Review of Nothing Without a Company's Down the Moonlit Path

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Down the Moonlit Path. It was created and directed by Rachel Staelens. The stories were adapted by Tate A Geborkoff. It was about a bunch of different stories from different cultures all put together in one play. People played many different parts and you would wander around and see all of them. There were two different tracks and they would each help you understand different stories. I think it must have been hard for the actors to run around and know what story would be next and what costume they had to get into. I had fun at this show. I thought the stories seemed really cool.

"The Storks and The Night Owl" was my favorite story. It was all about these two guys, Harun (Romeo Green) and his Vizier (Reginald Vaughn), who were very rich but they were also very funny. They were turned into storks by this evil medicine guy (Franco Steeves) and the medicine guy became the ruler. They want to be storks for a little bit, because they want to speak to animals, but they aren't supposed to laugh, but then they do because they hear and see something funny: this romantic conversation between two storks. That makes them forget the magic word that would make them turn back into humans. And then they meet an owl (Taylor Dariarow) who is trapped in a cage by the same evil medicine guy. There is a little closet that you basically go into where the owl is hiding and the storks find her. That was funny because it was so close and the owl just jumped out and they started arguing and were so exasperated. When they were arguing about who was going to marry the owl, they reminded me of the Marx Brothers in Animal Crackers when they are saying "The fish, the flesh, the flash" and trying to take down the painting. I really loved their beak hats (designed by Lolly Extract) because you still see they are human, but they were hilarious because they were so giant. And whenever they tried to talk close to each other they would sometimes get a beak in the face. I won't give away the ending because it was so funny and good!

I really liked the show, except I had a one problem. This was a preview, so they may have fixed some of this. I felt like sometimes you missed parts of the stories because you would be led away from them. I felt like it was hard for you to wander around and see all the stories because some scenes they did twice and some scenes they didn't. You felt like you didn't have to leave your group to go on another path because your guide would take you there eventually, but that wasn't always true but sometimes it was. They could solve this problem by either doing one track and have both guides (Emily Duke and Mari DeOleo) on the one track, because I thought they were both fun and useful. Or you could have the groups meet up more often to watch the same scene. If you have time, then you could see it twice, and then you could understand it better, but that really isn't an option for me right now because I'm so busy with other reviews.

"Hans, Who Made the Princess Laugh" is a good example of when everyone on both tracks knew what was going on in the story. It started out with a bunch of people just trying to show off their talents to impress the princess (Nora Lise Ulrey) so they could marry her. Each group saw the first part and it wasn't exactly the same because one of the suitors was from the audience, but you still got the beginning of the story and all of the plot. I liked the audience participation and I also liked how it wasn't some big dangerous quest for a girl but just to make her laugh. Some of the dukes and lords coming to woo her were like pop singers. They sang one of their more famous songs, and then the princess or the king (Steeves) would just wave them away and they would be like, "Why don't I get her. I'm such a famous pop star." I think the princess did a really good job not cracking up, because I certainly was. What made her laugh at the end was how almost everyone in the audience and the actors came together to form a big conga line behind Hans (Dāvon Roberts). And then everyone started getting attached to this goose that was a magical goose that you got stuck to if you touched it. This goose must have been very attractive because who would just want to randomly touch a random goose?! I liked this scene so much because you felt like you were part of a story.

People who would like this show are people who like Marx Brothers storks, taking cool paths through stories, and attractive geese. I think that kids would like it a lot if they don't get scared easily and I think adults would also really like it because it is fun for everyone. I think that people should definitely go see this show. I enjoyed it a lot!

Photo: Kriss Abigail