Caroline, Or Change

The Hayes Theatre’s production of Caroline, Or Change is musical theatre at its best.

This musical is deeply felt, superbly performed and beautifully staged. It's unconcerned with spectacle, and laced with just enough whimsy.

Caroline, Or Change takes us to Louisiana, 1963. The president has just been assassinated and America is on the verge of one of the greatest social movements of the 20th century. 

Caroline, a single mother of four and maid to the Gellman family, shares a special bond with eight-year-old Noah, who is struggling in the aftermath of his mother’s death and his father’s new marriage. The family cannot afford to give Caroline the pay rise she desperately needs, and tension develops when Noah starts purposely leaving his pocket change in the laundry for Caroline to find.

Elenoa Rokobaro is an absolute standout as Caroline, and was well-matched by Ryan Yeates as Noah on opening night, who delivered a strong performance with comedic timing beyond his years. 

The entire cast is exceptional. As each character has their moment nothing ever feels like a deviation from the plot, but rather vignettes that make up a greater whole. 

Mitchell Butel returns to the Hayes to direct this work. The intimacy of the characters and the moments they share are brought into sharper focus by the intimacy of the venue. The staging is inventive, creating depth with a limited amount of space. Sitting in the 100-seat audience in the theatre you feel like a fly on the wall in the Gellmans' home, peering into the basement laundry where Caroline works away her days. 

The music takes cues from a range of styles including blues, Motown, classical, and Jewish klezmer and folk music. This adds to the delicate balance of the surreal at play in this work. A trio of singers provide Caroline with a dazzling narration, and fantastical characters personifying the moon, the washing machine and the dryer come in to play. But somehow the whimsy never feels laid on too thick. 

Rokobaro brings the house down with her powerful delivery of musical numbers Sunday Morning and Lot’s Wife, with Emily Havea as Dotty holding her own. 

This musical succeeds in taking us to a specific time and place, and speaks to the greater social and racial issues that still echo in the USA today. It leaves us not with a perfect conclusion. It ends just as it begins, on the brink of change - the only constant in life.