Sweet serendipity.
NASA has scheduled an early April launch for its newest space venture. The Artemis II mission will catapult four astronauts around the moon in the spaceship Orion.
Real-world science and old-fashioned storytelling at Fort Lewis College oddly merge this weekend, giving us pause to wonder. A happy accident? Mere coincidence?
If you go
WHAT: “The Old Man and The Old Moon,” a play with music by PigPen Theatre, The Performing Arts Department at Fort Lewis College. Directed by Melissa Firlit
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday
WHERE: FLC Mainstage Theatre, 1000 Rim Drive
TICKETS: $28 adults, $24 seniors, $15 non-FLC students, free FLC students. Available at www.durangoconcerts.com
MORE INFORMATION: Email meyer_f@fortlewis.edu
Last week, the FLC Performing Arts Department opened its big spring musical. “The Old Man and The Old Moon” is a bustling, bluegrass-and-Irish jig with deep connections to the Western quest narrative tradition – from “The Odyssey” to “Moby Dick” to “Little Red Riding Hood.” Directed by guest artist Melissa Firlit, “Old Man” is an episodic adventure tale heavily sprinkled with theater magic.
Concocted in 2007 by a bunch of young theater rats at Carnegie Mellon University, now known as PigPen Theatre, “The Old Man” went on to revised productions at the Williamstown Theater Festival in 2014 and opened on Broadway later that year.
With a large cast and enormous technical demands, FLC has boldly staged this juggernaut. The central character is ably portrayed by AJ Jett. The Old Man must tediously fill the moon every night with a bucket of light. His wife, The Old Woman (the marvelous Katelyn Bowie) longs for a more adventurous life and abruptly leaves. Distressed, The Old Man begins to search for her. It’s a quest that spins into and out of pubs, ports, voyages over and under the sea, and even into the air, a spectacular hot-air balloon sequence.
If the college didn’t have eager students to fill a substantial cast, and if FLC didn’t have a creative team to support them, a production of this complexity couldn’t be mounted. Credit guest director Firlit, FLC technical director Ali Void and set designer Eric Bulrice for setting a high standard for the fantasies that unfurl. Music director Malcolm Payne Jr and his onstage musicians undergird the story’s pulse with banjo, guitar, piano, flute, accordion and drums. Foley artist Kenzie Hayes adds texture, and FLC costume designer Megan Sander spices everything with mixed-period dresses, suits, work clothes and military uniforms.
Narrator Matheson (an engaging Kieran Freeman with a bright Irish brogue) creates the through-line and clarifies sudden narrative shifts. In this text-heavy production, with uneven vocal projections, details could be missed, so pay attention. Tricky plot points are sprinkled throughout and surface later.
The large cast with several actors playing multiple roles, acquits itself well. Last Sunday’s matinee suffered from some uneven micing, but that small technical matter will surely be sorted out for the final weekend.
It took Odysseus 10 years to return to his wife and home. In “The Wizard of Oz,” it took Dorothy only seconds to click her ruby slippers and be catapulted back to Kansas. It takes The Old Man two hours to find his wife and return home. With no intermission, that’s a short stretch, so plan ahead.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
