Under the Stars, Above the Tree
Try to imagine a world in darkness, a world where the sky has been blocked out by a tree that just never stopped growing. Imagine that people forgot what the sky was, that they lived in gloom. Now imagine a boy, his hands calloused from climbing for years, sitting on the highest branch.
Under the Stars, Above the Tree is aimed at a wide audience range appealing to the young and old, through interesting interactions with talking animals and a extravagant visual element. While the story is being enacted and narrated by UCT Graduate Andrew Laubscher, another UCT product, Jon Keevy draws and projects a series of images onto a screen. The multimedia approach to director Sanjin Muftic’s work has been critically acclaimed at both the Grahamstown National Arts Festival and the Out the Box Puppetry Festival.
Under the Stars, Above the Tree takes you to a world where a tree has overgrown the planet, and where a young boy is on a quest to see the sky for the first time. Through storytelling, shadow puppetry and multimedia, the play ponders our place in a modern world.
The story begins with a series of projected words that coupled with music by Brydon Bolton, sets the mood of the story to follow. In the gloomy world covered entirely by a tree a young boy watches his grandfather die and has to decide to go on a journey to see the sky. During his journey he meets the unintelligible, family orientated dassie (Rock Hyrax), the obnoxious bird, they sympathetic, eastern European gorilla and the sly, manipulating snake; All of which influence the course of his journey and force him to confront his own fears and reasons for undertaking the journey.
This is what Lisl Griffioen of Cue had to say:
In a dark and closed world, a young boy finds the strength and courage to undertake a journey that is greater than himself. The introduction is striking, which sets the tone for the captivating story that follows. He meets interesting creatures along the way, who offer mixed messages. It is a beautiful and uplifting performance.
A review from Megan's Head:
...told with great visuals, a clever set and puppets and a tight and quirky use of technology. I really enjoyed it. The set, black poles at weird branch angles on a stage, was very effective. One of my favourite things were the headlamps that both performers used to light themselves, the puppets and the painting/slide show which was filmed and projected live. Brilliant. And gorgeous. I loved the soundscape of natural sounds and music. I loved the physical stuff, mainly by Andrew as the climbing boy.