Neverending Story Review
The Neverending Story
First Stage
March 15th 2009
This adventure got off to a fantastic start when we found a great parking spot right near the theatre - in the free place to park. Things just went up from there.
When I first saw the set, I wondered what the show was going to be like; it was a spiral, with platforms of various different heights. Off in the far corner was a platform that looked like it was meant to be the attic, boxes and things covered in sheets.
The basic story of the Neverending Story is that a kid named Bastian starts reading a book called the Neverending Story. So it's a story within a story. In the book, the land of Fantastica is in trouble, their ruler, the Childlike Empress is ill, and their world is vanishing. It's up to a boy named Atreyu to find the cure for the Empress. He goes on many adventures to discover that a human child needs to come to Fantastica and give the Empress a new name. The Empress tells Atreyu that he has done well, the human child has been following him for his whole adventure - the human child is Bastian. Bastian is pretty well and truly frightened by this, but he finally follows the directions in the book, and comes to Fantastica to give the Empress her new name, and remake Fantastica using his wishes. (This is where the play stopped. The book has more)
Since there are many creatures of all different sorts and types, they used puppets and creative costumes to indicate the different creatures. It worked very well. In the usual First Stage style, the actors wore black and spoke for the puppets, manipulating them, and they made no real effort to hide the people. For example, the Nighthob is a smaller creature that rides a bat. Morla the aged one is a huge turtle - her "shell" was part of the set, large objects in the backdrop, and the head (which peeked out) was a puppet. Falkor, the luck dragon, was not a puppet though - more about him later.
I had high hopes for this show, since I love the book and movie. First Stage had done quite well before with high fantasy stories, and in this production, they exceeded my expectations by a lot. The whole show was wonderful.
The kids are double cast, and we had the Adventure Cast, with a few exceptions, Steven Long played Bastian, and we also had Becca Corazzi in the cast, even though they're in the Imagination Cast.
Steven Long had the perfect look for Bastian, somewhat nerdy looking boy with glasses. He spent most of the show in the "attic" reading the book. Occasionally, during the rest of the action, I would look up at him, and he was still sitting up there, turning pages as he was reading. During most of the show, he was not able to really interact with any of the characters, but his solo acting was quite impressive. As the story progresses, he tries to stop reading to do other things, like eat, or go home, or sleep, or just stop because the book is getting too weird for him, but he can't quite do it - He's too into the story. The best line was: "I'll just read two more pages… or six… or nine…"
Mack Folkert played Atreyu, the Greenskin Warrior from the Grassy Ocean. He was the main character of the show, since he was the one doing all of the adventuring. I think that he pretty much stole the show for me. Most of the time, the student actors are quite good, but every once and awhile, there is someone who is really outstanding.
He meets a Tiny (a puppet in a hot air balloon), a Troll (A large puppet that was worn) and two Sassafranians (who age backwards), who get sucked into the Nothing, even though he tries to save them. Then, he loses his horse Artax in the Swamp of Sadness, he outwits Morla the aged one (the afore mentioned giant turtle), he faces down Ygramul the many (A giant spider like creature), he survives being poisoned by Ygramul, rescues a Luck-Dragon, steps through the magic mirror to meet Uyulala - the oracle, faces down the Wind Giants, and fights a Werewolf.
This was a large part, and he did it very well. I liked how he interacted with Artax and with Falkor.
Artax was the horse, played by Tim Linn. The Greenskins and their horses have a special relationship, they are brothers for life. There would be several points where Atreyu would ask Artax how he felt, and Artax would answer him, that was pretty quick. Artax had to rescue Atreyu from the Nothing, and he encouraged him when he didn't know what to do. "What do we do now Artax?" "We ride" "And what do we do tomorrow?" "We ride." "For how long?" "Until we have finished."
It is obvious that the two are very close. A dream sends them to find Morla in the Swamps of Sadness. The Swamps are so named because they fill everyone with sadness, and make people too heavy, so they sink into the water. Since Atreyu is wearing the AURYN (the mark of the Childlike Empress), he is protected, but Artax is not. He becomes too heavy, and depressed, and he asks Atreyu if their quest is all in vain. This is quite a contrast to the upbeat attitude he had a few minutes (or days, depending on one's point of view) ago. He sinks, down below the water, and out through a trap door.
