The Refiner’s Fire: Mixed Media

Back To Basics

A modern-day Everyman? Perhaps not intentionally. But Lonesome Stone, a British multi-media rock musical, leaves the viewer with that impression. For regardless of the character’s name, each is “Lonesome Stone,” with a “mind as quick as grease./All he lacks is faith and love/And a little peace.” Lonesome Stone stands on every street corner in every city in every color, “lost within.”

Each character is little more than a stereotype—vegetarian, speed freak, revolutionary, drug dealer, gay libber, and foxy female. Some viewers have objected to the use of stock characters, but for the purpose of the play stereotyped characters were essential. Lonesome Stone does not pretend to be a character study; it is a story, based on actual experiences, of a drug dealer and user turned Christian. And it’s a story that hundreds of young Christians today can call their own.

The cast is a good example of this. Most members come from the drug scene, either the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco, the setting for Lonesome Stone, or its counterparts in England and Germany.

Jim Palosaari, who conceived, directed, and produced this musical (see October 11 issue, page 47), chose a cast with no previous theater experience. But one wouldn’t learn that from the show itself; both singing and acting seem quite professional.

The musical uses some intriguing slow-motion sequences. Easy to do on screen, such scenes require a great deal of precision and skill to be effective on stage. The Lonesome Stone cast succeeds. With special lighting effects, the cast has a prolonged slow-motion fight scene, where police raid the group’s den, beat up the leader, called “The Bear” (performed ably by Fred Gartner), and drag him off to jail. Facial expressions and bodily movements silently portray the sound and terror of the event. The scene is so well done that it creates the impression of a slow-motion film rather than live action.

Sounds of bombers and explosions and projected war slides form the backdrop for the song “War Babies.” Clear Light Productions, the young Boston-based multi-media organization that produced CRY 3 and If Your God Is So Great, also did the media work for Lonesome Stone. (Clear Light has a fine future in this new art form; it deserves more support and publicity than it has yet received.)

Not all the songs used were written for the show. The group opens with a song popular a year or so ago, “Jesus Is Just Alright,” uses a Larry Norman song, “Great American Novel,” and closes with Andrae Crouch’s “Take a Little Time.” The songs are unfamiliar to many in the audience, however, particularly the adults. And the older songs appear in effective new contexts.

Palosaari has taken the song “Great American Novel,” which is another symbol of Everyman in the play, and made it the biography of the one character in the musical specifically identified as “Lonesome Stone.” Stone, played by Rich Haas, leaves Minneapolis disgusted with middle-American middle-class meaninglessness and goes to California looking for life’s answers. But before he has been in the Bear’s “den” an hour his guitar is stolen. Despairing because of his empty life, Stone decides to go back “to the Lord I knew so well in my youth” (in the words of Slim, another convert). Slim and Stone, along with The Bear, who is converted while in jail, try to convince the rest of the group to get back to basics—Jesus.

The Bear’s mate, Queenie (Linda Madsen), is bitter and resentful about his new interest in Jesus. While The Bear and his fellow Christians pray for her, Queenie desperately tries to believe in Jesus. During the song “Come Jesus, Come,” written by Grey Noncarrow, who also played Slim, her attitude changes. In an angry voice she reluctantly sings “I’m ready./Come Jesus, come, and show me/Your way, your truth and life.” By the time she reaches the third stanza Queenie’s voice softens to admit her shattered dreams and longing need of a new architect for her life.

Although parts of the show seem derivative, as Palosaari himself admitted—one surrealistic scene with plastic-covered cast is reminiscent of Jesus Christ Superstar—and the plot has become so familiar as to be trite, the production as a whole is fresh and energetic. The lighting is superb, the costuming imaginative. Unfortunately, it will be timely for only a short while. And only a few will be able to see it. Before the American tour it played for weeks in London and then went on the road to other cities in the United Kingdom and on the Continent. But in the United States it played in only a few cities, all in the Midwest.

To gain wider exposure Lonesome Stone should be made into an album. It would make a good addition to the growing body of contemporary Christian recordings.

CHERYL FORBES

NEWLY PRESSED

In its first few appearances this new section, which will be published irregularly, will cover some of the best religious music released within the last two years.

Lamb and Lamb II, Joel Chernoff soloist (Messianic, P.O. Box 37100, Cincinnati, Ohio 45222). Produced by Rick “Levi” Coghill, these two fine albums, include an interesting mix of Jewish, rock, and blues sounds. Songs in the album are credited to Chernoff, John Martz, Daniel Ben Yosef, and Dana Langford. Chernoff, backed up by Coghill, sings with sensitivity and verve, creating a quiet, gentle effect. “Clap Your Hands” is one of the most exciting cuts on the second album. Coghill uses steel guitar and what sounds like a dunbeck (Jewish drum) to lead and build into the song. The rhythm is intricately Jewish and the melody moves joyously to match the lyrics, which are adapted from Psalm 47. On their first recording “The Sacrifice Lamb” stands out. “The sacrifice lamb has been slain/His blood on the altar a strain/To wipe away guilt and pain/To bring hope eternal” is the witness in beautiful song of these completed Jews.

The Way I Feel, Honeytree soloist (Myrrh, a division of Word, Waco, Texas 16703). Side two contains the best on the album, all but one written by Honeytree. Her approach to each song, arrangement, and instrumentalization conveys the atmosphere of the later Roberta Flack or Carole King. On side two she gives us a mix of secular and religious songs—a country hymn to heaven, some soft love songs, and an offbeat buff called “Hummer, Bummer, Bashmobile” about her broken-down car. Honeytree shows through song her ability to appreciate all of life; her attitude is incarnational. Side one is too traditional, too typically soft Christian music. Side two gives more of the singer’s personality, light-hearted and loving, and shows her talent and potential. Let’s hear more of this side of Honeytree.

Because I Am, rock musical (Clear Light Productions, Box 391, Newton, Mass. 02158). This two-record album, released a little over a year ago, examines the situations that shape our attitudes and the help Jesus can give in changing them: “I come to you with life in hand/You’re what you are Because I Am.” The instrumental numbers are as evocative as those with lyrics. A good first effort.

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