One good thing that’s come out of lockdown is all the digital theatre that’s been made available. While recordings are no substitute for the real thing, they are certainly helping to bridge the gap. It’s been brilliant to re-live old favourites as well as catch up on some shows that we missed the first time around. Despite doing our best to see as many family friendly shows as we could at VAULT Festival, we didn’t quite manage to catch them all. One of the shows we really regretted missing was LUNA: A Play about the Moon, so we were absolutely thrilled when Roustabout Theatre Company made the recording available online.
LUNA: A Play about the Moon is, as you might imagine, a play about the moon. Aimed at ages 5 and above, it’s an hour long exploration of everything lunar, from the factual to the mythical. A mixture of sketches, songs and storytelling, it cleverly weaves together the different elements into a cohesive piece that is as entertaining as it is educational.
It features several repeating sketches, each of which focuses on something different, from information about obscure astronauts to myths about the full moon bringing out werewolves and lunatics. Our favourites were the clever word play between ‘Terry’ and ‘Luna’ and a couple of seemingly distinct sketches which (while hilarious in their own right) eventually converged in a very satisfying manner. Mrs Mummy (who was doing an evening astronomy course at Greenwich Observatory until it was curtailed by Coronavirus) absolutely loved all the scientific facts, and has since been desperately trying to get the munchkins interested in space. Mummy also appreciated the science but was an even bigger fan of the witty script and ended up laughing uncontrollably at a joke about a man in the moon (although she remains uncertain as to whether it was intentional innuendo or if she is just very childish)!
It’s a brilliant piece of theatre which will no doubt capture the imagination of anyone interested in space, and is one of those shows which genuinely works as well (if not better) for the adults as it does for the kids. The recording didn’t hold the munchkins’ attention quite as well as it would have done in the theatre and we were sad that we hadn’t been able to experience it live, where the lighting would have been more effective. But it was still an absolute treat, and a very good accompaniment to a home learning project about space. We would thoroughly recommend it to families looking for something entertaining to watch together (and get in a bit of science by stealth)!
LUNA: A Play about the Moon is available to stream twice a day, with tickets available from this link. They are free but donations are encouraged.