Artists

Featuring: Chris Amos, Jackson Challinor, Adam Dodds, Adam Downs, Minita Gandhi, Michael Graham, Greg Hardin, Christine Lin, Tom McGrath, Carly Mendez, Fawzia Mirza, Lauren Mustain, Tinuade Oyelowo, Leticia Ramirez, Denise Santomauro

Assistant Director: Adrienne Day
Scenic, Lighting and Sound Design: Tony Adams
Assistant Scenic Design: Juan Castañeda
Costume Design: Jennifer Zielinski
Dramaturg: Denise Santomauro
Properties Design: Jessica Jane Childs, Andréa Morales

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Reviews

Two hours is too short a time to appreciate the wealth of irony, satire, wordplay, nuance, pop references, political metaphors, and autobiographical subtext that Salman Rushdie, writing underground after Iranian religious leaders demanded his execution, packs into his children's story for adults. But in this adaptation by Tim Supple and David Tushingham, Halcyon Theatre director Jennifer Adams keeps the spectacle flowing even when our young hero's step-by-step progress in the quest to rescue his storyteller father from the sinister Master of Silence eludes us. Synthesizer-heavy music, intriguing Hindi dances, agile martial-arts displays, intricate ensemble mime, imaginative puppets and props, fanciful costumes, and an array of mostly enchanting characters who convey oodles of charm dazzle the senses. --Mary Shen Barnidge, Thursday, November 29, 2007

The relatively new Halcyon Theatre Company manages to accomplish no easy feat in creating a low-budget children's show that is entertaining and appealing to both children and adults. Jennifer Adams has done just that with her inspired and economical direction of this stage adaptation of Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories." The ensemble of actors is dynamic and animated; they flourish within the simplicity of the space and minimal technical elements, making the most of their abilities to create the visual world with movement and storytelling. Alka Nayyar, from the Chitrahar Cultural Academy, helps to further enliven the production with inspired choreography. The costumes and props, by Jennifer Zielinski and Jessica Jane Childs and Andrea Morales, respectively, are lovely and whimsical, adding just the right touch of adornment to this very charming production. -- Valerie Jean Johnson, 2007-12-04>

 

The surroundings are familiar: You’re on a folding chair in a church basement, the brightly festooned costumes look like they were made by somebody’s especially crafty mom and the wide-eyed actors all evoke the unmistakable feel of a Bible-camp pageant. But pay close attention. Rather than a play about the Ten Commandments, the messages encoded in Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories are less preachy than celebratory (“Tell the truth, and bonus points if you tell it in an interesting way”) and more universal than denominational (read: It’s all right for kids of any or no particular faith).

Published after Rushdie went into hiding, Haroun tells the story of a patriarchal storyteller who loses his mojo and hence can no longer spin a decent yarn. His tyke of a son embarks on a journey to help his old man get his groove back and, naturally, encounters plenty of characters and metaphors along the way.

In the case of this bare-bones staging, those metaphors are often the show’s drawback. While it’s great that Rushdie’s book mashes together so many different religious allegories and draws upon artifacts from so many opposing cultures, the characters and stories tend to run together, making it difficult to distinguish who’s who and what’s what. On the other hand, Halcyon Theatre is a relatively young storefront troupe producing its first family-friendly show, and it’s clear that it knows how to tell a story with limited resources. In particular, Adams’s vibrant staging features highly dynamic choreography. And as children’s literature goes, you surely could do worse than Rushdie. — Christopher Piatt, December 13, 2007