Playwright: Stephen Angus and Zeljko Djukic
At: The Utopian Theatre Asylum at Victory Gardens,
Phone: (773) 871-3000; $28
Runs through: July 8
Le Petit Prince tells the story of an aviator downed in the desert. In the course of repairing his damaged aircraft, he meets (hallucinates?) a small boy who claims to rove the cosmos, and who then proceeds to recount his adventures thereabout. First published in 1943, only a year before its author's death, this winsome fable enjoyed cult status throughout the 1960s on college campuses, its fanciful illustrations, allegorical characters and koanic observations hinting at esoteric insights.
In the chill of 2004, however, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's vision of childhood innocence—in translation, anyway—hearkens too far toward Victorian sentimentality for audiences accustomed to bright, active, resourceful young heroes. A verbatim adaptation of the novel being ill-advised, Stephen Angus and Zeljko Djukic opt for a physical, rather than psychological, solution to the cultural dissonance. After all, when you have a personality combining the curiosity of a child and the wisdom of an old man, cannot these traits be as plausibly housed in an elderly body as in a youthful one?
Indeed, they can—especially when that sage is played by gruff character-actor Mike Nussbaum, garbed for this Utopian Theatre Asylum production in clownish striped shirt and red suspenders, Baron Munchausen-moustache and eyes alight with wonder at the universe. Represented thusly, the prince's devotion to his beloved rose-tree takes on a wistful glow as he dances with his floral inamorata to big-band ballads, even as his relationship with his grownup confidant is rendered mercifully free of hackneyed father-son tensions. Most important, his rejection of worldly values assumes a manifest credibility that we as adults cannot shrug off as mere idealism born of inexperience.
The T.U.T.A. ensemble acquit themselves commendably in their allegorical roles, walking the fine line between adult and juvenile sensibilities with delicate precision. In the role of the aviator, Steven Angus replicates Saint-Exupéry's drawings with capable accuracy, though audience members unfamiliar with the book may be slow to recognize the objects pictured in chalk on the stage's walls and floor. Ultimately, however, it's Nussbaum who keeps our attention anchored in this gossamer-fragile fantasy.