On Saturday, Nov. 16, at 8 p.m., a night with a snow supermoon in the sky, the Connecticut Repertory Theatre hosted a production of “The Old Man and the Old Moon,” an adventurous comedy that reads like a folk tale with shadow puppets and other fun theatre techniques. It was directed by Matt Sorensen of the puppet arts department and features Sadie Aiken, an MA puppet arts student, as the Old Man and the protagonist.
Spoilers for “The Old Man and the Old Moon” ahead!
The story begins with an accented dialogue between the Old Man and the Old Woman. “Do you remember the day we met?” the Old Woman asked. “No,” the Old Man said. “Doesn’t that bother you?” she replied. The tragedy of forgetting important things such as the first time you met your significant other is terrifying, and is highlighted here. “Memory: That’s the most powerful thing,” said the narrator. The dialogue was rife with awkward pauses, not from bad acting but from the tension in the scene.
The Old Woman made the decision to take a boat and sail the seas. A light shone on her dress so that the boat could be projected with a shadow there. The Old Man makes it his mission to find her. The curtains rose and the audience was able to see backstage and the musicians, a cool stylistic choice.
“The Old Man and the Old Moon” has a lot of physical humor. For example, a bagpipe player’s hand was cut off by a butcher and the prop hand had red streamers under it to signify blood. That prop was never seen again. Then someone in an elaborate cow costume got up on two feet and walked off-stage. That cow was never seen again. The dedication to one-off jokes is admirable, showing how much love and effort was poured into the production.
At the boat shop, the Old Man encounters a young man whose boss forces him to give away his grandfather’s hat to the customer. The hat belonged to Pericles, a popular and notorious sailor who made a name for himself as the leader of an imperial fleet.
Boatless because he is too poor to buy one, the Old Man passes as Pericles to a ship’s crew and hitches a ride with them. The captain had a peg leg, which was done by having the actress’ knee touch the peg leg and the rest of her real leg tucked behind. It is commendable how Melissa Carter navigated with it on stage.
The crew told stories to each other; possibly because he wasn’t actually Pericles and would give that away if he joined in, or because his stories were more mundane as the Old Man said, “my wife has all the stories.” This longing for someone you miss dearly pulls at the heartstrings. The memories come up in unexpected places.
One crew member, Mabelu, told the story that his former crew wanted to kill his dog, Lucy, and turn her into a meal, so he sent her sailing on a boat after teaching her how to fish. He didn’t see the error in his logic and thus panicked, thinking that Lucy died. The story of Pericles was then told, a key detail being that his wife was pregnant.
Two rebels on a shopping cart boat attacked the crew with their cannon, causing a hectic fight to break out where too much was going on to speak of it all. The captain very dramatically died, leaving “Pericles” to be the new captain. A beautiful acoustic guitar song was played by one of the cast members with deep humming from the ensemble.
To solve the crew’s conflict of where to sail, the Old Man decided to go west to the City of Light, in order to refill the darkening moon’s light with liquid light before the world collapses. The remaining light the moon had left was indicated by lightbulbs along the fringe of the set piece.
A crew member revealed that he knew the Old Man wasn’t actually Pericles. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not who you say you are,” he said. He didn’t tell the rest of the crew this just yet.
Two ensemble members holding flying sharks came from the aisles to attack the ship. After surviving, a crew member said, “what could be even worse than flying sharks?” Another crewmate muttered, “why would you even ask that?” Volcanoes were the answer to the first crewmate’s question.
It was clear that “Pericles” and his secrecy were causing a rift in the crew’s community. The crew member who knew the truth about “Pericles” revealed the truth, saying that he didn’t do so earlier because “I like a good story, what can I say?” The crewmates then all fell overboard after waves of water hit them. The water crash sounded super realistic but was actually created live by Foley. As the Old Man drowned, another beautiful song was performed.
The story could have ended there as the curtains closed, but instead, the Old Man was eaten by a giant fish in the form of a giant puppet and survived inside of its belly. The Old Man met another old man inside of the fish. “I had a wife. Now I have nothing,” the other old man said. “Don’t you want to see your wife again?” the Old Man asked, trying to motivate him to escape the fish’s belly. The other man claimed that he was dead, having been in the fish’s stomach for decades. This “other man” was Pericles. The Old Man gave Pericles his hat, which he didn’t recognize at first. Pericles was relieved to hear that his lineage had continued with his grandson.
Breaking out of the fish, the Old Man escaped alone. As he did so, the moon lost its brightness, causing tide abnormalities. The Old Man washed up on an island where a peculiar fishing dog (who would later be revealed to be Lucy) giving him fish. They built a boat together and then traveled in the desert before passing out from heat exhaustion and dehydration.
The two rebels from earlier saved the Old Man and the dog on a hot air balloon, or a “dirigible,” as one of the rebels insisted. The crew that had supposedly died earlier then boarded the dirigible as well, with Mabelu and Lucy being reunited. The Old Man then jumped from the dirigible to save everyone else. He made it to the City of Light, indicated by the many string lights illuminated on the stage.
In the city, a young woman saved a young man from drowning in a flood with a bucket of liquid light. The light dripping was shown with a flashlight, which was brilliant. The Old Man, seeing this, remembered his promise to the Old Woman to fill the moon with light once again. He climbs stairs, while yet another beautiful song plays.
Back at the old couple’s house, the Old Woman asked the Old Man a familiar phrase: “Do you remember the first time we met?” This time, he did.
The moon from the set came down to the stage and the images of the Old Man and the Old Woman were projected on there, symbolizing how they traveled to the moon.
It was confusing to get to the show because it was technically presented by the Connecticut Repertory Theatre but was put on at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. The usher was super kind and understanding about the confusion and had my friend and I seated on the edge of the aisle so as to not disturb other audience members. The show itself was super imaginative, perfect for suspending disbelief and simply enjoying the ride.
There are more showings of “The Old Man and the Old Moon” from Tuesday, Nov. 19, which is a student and group matinee, to Saturday, Nov. 23, which requires a mask. Tickets can be purchased on the CRT website.