Is there a lunar module in your home-schooling schedule? If so, then you may like to try this fun, fact-packed cabaret for kids, which mixes science and storytelling in a series of skits with recurring scenarios. There’s the werewolf who pleads to a policeman (“the moon made me do it!”); a couple preparing to blast off into space, armed with battered suitcases and an acoustic guitar; and an orbiting moon and Earth whose relationship veers from adoration to lovers’ tiff (“sometimes he completely overshadows me!”).
The Bristol-based Roustabout Theatre created Luna to mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. They had to cut short their UK tour because of the coronavirus closures, so have made the show available online. It’s aimed at over-fives and I settle down with rocket-loving Hilda, six, who approves of the “big squiggle” galactic backdrop.
Performers Jean Goubert and Shaelee Rooke make a likable double act and writer-director Toby Hulse brings wit and variety to an hour of encounters with the moon. Hilda laughs a lot at a dance duet to demonstrate gravity and the duo manage to make the launch of three thermos flasks feel beguilingly epic despite the lo-fi staging. Not every sketch achieves liftoff. Lines from Clair de Lune by Paul Verlaine float by and, while the moon is synonymous with love, several skits about dating fall flat. There is something a little too cool and distant, too knowing, about some of the humour for Hilda to register it. More of the goofy, playful moments would be welcome, especially for younger viewers. She can’t get enough of the werewolf’s full-moon transformations and would probably enjoy more of the moon myths and legends we hear.
There are cameos for cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel into space, and Michael Collins, whose account of solitude on the far side of the moon is haunting. I’m impressed by how much Hilda has learned by the end about full, new, waning and waxing moons (though she’s sad to discover that one isn’t made of ear wax). It’s an uneven hour but you’ll find melodies, mischief and plenty of lunar detail in these small steps into humankind’s giant leap.
