Bye, Moon is an offering from the Belgian-based Pantalone Theatre Company, presented at this year’s festival through the support of the Flemish Government. Running at a tiny ten minutes, it’s the perfect length for the attention span of the 3+ age group it’s hoping to attract. When I went this morning, though, there was only one child in the cluster of people attending: a little girl called, appropriately enough, Aluna. Clearly, the work has appeal outside of the children’s demographic.
As we were led up the staircase to the darkened Hiddingh Movement Room, I wondered what Aluna must have made of going to a show with all these intimidatingly large adults. Would the piece work for all of us?
The space was set up beautifully, with cushions and chairs clustered around two projection panels. A violinist, softly lit in the corner, began to play. The work was an animation, both rough and, somehow, beautifully subtle, telling the simple story of a child and his perception of nature, the moon illuminating the world around him wherever he goes.
The images, however, seemed to be a vehicle for the most expressive part of the performance: the sound. The music, composed by Pantalone’s artistic director Philip Bral, was exquisite and the care taken with sound effects – particularly a very realistic croaking frog – was superb. Achieving full surround sound in a bare rehearsal room is no small achievement and the effect was magical.
Personally, I found the animation, however beautiful the individual images often were, did not evoke as rich a scene scape as the soundscape. The story progressed very slowly and I often felt the scenes needed more of narrative interest to keep the experience going and get me to relate to Anton.
But what did Aluna think? Did she like the story of Anton and the moon?
“I didn’t like the little person, but I did like the sparkly things. And the frog,” she told me
Reading between her lines, I reckon we agreed, then.
Spreading the Wings: Cape Town Drama Reviews 