Castro's Children - Gasworks Theatre (VIC)

Music by Simon Stone, Book and Lyrics by Peter Fitzpatrick

A wonderfully nuanced, multi-faceted and evocative musical interpretation of Operación Pedro Pan, the undercover transportation of children from Cuba to Miami in the early 1960s

Reviewed by Caitlin A. Kearney

Presented by Music Theatre Melbourne.

Gasworks Theatre, Melbourne

5th - 13th July

Tickets: Gasworks Arts Park : a vibrant arts precinct

New musical Castro’s Children explores the planning, execution, and consequences of Operación Pedro Pan; the extraordinary collaboration between the CIA and the Catholic Church to transport 14,048 children from Cuba to Miami between 1960 and 1962. In theory, the children were to be temporarily 'parked' in the safety of the United States until the CIA’s assassination of Fidel Castro was completed. Parents consented to sending their children away on the basis of unsubstantiated rumours that the children would be subjected to forced 'Communist indoctrination' if they remained. For those playing at home, Castro remained the leader of Cuba until 2008 and died at the age of 90 in 2016, and no forced placement of children in indoctrination centres ever took place under his regime.

Though starting from a place of joy (Castro’s assumption of power was originally thought to signal a free Cuba), the first act largely details the torment of parents torn between sending their children away to the apparent safety of a foreign land and keeping them close in a time when they were made to fear that they would struggle to protect them.

I’ll confess to my relief when it quickly became apparent that the old advice to never work with children or animals did not apply here; the child cast were more than capable of keeping up with the adults, and in fact constituted some of the most stand-out performances in terms of both acting and singing chops.

We are introduced to six distinct characters drawn one by one out of a rendition of the Latin mass from the children’s ensemble- musically beautiful but never too reverent as to be an unrealistic portrayal of a school choir. The unmarred innocence of these characters’ dreams for their future and their playful energy is expertly contrasted with their parents’ fears for them.

Photo credit: Teresa Madgwick

the child cast were more than capable of keeping up with the adults, and in fact constituted some of the most stand-out performances in terms of both acting and singing chops

Having not sighted the full song list before the commencement of the second act, I was pleasantly surprised to see where the narrative took us. The meaty second half of the show takes place about twenty years after the actioning of Pedro Pan, and we get acquainted with the very diverse paths our six children have walked in the interim as their roles are taken up mostly by the performers who originally played their parents.

The principal child actors appear throughout, now in the form of memories from the characters’ early days in the US. The effect is wistful, and signals, in many cases, a brutal death of innocence. True to life, one or two of the children portrayed in the show find home in America where they're well-adjusted and doing well.

Overwhelmingly, however, I found some of the character trajectories evocative of personal stories I have read from survivors of Australia’s Stolen Generations, hitting on the pain and frustration of having to grapple with nobody ever taking true accountability for atrocities committed. Some of the characters are shown to be living in a liminal state between two identities, never able to feel fully comfortable inhabiting either- see: Madeleine Featherby’s breathtaking rendition of Pictures of Me- as well as working through the irreparable fact of a single traumatic event seeming to permanently dominate their entire personal story.

I found some of the character trajectories evocative of personal stories I have read from survivors of Australia’s Stolen Generations, hitting on the pain and frustration of having to grapple with nobody ever taking true accountability for atrocities committed

A particularly interesting relationship explored throughout is that between James Baker (played by Tod Strike) and Father Brian Walsh (played by Tom Green) - the headmaster of an American school in Havana who facilitated the transport of the children from the Cuba end, and the stern, stubborn priest at the forefront of placing the children with families on the Miami end, respectively. When portraying the Catholic Church’s character in this story, no prisoners are taken. Efforts are made to humanise the representation of Father Walsh and no such efforts are more appreciated than the stirring, impassioned duets with Baker that were reminiscent of moments from Les Miserables.

However, Walsh (and by extension the Church) is ultimately shown to be so self-protective as to deny accountability for anything less than positive that happened to the minors in their care once they left Cuba. Some cursory research will show you that Walsh is remembered fondly by many self-described 'Pedro Pan success stories', but this portrayal also gives voice to those who faced the darker consequences of the operation alone and may or may not have survived to tell those stories. Conversely, James Baker is shown to be a character with a terminally tortured conscience, often at odds with Walsh and never completely sure that they made the right decision in carrying out the project. Closure is not something that is manufactured in this work any more than it can be in life, and the writing is all the richer for it.

Afterwards, I found myself wondering why there isn’t some famous Oscar-bait drama film about this incredible occurrence and its enduring widespread consequences. Naturally, my next thought was that it’s just as well Peter Fitzpatrick and Simon Stone got there first, as this is a wonderfully nuanced, multi-faceted interpretation of events, quite devoid of the saccharine, reductive tropes that tend to accompany filmic representations of similar material.

The show is ultimately hopeful without in any sense shying away from all that has to come before hope is rediscovered. This was the long-awaited world premiere of this important work, and I hope very much to see it enjoy many more seasons.

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