Moonshadows: A tribute to Cat Stevens. Concept by Peter Cox, starring Darren Coggan. Musical director Naomi Coggan. Produced by McPherson Ink at Canberra Playhouse, April 20 and 21.
Darren Coggan unplugged his guitar and left the stage, but appreciative applause would not let him “go, away, I know, I have to go”, as the real Cat Stevens had done, becoming Yusuf Islam in 1979. The theatre hushed as Coggan reappeared. "Thank you very much," he said.
Thank you from a single voice, sounding “miles from nowhere”, and as if the whole audience remembered the line from Longer Boats are Coming “just a flower I can help along”, a supportive murmur spread around for just one more song.
Coggan stars as narrator of the life story of Steven Demetre Georgiou, illustrating his significant experiences and spiritual searching through Cat Stevens’ songs. Coggan has found a quality of voice which is so close to the original that you would think it is Cat Stevens himself unless you are a bit too pedantic, like me, and play the original LPs like Tea for the Tillerman, Mona Bone Jakon and Teazle and the Firecat after the show.
The band and backing singers supporting Coggan, perhaps especially musical director Naomi Coggan on keyboard and piano, are impressive. Seeing a band play this music makes you realise how diverse and complex Cat Stevens’ compositions are. In this show, the effect is much bigger than the more intimate-sounding original recordings, but it works well because this is a show about Cat Stevens, not an attempt merely to reproduce him.
The commitment from writer Peter Cox is not just to the music, but to the message. When Georgiou, brought up in the anti-Turk tradition of Greek Cypriots of his time, finally finds in the Qur’an the central theme of peace and goodwill, of de-emphasising the superficiality of material wealth, we hear a message of just as much importance today as 30 years ago.
Moonshadows, thankfully, ends at this point, avoiding Yusuf Islam’s later unfortunate slip towards fundamentalism when he supported the fatwah against Salman Rushdie (though he claimed to have been misquoted). The result is an exciting concert and a dramatic narrative with a worthwhile theme - a success.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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