Daniel Evans’ stunning, thought-provoking production is both entrancing and disturbing

Rosy light bathes a beautiful young woman (Sera Maehara’s Liat) bending gracefully in a slow contemplative dance. A soundscape of birds enhances the tranquillity – until the roar of helicopters heralds the arrival of a battalion of armed, uniformed American marines literally invading her space.

Thus, from the get-go, director Daniel Evans subtly honours Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s lush musical with its unsettling themes by looking at the narrative from every viewpoint.

Passionate anti-racists Rodgers and Hammerstein based their narrative on James Michener’s Pulitzer prize-winning Tales of the South Pacific. His 1940s-set stories underline the tensions of life on a South Pacific island for GIs and their camp followers waiting to play their part in the war. But Liat is the daughter of ‘Bloody Mary’ (Joanna Ampil), a resourceful Vietnamese woman wheeling and dealing to survive, from a sizeable population of Vietnamese imported by the previous French colonisers to work their plantations.

Compare and contrast Ampil’s full-blooded performance with her oppo in the American camp, brash Seabee (aka US Naval Construction worker) and black marketeer Luther Billis. In Keir Charles’ uncompromising portrayal they are two sides of the same coin (later, they even get to dress in drag to duet in the GI’s Thanksgiving Day revue – Billis is Mary’s ‘Honeybun’ in a comedic parody of native dress).

I’ve begun with this subplot because of Evans’ eloquent, wordless prologue. But it would short-change Rodgers and Hammerstein not to reveal that their opening number is given to two wide-eyed lively half-French, half-Polynesian children. Ngana (Ellie Chung) and Jerome (Archer Brandon) will have their part to play in the main plot which begins only once they have sung the charming ‘Dites-Moi’.

Only now will I introduce the main players in a story of love frustrated by racial prejudice against the backdrop of war. Nursing Ensign Nellie Forbush (Gina Beck’s passion and energy successfully hiding her real-life pregnancy) is in love with the charming ‘mature’ Emile de Becque (pitch-perfect Julian Ovenden), a plantation owner representing those French colonisers. She may be as deliciously American as apple pie as she leads the stunning chorus of nurses in the signature upbeat numbers ‘A Cockeyed Optimist’ and ‘I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair’; Emile’s yearning for her with ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ may be mutual; she may even exult ‘I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy’; but learning those two appealing children are Emile’s by his late Polynesian mistress looks to prove a deal breaker.

Racial tension plays its part in thwarting young love too, for brave and dashing Lt Joseph Cable (superb Rob Houchen) falls for Liat and begins a physical affair with her, but stops short of marriage, leaving her heartbroken. He cannot overcome his own ingrained prejudice learned from birth as he reveals in the bitter ‘You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught’.

Action is the word for a narrative that has Joseph atoning by joining Emile in volunteering for a dangerous mission spying behind enemy lines. The dynamic action from every company member under the leadership of Evans, MD Cat Beveridge and choreographer Ann Yee makes for superlative entertainment, while honouring every nuance of a story that surely has resonance for now.

By Judi Herman

Photos by Johan Persson

South Pacific runs until Saturday 4 September. 7.30pm, 2.30pm (Thu & Sat; various Wed). £10-£49. Chichester Festival Theatre, PO19 6AP. www.cft.org.uk

The show will also be available to stream on the CFT website; various dates Wednesday 4 August-Friday 3 September, priced from £10.