But I liked him, he did a very good job at the part. He had an interesting costume… I think that it was all lycra, skin tight. I got used to it, but at first glance, I thought it was kinda strange looking - not overly horse-like.
I already described how the puppet of Morla the Aged one worked. It was operated and voiced by Marti Gobel, who played many many different parts. Morla was my favorite of her parts though, she is very old, and doesn't care that much about living or dying. It was funny when she entered the scene, she startled Atreyu, and he fell down, right under her giant head, and she sniffed at him. Then, later, she agreed to tell him how to save the Empress, since he tricked her, but first, she wanted him to scratch her behind the ears, at which point she fell asleep. I knew that Morla was a turtle, and she did refer to her shell, but my mom didn't know she was a turtle
Marti Gobel also played the head and voice of Ygramul. In the book, she's called "Ygramul the many" because she is really a swarm of insects that swarms in the form of a larger insect. In the play, Marti Gobel had the head, which looked like a typical bug head, and several of the other cast members had legs/stingers. They didn't quite speak in unison, she did most of the talking, but the rest of the cast playing Ygramul would chime in on the last word of each sentence. Ygramul has a victim tangled in her bright green net - Falkor the Luck-Dragon. The entrance of Falkor and Ygramul startled me, because previously, Atreyu was curled up on the stage, mourning the loss of Artax, and a Werewolf was silently creeping up on him. And then, Falkor yells and runs on the stage.
Falkor was played by Joe Foust, and he was awesome. His costume was very nice, it actually did suggest that he was meant to be a dragon - an asian style furry one. He had wide silver sleeves that were meant to be wings (even though in the book, Luck Dragons don't have wings, but never mind that)
Falkor is my favorite character in the book (and not just because he's a dragon). He's a Luck-Dragon, and blessed with good luck, and an eternally optimistic attitude. Things will always get better. Even though he is trapped in the net, he is not worried, for all he had to do is flex his mighty wings and he will esca-. Ahem. He just needs to flex his mighty wings and he will es-. Hmm. This appears to be a lot harder than he thought. He is surrounded by the parts of Ygramul, and after a few tries, they manage to sting him, several times.
Atreyu tries to rescue him, but ends up being caught as well. A mysterious shout (Bastian's) gets their attention, and the AURYN prevents them from eating him. But, Ygramul will not release Falkor. But, she does reveal her secret, her poison kills within the hour, but if a person has her poison in them, they can teleport to any place. Atreyu needs to travel far, so he agrees.
Atreyu and Falkor come to in the south, during the second act. Falkor is quite happy. True, they're both poisoned, and the poison is slowly paralyzing them, but, they're alive! Surely someone will come along and cure them. This scene was very funny, both of them acted very well with their legs and arms falling asleep, before they passed out.
They are rescued by Urgl (Alison Mary Forbes) and Engywook (Allen Edge), the Gnomics - they are very famous Gnomes. Urgl is an expert healer, and Engywook is writing about the mystery of Uyulala, the Southern Oracle. They are an elderly couple of puppets. There was quite a scene where they were kissing (Well, they are married), which had two funny results. First, some little kid in the audience went "Ewww" quite loudly, and secondly, Falkor said "Hey, dragon in the room!"
Eventually though, Atreyu finds his way back to the Childlike Empress (Emily Newmark), who was adorable. He feels that he has failed, he couldn't find a human child to give her a new name. She tells him that he did everything perfectly, and he has brought the human child back with him. All that Bastian needs to do is say her name, and he will come to Fantastica and save their world. The Nothing, which is people dressed in gray flow-y material swirls around them until Bastian cannot stand it anymore, and he calls out her name.
Everything went dark.
Bastian comes down from the attic, and meets the Childlike Empress, where she tells him that he has the power to recreate her world, by making wishes. The only thing that he can wish for is to meet Atreyu. The two meet face to face for the first time, although they already know each other. Next, he wishes for all the rest of the good guys to come back, including Artax. (This officially makes the ending of the play a more happy ending than the ending of the book)
The show as very awesome, and I enjoyed it a lot. It pretty much followed the first half of the book pretty loyally, which was awesome. I expected to like it, and I was happy to say that the show exceeded my high expectations.