For 72nd year, let drama begin on Roanoke Island

ROANOKE ISLAN, N.C.

Settlement huts set ablaze, fog-shrouded scenes of slaughter and ominous sound effects were some of the new dramatic tools brandished at Friday's opening night of the 72nd season of "The Lost Colony."

In his second year with the nation's longest-running outdoor symphonic drama, director Robert Richmond said he wanted to give the audience at Waterside Theatre the sense of what the 1587 English settlers may have experienced.

"It's everything that you would possibly hear, feel and see," he said after the show. "We're right here, so it's easy to imagine what it was like."

The accidental fire in September 2007 that destroyed most of the show's costumes made last year's opening night much-anticipated. The show's production designer, Tony-award winning Broadway costumer William Ivey Long, went into overdrive after the fire and produced new colorful and ornate costumes to more accurately depict the characters' class status.

"The Lost Colony" tells the tale of the first English attempt to establish a colony in the New World in 1587 on Roanoke Island. The 117 men, women and children vanished without a trace.

First produced in 1937, playwright Paul Green's story wove history and imagination into a compelling depiction of brutality, courage, love and survival.

Richmond's interpretation steps up the violence - hatchets, spears and knives flash and slash, and gunshots from muskets are employed frequently. Romance also has been pumped up. John Borden and Eleanor Dare share an extended passionate kiss, and Ol' Tom gives Agona a loving pat on her behind.

Fire, despite the production's all-too-real experience with it, was used in a realistic depiction of an Indian attack.

The production is also more interactive: Characters step off the stage into the aisles; Indians chase colonists around the theater; fog drifts from the stage and envelops the audience.

And for the first time in 71 years, Richmond had the entire cast come to the stage and bow at the end of the show. It's as much for the audience, he said, as the cast.

"I think we're at the time where people want to reward others for their good work," he said.

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com