Part 1 of this epic tale, titled Family Tree, sets out to introduce the main characters of the Cape Breton family by letting us know off the top who’s dead and who’s not. We meet the family patriarch, James Piper , as a teenage piano tuner called to the home of a strict Lebanese-Canadian family to service their upright piano, attracting the eye of their spirited 12-year-old daughter, Materia .
Two more babies – twin girls Mercedes and Frances – soon come along, and Materia, by now slightly more mature, is able to love them, despite her jealousy of Kathleen and growing hatred of her husband. When war is declared, James enlists and, to Materia’s consternation, he is not killed in action; instead, he comes back in a state of shell shock, with an unnatural attraction to Kathleen that compels him to send her away. Off she goes to New York City for vocal training.
Under the guidance of music supervisor Sean Mayes, the musical backdrop is created by a small combo of players performing live, shifting effortlessly from the Celtic-influenced tunes of Cape Breton to the jazz and big-band stylings of the Harlem club scene. The piano is an anchor on stage, too, as nearly all the actors have talent on the ivories and their characters often turn to music instead of words.