Andrew Penner and the Golden Record Ensemble in Soulpepper's The Golden Record.BARRY MCCLUSKY/Courtesy of Soulpepper
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- Title: The Golden Record
- Written by: Sarah Wilson
- Director: Frank Cox-O’Connell
- Actors: Mike Ross, Divine Brown, Beau Dixon, Raha Javanfar, Travis Knights, Andrew Penner
- Company: Soulpepper Theatre Company
- Venue: Young Centre for the Performing Arts
- City: Toronto
- Year: To Nov. 20.
- COVID-19 measures: Some “COVID-conscious performances” at 50-per-cent capacity with masks required are offered.
Roll over Chuck Berry, tell Carl Sagan the news.
With its storytelling concert The Golden Record, Soulpepper Theatre Company poses a question that has nagged the cosmos for 45 years: If there is no sound in outer space, how does one explain Johnny B. Goode’s presence up there? Better yet, what’s with all the Bach?
In 1977, NASA included a record player and a pair of phonographs aboard the twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft on a journey to Jupiter and beyond. The discs held a small trove of music, sounds and photographs from Earth. The music was selected by the American author-astronomer Sagan and others to represent the planet’s best recorded moments of melody, rhythm and harmony. On humanity’s playlist were Berry, a Bulgarian folk song, Georgian polyphonic music, Bach (three times!) and much more.
Soulpepper’s music ensemble (which included the company’s director of music Mike Ross, who conceived the show) performed only a small sample of the space-sent soundtrack. While Lorenzo Barcelata’s El Cascabel was heard, for example, the aim of The Golden Record is higher than mere jukebox musical.
Mike Ross and Beau Dixon in The Golden Record.BARRY MCCLUSKY/Courtesy of Soulpepper
So, we get the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, which was not blasted into space but fits in with the narrative. Scientists, the audience was told, have found a black hole that, for the past 2½ billion years has emitted a B flat sound 57 octaves below middle C. “We can’t hear it,” said Soulpepper singer-musician Andrew Penner, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
Penner was talking about pulses and shudders, hence the subsequent performance of Brian Wilson’s groovy feel-good anthem that rhymes “vibrations” with “excitations.”
If the original Voyager Golden Record was a love letter to the cosmos, however, Soulpepper’s production is not all surf music and celebration. The LPs from 1977 were actually made of copper – only the plating was gold. When examining cultural artifacts and the era from whence they came, what lies beneath the surface is important. Written by Sarah Wilson and directed by Frank Cox-O’Connell, The Golden Record critically examines a time capsule while thoughtfully (and often pointedly) re-envisioning a playlist.
The first perceived wrong righted has to do with the lack of a Canadian composition. Yes, Glenn Gould’s piano playing was part of NASA’s interstellar soundtrack, but there are no writers representing the world’s second-biggest nation. On stage, Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush, a lovely ode to humanity and silver spaceships flying, was affectingly performed over Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier.
Other adjustments were less subtle. Pointing out the complete dominance of “white folks” on the panel that had selected the music for outer space, the performer-narrators took exception to some of the song choices. Melancholy Blues (as performed by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven) was particularly ridiculed.
While the editorializing was not invalid at all, the lampooning delivery was problematic. A reading of a message from Sagan was interrupted by a short aside on the white, European descent of the curators. Later, a sarcastic mention of Sagan’s name elicited laughter from the audience. Fair enough – the turtleneck-sweater scientist was mocked relentlessly in his time. The end result, however, is that Soulpepper’s celebration of music as a universal message and galactic medium on the one hand is sabotaged by the cynicism on the other.
Musically, The Golden Record (which is a revised version of a 2016 production) was innovative, spirited and eloquent. David Bowie’s Starman was an ideal opener, and an interpolation of Beethoven and Berry was a nifty move. A harrowing mashup of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising with a traditional song from Northern New Guinea was unexpected and worthwhile.
Divine Brown and Travis Knights in The Golden Record.BARRY MCCLUSKY/Courtesy of Soulpepper
The set design was intelligently conceived; the sound, immaculate. Performances by Ross, Penner, Divine Brown, Beau Dixon, Raha Javanfar and Travis Knights were consistently strong and passionate.
There are many nits to be picked when examining the choices and methodology of a previous generation. Soulpepper picks away, letting us know that not all vibrations are good ones.
The Golden Record continues to Nov. 20 at Soulpepper in Toronto. COVID-19 measures: Some “COVID-conscious performances” at 50-per-cent capacity with masks required are available.