Review of The Little Prince at Lookingglass Theatre Company

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called The Little Prince. It was by Rick Cummins and John Scoullar based on the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and directed by David Catlin. I think that this story is a really nice one to adapt because of all the different things that you can do with it. There are so many characters and so many animals and there are so many ways you can adapt it. This is a great adaptation. I think it is the best adaptation of The Little Prince that you are going to see. I think how they used all the circus elements was cool because of how they actually made the story incorporate all those circus things without completely changing the plot or anything.

When you first come in, it is just a bunch of seats in front of a bland curtain and it feels squished. It looks so small, but then it gets bigger--much, much bigger. The set (by Courtney O'Neill) was really cool. I really liked how the entire set was just one big drawing board! Because it was just plain, it was like the desert. When you first looked at it, it looked like a giant white stage, but then it turns into a giant masterpiece.

At the very beginning, the Aviator (Ian Barford) told the audience about when he was a kid he drew a picture and he went and showed it to the grown-ups and he said, "Are you afraid?" And the adults said, "Why should we be afraid of a hat?" But it wasn't a hat! It was a boa constrictor devouring an elephant. It tells us that grown-ups don't understand the same things that kids do. Throughout the play the Aviator is getting more grown-up and then close to the end he realizes that he was becoming too grown up because of how he is treating the Little Prince (Amelia Hefferon). It is trying to tell the audience that we shouldn't have any more too-grown-up people.

I thought that the actress who played the Little Prince was really good at seeming like a kid and a boy. I think it would be hard to play a kid and a boy if you were not a kid and a boy. You like him but he's also not exactly really nice because he is sometimes cranky. That is the truth of kids. They are sometimes cranky and sometimes not. You find out about almost his entire life, and that makes you able to like him no-matter-what better. He doesn't understand the earth, so that makes us want to stay longer at the play to see what he learns about it.

There was a Rose (Louise Lamson) who was owned by the Little Prince. I liked how she dropped from the ceiling: she came down and then she went back up again and when she got to the top she shrank back down again and became a rose. I liked how her dress (by Sally Dolembo) just popped right down. I liked how when she became the rose she seemed clueless and I really believed that she was clueless about what was going on.

I loved the King (Raymond Fox). I thought that he did a great job ringing his bell in that funny way. I really liked the planet that he sat on and how it looked like the planet was just his throne. I loved how he was always very happy. He gives the orders that people want to be given. Like if someone wants to sit down he says, "I order you to sit down!" and then smiles. Raymond also played the Geographer. I thought that he was really funny because he lived in this giant globe and you could hear that he was in a globe. He liked his planet, but it didn't seem like it would be the most comfortable place.

I liked when the Little Prince saw the drunk old man (Lauren Hirte). I liked how the old man was wobbly on his giant circus ball. You felt scared for him because he could fall and really hurt himself. I knew that the performer was wobbling purposefully, but some people might think she was doing it accidentally. I thought that it was very funny that he gave his bottle to this lady and at the end when he got his bottle back he gestured to the woman like, "Give her a hand," and once everyone started applauding he moved his arms like, "No! Stop!"

I thought that the Lamp Lighter (Adeoye) was really funny. I loved how he was yelling "Good morning!" even though there was no one around to hear him except for the Little Prince, and how he would stop mid-sentence to yell, "Good evening!" When he tried to run backwards on his globe it was great because of how he fell back against the bar behind and was like hyperventilating. And he was like, "Well, I still can't sleep." I thought that was very funny. And he said that was his favorite thing to do, and I don't think that is a good favorite thing to do if you are a lamp lighter who has to light the lamp every minute. I thought that when the same actor was the disco guy he was really funny. I liked how he hung upside-down and starting doing all the moves like, oh, pow, ooh! He was doing all these disco moves and then he says, "Do you admire me?" Then he's like, "Please admire me a little," and you can't admire someone a little! When Kasey Foster and Kareem Bandealy were singing all these French words and beatboxing I thought that was really cool and funny.

The Snake's (Bandealy) entrance, how his head popped out of the ground, was really cool. He was a trustworthy snake; he didn't kill people for fun but only when someone asked him to. I thought that his movements for being snake-like were great. I thought that how he wiggled was awesome. How he stuck out his tongue right with the beat of the hissing made me feel not exactly comfortable, but that was good for a snake. He also played the Businessman. The Businessman thought that he owned all the stars. The problem is that nobody can own the stars. He just wanted to lock them up and not enjoy the beauty of the stars. I actually felt scared for him when he went back up to the catwalk and he was just hanging by his hands. I thought that he could drop, but he didn't.

The Fox (Foster) was a really awesome character. It was funny when the Fox came up sniffing in each section of the audiences, saying "Chick-ons?" in a French accent. Her outfit and hairdo was really crazy and awesome! I loved how when the Fox was tamed she was tamed by playing the flute with the Little Prince. When the Fox started to play the recorder she was just like pfft and it made this grinding sound and she just looked at the Little Prince like, "Sorry!" and it was really funny. Taming can be good in some ways but also bad. You can tame someone so they are nice and they won't hurt people anymore, but if you are taming them so you can get something from them, that's not very good. Taming in this story is to make a friend. That is always good, to have a friend, if they want to be your friend.

People who would like this show are people who like elephants inside boa constrictors, flute-playing foxes, and french disco spacemen who want to be admired. I think this show should be for ages 5 and up, but prepare your kids for a part that is sad. People should definitely go see this show because it is funny, bittersweet, and there are a lot of cool acrobatics. It is awesome and it is great to take your kids to!


Photos: Liz Lauren