LOON - Tim Burton Does Mr. Bean

What a perfect way to begin the festival! I enjoyed Wonderheads’ Grim and Fischer last year, and LOON outshone my expectations as an absolute delight. The Wonderheads have chosen a poetic medium to tell their stories and they really make full use of strong images in their work. Somewhere between puppetry and physical theatre, their stylized approach allows their simple and whimsical stories to come alive.

The performer (a petite, muscular woman) has a very precise and expressive physicality. I don’t know how heavy that mask and bulky costume is, but it must be hot. Her stamina is admirable. It’s amazing how a lighting change, posture change and sound effect can make a very fixed, very frowning mask appear to suddenly be smiling. Tribute to the mask designer there too.

Having seen the Wonderheads at the 2011 Vancouver Fringe, I came wondering (ha ha) what the narrative of this piece would be like, but other than the moon shrinking (which I assume was metaphorical) I followed it perfectly. Compared to the slightly off-kilter story telling of last year’s Grim and Fischer, LOON was solid and cohesive.

The story follows a middling, lonely, slightly pathetic but absolutely loveable janitor, literally living out of his suitcase (The light switch is on the inside lid, a practical AND poetic set, who said you couldn’t have both?) and how one night he falls in love with the moon. Not the romantic symbol of the moon, not the metaphor incarnate; he falls in love with that round, glowing orb thing in the sky. It’s a beautiful story with just the right blend of nostalgia, humour and poetry for this audient. A perfect recipe, masterfully executed.