Tamar of the River is a unique musical theater piece which combines different music genres, singing styles and cultural elements to tell the story of Tamar (played by Margo Seibert), a courageous young woman who answers the calling of a god who speaks to her through a river, “why do you sing to me? What do you want of me?” she questions it, and the river responds by sending her off in a quest for self-discovery. From war to tragic love triangles and murder, the show takes perceptions of Biblical stories for a spin, and turns them into what can only be described as a holistic experience. The music and book by Marisa Michelson and book and lyrics by Joshua H. Cohen, take bits and pieces from all over and transform them into something rather extraordinary.
We spoke to Michelson, who eloquently described the themes that inspired her to create this piece, as well as her perceptions on the show’s political significance.
There was a time when popular culture would often draw inspiration from biblical stories and for some reason that stopped. What inspired you to go to the Bible to tell this story?
The conception of the story happened six years ago, which is when I was given this opportunity to come up with anything I wanted to create a musical about. At that time I was personally very interested in a few particular questions, one of them was “does the end justify the means?”, which was an epic question, so I looked at Biblical material to see if there was a story I could hang this idea on. I think that in biblical material there is so much grandiosity and so much that’s so huge, that it can hold some questions of that scope. I knew I wanted to do something big and I also was looking for stories of women in biblical material, so I became interested in Ruth and both Tamar's, but that other Tamar is even more devastating (laughs) so I let that one go. The other thing is that in the same way as Shakespearean or Greek stories, I knew I really wanted to explore music and wanted to figure out a way to play with something from a different time, I knew that I didn’t want to do anything that took place in 2008 in New York City for example.
I think it’s very interesting that in this piece you merge many different things that we usually wouldn’t think of putting together. For example, when we think of the Bible and music, we think of the rousing fanfares and big brass pieces used in all those movies from the 1950’s, and you’re doing something quite unique by telling this story with Indian-influenced music, in a way also bringing together Western and Eastern religions by default.
It is a Christian story, well it’s really a Jewish story, and I’m Jewish, and I’m also interested culturally in all aspects of the spiritual world, and I remember the music I listened to when I went to the synagogue, which wasn’t often, but it was music that immediately touched my heart, in ways that felt visceral and different from the way I experience music on the radio or even Christian hymns. There’s an ancient quality to the mournful singing and the scales that are used, that really moved me, so this is part of who I am. At one point, early in my twenties I was influenced by reading The Bhagavad Gita and I went to India and lived there for a little while, I was drawn to Hindu mythology and mined that culture for epic stories, and I found a lot of similarities thematically, especially in how you make actions in life and then you just have to let them go. That kind of Eastern/Western combination seemed to pave the way to combine musical influences, also on some level, I’m looking musically for where there is something timeless and I can only do that through the lens of my own experiences, but I feel that the way that I’m inspired by nature or ideas or human beings, puts me immediately into a space that feels timeless and in that space everything is possible musically.
And when you combine different ideologies, the piece can’t help but become political. The plot itself is about political strategy and how Tamar tries to serve as mediator in a conflict, but we also have another political layer which is the ecological concern of us not listening to nature, did you intend to have a “green” message in the piece?
No actually, that’s funny, because I do feel like that cause is so particularly important to me and it’s something that I’m actually exploring more in the next piece that I’m working on. Josh, nor I were consciously working with that idea, but without wanting to sound cheesy I do think that if you respect and love nature - knowing how much knowledge there is to be gained from communion with nature and this world that we live in - when you come and create this character of the river, this love will show up. In that sense the show is ecologically political, but it came from a place that was truly loving and not trying to be political.
Yeah, and even if the show has a lot of so-called "messages", it never comes off as preachy. Was it hard to avoid turning it into a didactic piece?
I’m glad that you feel that way and I know that many people had mixed feelings about that, many people who came did not feel that way at all, some thought it was preachy, some thought it wasn’t. I think that it was challenging for Josh and I to get hold of this wild beast of a story and the epic nature of the message we were trying to convey, about the nature of interacting with people who are different from us and trying to empathize with them. So these questions made it challenging to stay grounded in these characters. The piece went through a lot of changes, including being a two-act “book musical”, into a one-act, much more distilled work. Ultimately for me the piece is about Tamar’s relationship to her god, this river, and how our choices, even when they’re political, should come from a grounded place. I think the show’s political exterior is more situational.
My favorite thing about the piece is that Tamar uses her sexuality for her own benefit. She reminded me of someone like Madonna in how she uses sex as part of power transactions, and she doesn’t rely on the men in her story to give her permission to be who she wants to be.
That’s amazing that you picked up on that and I appreciate it, because I don’t think that I’ve spoken to many people about that, and I remember a few years ago, how important that felt to me, and it’s confusing and challenging, because on one hand Tamar is recognized and lauded for her beauty, she’s also strong willed and very sexy, which is what attracts people to her, and it’s true: she embraces that, she accepts it and says “OK, if that’s what I have to do to get what I want, which is to achieve peace, then yeah, that’s fine”. I’d like to explore this in a fuller way in the future. I think it’s fantastic to have a role like this for an actress, the role of Tamar is about a powerful woman whose main relationship is with her god and not with a man, so I personally think that’s somewhat unique as well. A lot of female characters, even when they’re strong and powerful, are often experiencing their primary relationship to a man. So exploring this inner spiritual journey with a woman is something we don’t see much in pop culture or musical theater.
The Original Cast Recording of Tamar of the River is now available in stores.
