A devilish time in ‘Ti-Jean & His Brothers’

Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian and her team envisioned their version as a tribute to the indomitable spirit of Haiti. Musical director/sound designer Kera Washington (founder of the world music ensemble Zili Misik) is onstage throughout, providing Haitian-inflected percussion to accompany songs by the Trinidadian composer André Tanker commissioned by Joseph Papp for the 1972 US premiere in Central Park.

Sara Ossana’s set suggests Haiti, too — especially the raised hut, covered only by a tarp, where Mother (Sonya Raye) looks after her three sons: the strong but stupid eldest, Gros Jean (Hampton Sterling Fluker), a woodsman; the middle child, Mi-Jean (Cedric Lilly), a fisherman only “half as dumb’’ but too caught up in his books to remember ever to bring bait; and the youngest, good-natured Ti-Jean (Kervin George Germain), who has yet to test himself out in the world.

The arrival of one Bolom (Kateryne Nelson-Guerrero), a spookily shrouded “child of the devil’’ bearing a challenge, sends them out to seek their fortune. If any human can make him feel “anger, rage, and human emotion,’’ she promises, the reward will be “a shower of sovereigns . . . fulfillment, wealth, peace.’’

From the opening “Krik? Krak!’’ (“Ready?’’ “Yes!’’ — the traditional Haitian prelude to a spate of storytelling), a chorus of woodland creatures — Frog, Cricket, Bird, and Firefly (Ramona Lisa Alexander, Fedna Jacquet, Kristin Calabria, and Joseph Ahmed) — provide background and running commentary. They also serve as something of a jury, because, in keeping with fairy tales the world over, the way the brothers treat these lowly creatures may well determine their fates.