Prague Fringe 2015
Entirely Necessary Adventure
Magic Maverick (England)
Genre: Musical Theatre
Venue: Museum of Alchemists
Festival: Prague Fringe
Low Down
Review
Moonshine, a girl with silver skin, navigates through a fantastical world to find out what it means to be true to herself. With live music, movement and poetry this beautifully embroidered show follows our heroine through the wild landscape of her identity as she explores who she will be when she is a woman.
Entirely Necessary Adventure is sort of an existential musical featuring four performers who sing and play two ukuleles and a guitar. I would not quite call the ways they move dance, but the physicality that they performed was fun and intriguing. There were several children in the audience at the performance that I saw and they were all completely entranced.
Moonshine has several different adventures including her encounters with wolves, pirates and mermaids. Moonshine enters a forest where she meets a pack of frightening wolves who attack her. She determines that one wolf has a thorn stuck in her paw. Moonshine removes the thorn and the wolf is grateful for the ease of his pain. Along the way she is captured by a band of pirates and manages to escape to continue her journey. Next Moonshine enters the enchanted world of the sea. Here she meets sea creatures who lead her to a magical pearl. In her final destination she collects objects that she has acquired in her journey, including the pearl, and combines them in a large caldron.
The characters were well defined as wolves, pirates, queens and mermaids. Some of the physical theatre performed down low on the floor of the stage were lost to people sitting behind the second row. I would love to see this show in a space with raked seating. The intimate theater did not allow for a set, but the elaborate costumes and make-up were amazing and strongly supported by brave lighting choices.
These four performers from the Magic Maverick theatre company are awesome! Their voices lulled us into the story and their movements engaged our imaginations. Recommended.
