Review: THE LAST FIREFLY at Children'sTheatre Company

This pre-eminent children's theatre company is one of the wellsprings of new plays for young audiences, and has twice commissioned playwright Naomi Iizuka in that effort. Ten years ago, they premiered her terrific adaptation of the Odyssey, set roughly in the present, with a South Asian refugee boat boy as the new hero: that was ANON(YMOUS), targeted at older youth and adults.

This time, Iizuka has woven together aspects of seven different Japanese folktales to create THE LAST FIREFLY, the tale of a boy in search of his absent father. If you're acquainted with folk memes, it won't surprise you that he's propelled into the search by the need to protect his mother and himself from a violent stepfather, that he finds various allies along the way, and that his big discovery is that he possesses power of his own.

The show opens in the dark with a single female voice singing wordlessly, a lovely invitation into the magic of this crash-bang tale, and the first testament to the directorial skill of director Peter C. Brosius, longtime leader of this distinguished theater. As lights come up, we meet Kuroko (Joy Dolo, in a grounded and empathic performance), a storyteller who is mother to Boom, the protagonist. Based on her stories, Boom believes that Thunder is his father.

Ricardo Vázquez plays Boom with appealing boyishness, cartwheeling and climbing and sliding with abandon on the simple two-level set, equipped with two sliding poles and two side ramps by designer Eric J. Van Wyk. Van Wyk also designed the bunraku style puppets (a bird, a spider, a turtle, and, yes, fireflies) that come to Boom's aid in his journey. These Japanese-inspired touches give ample stimuli to the audience's imaginations, a crucial aspect of all good theater, and particularly essential when kids are the primary intended audience.

Boom's alcoholic stepdad Ax (played with convincing menace by Luverne Seifert) is bad news-for the forest he destroys as well as for his family. Fueled by desperation and maternal warmth, Boom takes off to get help. His first assistant is Monkey (Sun Mee Chomet), whose irreverent verve lifts the story back into a optimistic and comic vein even as the two characters spar and beatbox and survive the rigors of the wilderness together.

In their hunt for Thunder, they encounter Lightning, who looks like a character straight out of manga, replete with fiber optics. (Costume designer Helen Q. Huang is spot on with this one: it's great.) Actor Stephanie Bertumen, in her Children's Theater debut, supplies plenty of attitude; along with the rest of the cast, she's had great coaching from Kabuki expert David Furomoto and Fight Director Edward B. Sharon.

As one would expect in a story that features Thunder and Lightning, sound and lighting design are major elements. Victor Zupanc and Paul Whitaker do the honors, respectively. Like the other members of the production team, these are mature artists with top-notch training and national/international experience.

Naomi Iizuka herself has broad multicultural competencies, as the daughter of a Latina attorney mother and a Japanese banker dad; she lived in Indonesia and the Netherlands and Washington DC before going to Yale. Currently head of the playwriting program at the University of California, San Diego, she writes for adults as well as kids. The Children's Theater Company has given this new script of hers as luxurious and expert a birthing as could be imagined.

THE LAST FIREFLY plays through November 13, and runs 85 minutes without intermission. Because of the violence and intensity of the first 10 minutes, the theater recommends the show for ages 8 and up, and has provided useful dramaturgy aimed at young people in their program.

Photo credit: Dan Norman

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