Geneviève Steele as Albertine forgets she is grabbing the hair of her child Leó (Rooks Field-Green) in A Beginner’s Guide to the Night Sky, at Ferry Terminal Park to Oct. 8. (Contributed)
A Beginner’s Guide to the Night Sky is a magical story about love, loss and the star system.
The premiere of this hour-long play by Colleen MacIsaac, produced by The Villains Theatre and presented by Eastern Front Theatre, runs to Oct. 8 outdoors at Ferry Terminal Park in front of a low hill with trees spattered in tiny pinpricks of green light. (There are indoor performances Sundays.)
Leó is the child of a tremendously vibrant and unique high school teacher who loves astronomy and leads a community class using song and movement to get her points across. For years she’s convinced Leó to freeze outdoors with her to discover the celestial magic and help convince others of its grandeur and meaning.
Unfortunately, on opening night, there were no stars. However, actors Geneviève Steele and Rooks Field-Green were able to hold our attention and convince us of the existence of a star system, which is quite a feat standing on bare grass near the lights and noise of downtown Dartmouth. (Excellent lighting design by technical director Matt Downey helped steer focus and amplify the feeling of a cherished time and place.)
Director Garry Williams is blessed with two gifted actors in Field-Green as the quiet, embarrassed, smart and stubborn Leó, and in Steele as the melodramatic, passionate mother Albertine, a bilingual character who tragically falls into dementia after blazing for almost the full hour. The relationship between mother and child is beautifully crafted and strongly felt; it seems to continue as the two actors skip off stage to return to themselves.
MacIsaac tells their tale with humour and music, written by theirself and music director Jenny Trites. We are the students in an astronomy class and since Albertine loves song as a teaching tool we are directed in a playful round about the phases of the moon.
Leó, a non-binary child, is torn between seeing Albertine as a joke or admiring her intensely. The love wins out and Leó participates in singing and doing silly but charming movements. (Field-Green is very good at crafting the balance in this character and holding their own on stage given that Albertine is like the sun to Leó’s distant planet.)
Albertine’s love for Leó shines as strongly as her passion for the star system. There are a lot of astronomy lessons in this show, perhaps too many. The dramatic scenes between Albertine and Leó when they are out of class are dynamic and very interesting; a couple more of these and a couple less of lessons might be good.
MacIsaac writes of dementia realistically and out of personal family experience. It was their father who took them out on cold Prairie nights to see constellations while their mother was a kindergarten teacher fond of singing and play.
Williams uses the space well and directs with sensitivity and a good eye for humour in very small moments; just Field-Green tucking a chin into a top to stay warm is funny and sweet.
A Beginner’s Guide to the Night Sky is an enchanting play with a lovely use of stars as metaphors for life and light, history and the vastness of time. The ending is deeply moving and beautifully staged. Show times are 7:30 to Oct. 8, every night except Monday, with indoor shows Sunday nights, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8, in the rotunda of Alderney Landing Theatre. For tickets go to: https://www.easternfronttheatre.com/beginners-guide
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