Let others strive for the shock of the new; “Revels’’ is content to offer the comforts of the old.
Indeed, the very word “revels’’ is misleading if it suggests Dionysian doings, because what unfolds onstage at the Sanders Theatre is a celebration of the virtues of simplicity and of the nourishment to be found in traditional music, from shape-note hymns and holiday carols to Appalachian folk songs to African-American spirituals to Shaker and Native American tunes.
There is a spare beauty to many of these songs, especially when performed by Appalachian singer Suzannah Park and gospel singer Janice Allen. It is in the sketches that “Revels’’ stumbles.
There is no story line as such to “Revels,’’ but a broad framework is supplied by Native American storyteller Leon Joseph Littlebird, who begins the evening with “Black Elk’s Vision,’’ an excerpt from “Black Elk Speaks.’’ “Revels’’ then gives us glimpses of other cultural rituals that were designed to celebrate the winter solstice. High points include some nifty Appalachian clogging and an African-American Christmas ceremony called Jonkonnu that featured drumming, dancing, and colorful head-to-toe disguises.
Allen brings personal warmth and technical assurance to “Almost Day,’’ “Shout for Joy,’’ “Sheep, Sheep, Don’t You Know the Road?’’ and the traditional spiritual “What You Gonna Call that Pretty Little Baby?’’
The 27-year-old Park, a 2005 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design who now lives in Asheville, N.C., delivers evocative renditions of “Bright Morning Stars’’ and “Brother Ephus,’’ and teams up with longtime “Revels’’ stalwart David Coffin for a spellbinding version of “The Cherry Tree Carol.’’
Coffin, playing a recorder, creates a hypnotic effect on “Abbots Bromley Horn Dance,’’ said dance splendidly performed by the Pinewoods Morris Men.
