@ Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh, until 31 Aug 2015 @ 14:30
A fanciful look at our enduring fascination with all things celestial, this performance is sparkling. Utilising few props—fairy lights, foil confetti and some musical instruments—five actors from the Human Zoo Theatre Company bring to life a jewellery-box of tales that manages to be both knowing yet naïve.
Despite only performing their Fringe debut last year, the company perform with ease and confidence, expertly incorporating puppetry and music. The show’s self-referential premise—a group of friends are travelling to perform at the Fringe—feels a bit contrived, but the performance soon unfolds into a series of charming tales with rather offbeat endings. Florence O’Mahony is excellent as Luna, the moon-besotted girl of the title, and the show contains several stories-within-a-story, allowing each actor the chance to take a central role. The show frequently rouses laughter by depicting the clashes between timeless space and the modern world: in one story, for example, the childlike Scarlet finds herself in Hollywood after attempting to find the “stars”.
The company explains that their celestial focus was inspired by the wish to find out ‘why something so very far away holds such an importance in our poetry, in stories old and new’. However, The Girl Who Fell in Love with the Moon does not really explore the reasons behind its’ characters fixations, instead concentrating on depicting the events that transpire. Sweet, sad and amusing, the resulting performance will be enjoyed by anyone who doesn’t wince at ukuleles.