A love story about writing
The title of the Red Leap's new production says that it is a love story but it is a lot more complicated than that.
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Hawke’s Bay
Paper Sky – A Love Story
Red Leap Theatre
Mercury Theatre
Final performance tonight
The title of the Red Leap’s new production says that it is a love story but it is a lot more complicated than that.
There is a love story but it’s one with fairy tale characters who engage in Mills and Boon style romanticism. The more interesting aspect of the work is concerned with the nature of creativity and the way a writer (or any other creative person) produces a work of art.
It explores the way that the writer’s personality, ideas and experience are filtered through the writing process producing a range of fictions and realities.
In Paper Sky Henry is writing a story (the fairy tale one) locked away in his room avoiding the outside world. The story is a metaphor about the love he has for Louise who he is too scared or too shy to meet. She is his muse and through the process of writing, he is able to come to terms with the real world and a real woman.
It is a delightful tale and a work which has appeal for both young and old but it lacks an intensity and any real sense of character. Henry and Louise have little more depth than the sheets of paper which spill from his typewriter. Part of the problem may be that it a devised work.
There are some brilliant pieces of staging with a couple of small puppets, representing the couple as well as several large paper figures including three feral characters which are like European versions of Chinese dragons.
The clever set designed by John Verryt turns in on itself like a piece of origami revealing new landscapes and spaces. These changing environments and moods are greatly helped by the soundscape of Andrew McMillan.
Most of the play is given over to Henry and three others who act as his various emotional, moral and creative alter egos, guiding him though life, until the final scene when he sits alone with Louise.
The cast are a brilliant team with some remarkable fluid acting sequences.
John Daly-Peoples
Mon, 14 Mar 2011
Mon, 14 Mar 2011
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A love story about writing
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