Review: LA RÊVE DU LUCIE a Highlight for Young Audiences at the Cape Town Fringe

It has been a year since I have seen a piece of theatre for young audiences that brought children and their guardians together in the same space as completely as in LA RÊVE DU LUCIE does. At last year's Cape Town Fringe, it was WHAT GOES UP, a local production created by Jayne Batzofin for FTH:K. This year's offering hails from Réunion, with Anne Marcel having written the piece for Cie Mille et Une Façons. Both pieces rely on what FTH:K so aptly called listening with your eyes, and both also depend on listening with your heart. For those open to hearing what the play has to say, LA RÊVE DU LUCIE is a reminder of the power of the imagination in helping us overcome our greatest challenges.

LA RÊVE DU LUCIE begins at bedtime for young Lucie, whose upstairs bedroom seems to fill with goblins, witches and spiders as soon as she closes her eyes. At first, she overcomes her fears by calling out for her grandmother, who sings her back to sleep with lullabies that are woven in and out of the gentle musical soundscape created for the production by Eric Ksouri. But when the creatures of the night return, Lucie discovers how to defeat them using the power of music and her imagination.

Florence Laroche and Elodie Philippini deliver delicate performances that draw the audience into the world of the play, carefully animating Annick Hamon's miniature wooden puppets on and around the meticulously constructed set. Witches, wolves, Lucie, her grandmother and even the tiny bedroom's furniture all come to life right in front of your eyes. The fears of the little ones in the audience are partly kept at bay by the tender and sometimes incredibly witty performances from the cast and partly through the dialogue between guardian and child that LA RÊVE DU LUCIE inspires. It is a piece that brings everyone in the venue together, no matter the differences in age and life experience.

Apart from the lullabies, the performance takes place using only vocal effects and music, so guardians concerned by the French title, which means "Lucy's Dream", should have no fears about whether their young wards will be able to interpret the tale.

Of the three productions aimed at young audiences that I have been able to see at this year's Cape Town Fringe, LA RÊVE DU LUCIE was by far the most engaging and the most meaningful. No matter where you are in your life journey, a half-hour detour into the world of Lucie and the creatures of her dreams will be one that is well worth the meander off the beaten path.

LA RÊVE DU LUCIE runs at the Cape Town Fringe until 8 October. Performances times are available on the Cape Town Fringe website, where you can also book your tickets. View a trailer for the production via YouTube below.

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