Unfortunately, I’m not sure just where his story was going or how it ended.

My favourite song of the show is “Wilson”, performed by Conner Clarkin. A story of two stoners who inadvertently rob a gas station, “Wilson” is filled with action, comedy and suspense, like a scene from a Quinton Taratino movie done in song. Conner’s character, a dissatisfied youth who decides he’d rather live life as a drifter than work at Subway, is one of the more original and potent story threads in Fugitive Songs. He is a volatile character with heart, but who never seemed to have a chance, especially as expressed in the song “Growing Up”. Connor’s performance as “the boy your mom warned you about” is filled with the right amount of humour, sensitivity, and pathos to make him an audience favourite.

Brenna Goldie’s storyline could be one of the most underdeveloped, which is shameful because she is a vocal powerhouse. Although she has appeared in musical theatre before, this is the first time she has really crossed my radar and I am excited to hear more from her. She is just an amazing vocalist.

In another story about a woman running away from a dysfunctional relationship, Brenna’s character decides being alone is better than being with someone. Although she gives many of the night’s biggest performances, especially with her final song “I Could Go Back”, her story (to me at least) seems to be the weakest. However, each time she sings she completely delivers, creating some of the real big moments of the night. I’m just enamoured by her voice and hope to see her on stage and in the spotlight again and again.

I’d also like to point out a great number sung by Brenna and Keely called “Poor Little Patty” about Patty Hearst. I had to go home and read the lyrics and, while I’m not really sure how it fits in the narrative, I find the Patty Hearst story to be eternally fascinating, so I’ve developed a soft spot for it.

It seems to me that the story threads really aren’t the point of Fugitive Songs as much as the theme or the ideas put forth by the individual songs. Fugitive Songs isn’t about any individual character as much as it is about that short period of time in your life, between kids and mortgages and careers, where you can throw away everything you know and run away to discover a life you didn’t know was there before. It is about the spirit of adventure and the desire for change. It is about the drama, the courage, and the heartache that goes along in finding your identity in a place far away from home. This in itself is a powerful subject that the production succeeds in conveying to the audience.

So why go see Fugitive Songs? Quite simply, as a night of musical performances, you are going to be mesmerized and find value for your entertainment time and dollar. The musical score is extremely complex and, under the guidance of Justin Hiscox and Brian MacDonald, this talented grouping of performers really push themselves to another place. There is a beautiful sensitivity and a ton of emotion within this piece, and I can’t express enough my admiration for their individual talents, as well as the way they handle the material.

However, the nonlinear structure of the narrative was often lost on me, and some of the most powerful performers were given the most underdeveloped story lines. I need to see it a second time through to truly appreciate it, and given its long run, I am planning to do that. It’s a show that I’d definitely want to sit through again because I appreciate the quality of the performers, and perhaps there’s more to the narrative than I found in one sitting. This is a show that you need to digest rather than simply watch.

If you are expecting a traditional play with music, Fugitive Songs has its challenges. But if you consider it an extended musical performance or concert by some of Peterborough’s finest musical theatre performers, it works. Come for the exceptional cast, stay for the musical performances and the powerful emotion, and don’t worry if you need to search for deeper meaning or story. No matter what your find, you will discover something to love in Fugitive Songs.

Fugitive Songs runs from November 24th to 26th and December 2nd and 3rd at the Gordon Best Theatre (216 Hunter St. W. in Peterborough, above The Only). Shows start at 8 p.m., with an additional 2 p.m. matinee on December 2nd and a 2 p.m. start on December 3rd. Tickets are $15 and are available at the door.