Amid the rainy weather of friends and family weekend, members of the Mount Holyoke College community gathered in Rooke Theatre for a sold-out performance that marked the first theatrical production of the 2023-24 school year. Soccer balls were kicked — not into the audience, as Melanie Cosdon ‘26 mentioned to the Mount Holyoke News with pride — whistles were blown and the audience was moved to tears.
“The Moors” begins slowly. It is evident early on that this play is a “Waiting for Godot” situation, and Master Branwell, whom Emilie is waiting to meet, will not be making an appearance and perhaps doesn’t even exist. The repetitiveness of the scenery leaves the audience feeling stuck in the moors, just as the characters are. We find the characters moving from room to identical room.
Nobody ever wants to pay taxes. The sentiment is in the air — April 18 is Tax Day! — as well as the arts. “Funmilayo,” the fourth production in the African opera series at Mount Holyoke, explores just one moment in the rich life of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti: when she fought British colonial rule in what is now present-day Nigeria through protests against a special tax imposed on women in the 1940s.
