EAST OF THE SUN, WEST OF THE MOON
This makes “good” children’s theater hard to define. Good adult theater tends toward subtlety, complexity, and harmony. A good play in the opinion of grown-ups engages the head as well as the heart. For kids, a good play is more visceral. The characters must be cartoonish, the plot fast-paced, and the costumes a riot of color. Remember, we’re talking about an audience that sees catharsis in Saturday-morning cartoons.
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So Chicago Children’s Theatre is terrific. The premiere production, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, is staged with intelligence and grace. The costumes–including some wonderful masks–are lush and colorful; the set is simple but evocative; and the cast–consisting primarily of graduates of the DePaul Theatre School–is highly accomplished. I had a great time.
While the details of the plot are obscure for children, the essentials are clear–Karin loves Peder, and the trolls are evil. That’s really all children need to grasp to enjoy this show, but the frills are nice too–the swirling choreography of the winds, for example, as they sweep Karin to the troll castle.
But on the whole, the founders of the Chicago Children’s Theatre, Nan Zabriskie and David L. Avcollie, are operating on a sound premise–that good children’s theater is, above all else, good theater. Their first production signals the arrival of a first-rate children’s theater in the Chicago area.
