I recently had the opportunity to see a new rock opera by a group of LDS musicians called Grain. I thought I would share a brief review of it with the list.

Grain is a local rock band; I believe they're located out of American Fork. They're very young -- probably average age 24. My sense is that Jack Donaldson, their lead singer and rhythm guitarist, and Bryan Hall, their lead guitarist, do most of the writing, but I could be wrong. The other band members are Matt Western (bass), Winston Lee (keyboards) and Shane Fillmore (drums).

Grain's opera is called A Place in the Sun. It tells the story of a young man named Alden Barrett, who committed suicide in 1971. Barrett kept a journal, and after his death, his parents shared a copy of the journal with a writer named Beatrice Sparks. She then used some entries from the journal to produce a book called Jay's Journal, which became a national best-seller. But Jay's Journal used approximately 25 entries from Barrett's journal, and fleshed them out with some 60 other entries, which either came from other kids' stories (Sparks' version) or were made up by Sparks (the Barrett family's version). At any rate, Jay's Journal describes someone who was involved with devil worship and the occult, which Alden Barrett was not.

A Place in the Sun, then, is an attempt to recapture the real story of Alden Barrett from the sensationalized account depicted in Jay's Journal. (I remember something about Jay's Journal, and may actually have read the thing, some twenty years ago. Anyone on the list remember any more about it?)

In the first of two acts, we see the story of Alden Barrett -- his dreams, his problems with drugs, girlfriend problems, problems with his family, a failed attempt to get psychiatric help, and his eventual suicide. The first act is quite long and fairly abstract, impressionistic. We get Barrett's story from his subjective point of view, and at times aren't sure whether we're seeing reality, a fantasy, a dream, or wish fulfillment. The first act ends with his suicide.

The second act begins with his family attempting to deal with the reality of his suicide, the break up of his parents' marriage, and their attempts to understand where they went wrong. It then shows Sparks' exploitation of their story and of their pain, and her success, her celebrity and fame. Finally, we see Barrett's parents and siblings putting the Sparks book behind them, coming together in a final anthem of hope and reconciliation.

My Reaction

The biggest strengths of the piece are first of all, the music, and second of all, the passion and energy of the work as a whole. Grain is a first-rate band. The music had a retro feel to it -- it reminded me of The Who (especially Quadrophenia) and Pink Floyd. One critic mentioned Steppenwolf, and I can see that too. If you like that kind of heavy rock and roll music -- I do, very much -- then this piece is terrific to listen to. The band definitely has its own sound, which is another way of saying that there's not enough melodic variety, probably.

But I liked it.

I also like the passion and energy of these kids. They're very young, but they're genuine artists; they really get inside the head of this troubled young man.

Negatives

First of all, the story borders on incoherance. In the production I saw, the director told the story with dance and stylized movement, and I think it needs that; the piece is so impressionistic, it's very easy to lose track of the story-line. What I saw was a grad student production, with zero budget and a bunch of the band's friends acting; even so, it was remarkably compelling. But real choreography, with professional dancers and singers, special affects and lighting could make a big difference. It really wants to be a multi-media piece.

Second, the play really goes after Beatrice Sparks. The point of view of this opera is that Jay's Journal is a fraud and a ripoff and a deliberate act of assault against the Barrett family. I don't know anything about her or about her book, although I vaguely remember some controversy about it some years ago. But it doesn't treat her very nicely. (That's also not the main focus of the piece. But it's an element that could be controversial, although I don't think it's libelous.)

But although nothing directly LDS appears in the work, I think it's a terrific piece of LDS fiction. The opera does not pull punches; Barrett's main problems were schizophrenia and drugs, and the opera takes us inside his mind; it's a frightening journey. And then we meet the author-as-vampire, as Beatrice Sparks exploits the family's pain. But the final images are of healing, hope, forgiveness. It's really very powerful.

It needs to be cut, by about 45 minutes, most from the first act. It needs a really good, imaginative director. But I think that Grain is an amazing band, and I think that this work deserves to be produced.

Eric Samuelsen