Stars of London's Ragtime Share Why Its Story of Anguish & Hope Deserves to Be Told in 2016

The first act of Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty and Terrence McNally's Ragtime ends with Sarah, a young black woman, murdered by police as she's mistakenly identified as a potential assassin at a political rally. With little time for the audience to process her death, the company launches into the passionate dirge “Till We Reach That Day,” longing for the denied day of justice and peace.

In Charing Cross Theatre’s new production, which runs through December 10 in London, there is no escaping the immediacy of the mourners’ demands. As the cast cries out the final refrain (fiercely led by soloist Seyi Omooba), the house lights come up, and the performers, playing white upper class New Yorkers, grieving African Americans and struggling immigrants, step off the stage and into the aisles. Their anguish is in the illuminated audience’s faces.

In that moment, there is no divide between then and now. “Till We Reach That Day” is a song written in the ‘90s, based on a book from the ‘70s and set in the early 1900s, and yet it could have been composed days ago in the wake of the deaths of unarmed black men, women and children at the hands of police. Its melody pervades Sarah’s funeral, but its message was cried out for Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice and more by the Black Lives Matter movement.

“So many of the themes in the show are recurring and still happening,” Jennifer Saayeng, who plays Sarah, told Broadway.com following a recent performance. “The lyric, ‘It’ll happen again and again.’ It’s still happening again and again. This story of hope—if it’s told in 100 years, there will still be reasons to tell it.”

The fringe staging began performances on October 8—exactly one month prior to the U.S. presidential election. On November 9, the outcome added a layer of urgency and catharsis for the performers. “It was like the dream of America had just gone away overnight,” said Ako Mitchell, the American actor who plays the black musician turned radical activist Coalhouse Walker Jr. “We’re doing this optimistic piece, and it took on a poignancy it didn’t have the day before.”

Ragtime resonates with U.K. audiences in a time of political uncertainty as well. “This idea of race and immigrants is massive here,” explained Saayeng. “With Brexit, these are people who are warped by some sort of view of immigration. It’s American on the stage, but it relates to so many things British here. We still identify with it.”

Though the events depicted on stage in Ragtime are tragically timely, Mitchell urges audiences to leave with a sense of hope—hope that we’re closer to reaching that day described in the Act I finale. “We know that hope triumphs in the end,” he says. “The people in 1904? They did not know. And all they had was hope. There is always hope, and I know it will happen again.”

Ragtime concludes its run at London’s Charing Cross Theatre on December 10.