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Green Room Theatre hosts ‘Carousel’ with a twist

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By David Burke | Friday, November 23, 2007 |

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II set their “Carousel” — chosen by Time magazine as the best musical of the 20th century — in an 1870s New England fishing village.

But when The Green Room Theatre presents the musical, beginning this weekend, it will have a decidedly different locale.

“The concept is that it’s a bunch of Jewish actors putting the show up in the confines of a concentration camp,” said Derek Bertelsen, co-founder of the company and director of the musical.

He had a similar setting last year for his senior project at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., where it’s still being talked about on campus.

Bertelsen said there actually were concentration camps where those interred would put on plays and musicals. Ference Molnar, who wrote the 1909 play “Liliom,” on which “Carousel” is based, was a Jew who escaped from the Nazis, Bertelsen said.

“That really triggered my interest and I started doing research,” Bertelsen said. “His plays were performed in the camp. I don’t have any proof if ‘Liliom’ was performed there, but they did Shakespeare and Moliere and the rest of the classics.”

Setting the musical in a concentration camp adds to the drama of the production, he said.

“There’s a lot of eerie parallels between the show and this concept,” he said. “The song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ has so much more meaning and power in a place like that.”

The mission of Green Room, which opened this summer, is to present a variety of works, with actors selecting their props and costumes in a “more organic” manner, he said.

That will be especially true when doing their own version of such a familiar show, he said.

“It’s a big show and a show a lot of people know,” he said. “It’s just presented in a different way with different technical happenings. It’s a lot more subdued and pared-down, which I think makes more sense.”

One person originally cast in “Carousel” dropped out, he said, not because he didn’t like the concept, but due to the fact it would have been too much work.

Bertelsen said his college production of “Carousel” was compounded by some real-life drama. A power outage occurred at the theater space where it was to take place. Rather than canceling the show — when cast members’ families were flying in from across the country to see it — it was moved instead to the campus chapel.

“It was really emotional there,” he said.

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: “Carousel”

When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, and Dec. 7-8; 2:30 p.m. Sundays, Dec. 2 and 9

Where: The Green Room Theatre, 1611 2nd Ave., Rock Island

How much: $15

Information: (309) 786-5660 or thegreenroomtheatre.com on the Web