Maankoorts (Moon Fever)
In late October, I did a journalism faux pas. I saw a touring show titled Maankoorts,or Moon Fever, that I was invited to by a friend working on the show. That is the normal part- in this industry as press we are often invited to see shows for many reasons. The faux pas happened when I agreed to see this show and knew I didn’t speak the language the show was in so I wouldn’t understand much of what was actually being said on stage. They agreed to let me do a review anyway. Luckily, this is theatre and art doesn’t always need words to be understood.
Using projections onto the set, the audience is guided from a sunrise type beginning to midday within minutes. We begin to fly over a forest with aerial views of luscious green trees. We start to move closer to the ground before black and white films appear on the set. These films depict wildlife, damaging of forests, baskets being woven before going to a bright white set that the audience initially walked in on.
The costume is casual as Marjolijn van Heemstra appears in a simple shirt and khaki trousers. She regularly engages the audience by addressing them and breaking the fourth wall- a golden rule of traditional theatre not to do.
She begins to lighten the mood of the room by talking about the European Space Agency, easily leading into the main event of the show.
The moon appears spread out on the different sections of the stage set, appearing almost like a map of the orbiting glow above. The performer begins to ask the audience about the next potential space race, exploration of the dark side of the moon, mining buisinesses, and a potential moon colony. The sounds of flight navigation and sonar radar fill the theatre.
For the first time in the show, Marjolijn van Heemstra moves the set by hand simply picking it up and moving it where she wants to a different part of the projection. The audience laughs as she tries to keep track of where the projection has moved to on the floor. As the room fills with darkness, a potential future is displayed centre stage.
Interplanetary boy bands, iSpace, and businesses on the moon! Expand our planet. Expand our future. Purely science fiction? Purely stage design? Or are these possibilities closer than we think? With Maankoorts, or Moon Fever, the audience begins to question these and many more.
Maankoorts presented more like a presentation or a slightly open discussion among peers rather than a theatrical show. While this was unconventional, it seemed to work well with the audience members in attendance. When exiting, the crowd were talking about how the show made them think about not only the possibilities of the future in space but also the responsibilities and potential consequences of that future. Though Maankoorts was unconventional, from the set and projections to how interactive it was, it still accomplished what all great shows strive to do. Maankoorts made people come out of it with a different mindset than they went in with and with more questions about how to view the world. Theatre and art have been able to do that for hundreds of years and continue to do so no matter what form it takes.
All videos are from the Maankorts website.
Editor's Note: At StageLync, an international platform for the performing arts, we celebrate the diversity of our writers' backgrounds. We recognize and support their choice to use either American or British English in their articles, respecting their individual preferences and origins. This policy allows us to embrace a wide range of linguistic expressions, enriching our content and reflecting the global nature of our community.
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