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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, September 27, 2002

STAGE REVIEW
'Stole the Stars' a mix of reality, fantasy

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic

Jeremy Pippin is one of two actors playing Nicholas in the UH-Manoa production of "The Boy Who Stole the Stars."

Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

'The Boy Who Stole the Stars'

8 p.m. tomorrow, 2 p.m. Sunday

Kennedy Theatre, University of Hawai'i-Manoa

Tickets: $10 for adults; $9 for seniors, military and UH staff; $7 for children; $3 for UH students

956-7655

From the opening lines of Julian Wiles' children's play, "The Boy Who Stole the Stars," we know that the central theme will focus on an attempt to hold off death.

Tamara Hunt directs it on the University of Hawai'i-Manoa main stage with a mixture of reality and fantasy that works well, but that could be extraordinary. The key is to engage the full force of the UH technical crew in expanding the fantastic elements in the story.

The surface action is clear and simple.

Young Nicholas (played in alternate performances by Jeremy Pippin and Kevin Pacheco) arrives to spend another summer with his grandparents in the country. Grandma (Debra Jean Zwicker) is her usual comforting self, but Grandpa (also double-cast with James Davenport and Matthew Malliski) is irritable, forgetful and prone to wandering. While Nicholas and a neighbor girl (Noelle Poole) work on their vacation science projects — she's counting crickets, he's counting stars — everyone becomes sensitized to Grandpa's mortality.

Nicholas is young enough to believe he can prevent his grandfather's death.

It's not immediately clear just how young that is: While the university-age actors capture the right spirit in the kids, they're clearly young adults. That casting choice creates just enough subtle undercurrents for us to wonder how the show might have played with real youngsters.

The characters are certainly pre-teen, fumbling with difficult words (navigator becomes "navAlligator"), not quite ready to be interested in the opposite sex, and still able to be swallowed up by fantasy.

Grandpa introduces a fantasy element, as he helps Nicholas count the stars in the night sky. He regales with ancient stories that gave names to the constellations, often mixing details and blending Perseus, Orion and Icarus into wonderfully run-on, epic mythological clashes.

Grandpa also creates the story of a dragon that guards the Big and Little Dippers. If someone can slay the dragon, all the stars would fall back to Earth — and there would be no more death.

When Grandpa's condition is diagnosed as fatal, this is just what Nicholas sets out to do.

It's here that the play shifts from reality into fantasy. A huge metal skeleton of a dragon puppet descends from above, spouting smoke and flashing terrible red eyes. Manipulated by four puppeteers in black, the dragon offers battle and is slain by Nicholas in his imagination.

This, of course, doesn't change reality. But the family is able to move out of their collective denial, and the play ends on a note of matter-of-fact resignation and acceptance.

As wonderful as the fantasy scene is, it is inserted rather than integrated into the show. We'd love to see more of the same — earlier and more interspersed with the action. The ancient myths could be similarly pantomimed and the night sky could literally come alive with Wagnerian puppet clashes that parallel Grandpa's internal struggle and pave the way for Nicholas' imaginary entry into the battle.

Davenport also designs a charming set, with local silhouette references to palm trees and monstera leaves. But he makes it bigger than necessary, spreading literal elements across the huge Kennedy stage. By physically reducing the reality and making more room for imagination, the production could exploit the story's fantasy dimension and turn lighting designer Kyle Lemoi's night sky into a fabulous, puppet filled galaxy.

Right now, the production is a solid effort that stops just short of reaching for the stars.