The Little Prince
Adapted from Antoine de Saint-Exupery by Paul Graves and Angharad Ormond, who also directs
Liminal Space
Cockpit Theatre
Star rating: 3.5
There is a great deal of charm, talent and expertise in this 75 minute take on Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s 1943 story about an extra-terrestrial child who goes planet-hopping and learns a lot about people on the way.
Thisakya Dias finds the right blend of wistful innocence and forthrightness in the titular Little Prince and, as the role requires, she produces laughter like a peal of bells. Matt Tylianakis, as the aviator, is convincing as a child at play and the improvised light aircraft is a theatrical mini tour de force. Then there’s an ensemble, all adept at physical theatre, each emerging for pleasing cameo roles. I’m fascinated, incidentally, as they draw on the long upstage black board to notice that most of them are left handed. Was it an audition requirement, I wonder jokingly?
It is, inevitably an episodic piece (with a whiff of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) as the Little Prince meets individuals and groups as he travels. Some of them are very short and their messages are pretty didactic and/or cynical. We’re told that heavy drinking is not a good idea, adults should take children seriously, ownership should be communal, vanity is pointless, caterpillars are a prerequisite of butterflies and a lot more.
The lighting and projection is magically effective, however and there’s some nice puppetry. I also admired the imaginative use of all four entrances on to the Cockpit’s central square playing space.
The show is too long though and could usefully drop some of the episodes. Moreover, it may be going over the heads of some of its target audience: presumably age 5-10ish. There was some very restive boredom behind me.
