RECOMMENDED FOR: Primary Students
CAST SIZE: 2 (with opportunities to include multiple narrators/authors)
A PLAY TO: Read, read aloud, study, perform in class, produce
GENRE: Children’s Theatre, Poetic, Storytelling
THEMES: Identity, mental health, joy
CURRICULUM/STUDY LINKS: The Arts – Drama/Music/Multi-media English, Literacy
SYNOPSIS: Claire Della just doesn’t fit in. The things that make sense to everyone else don’t seem to make sense to her, and the world is a loud and frightening place. So, she retreats to the safety and quiet of the Moon, where there’s no one to bother her and no one for her to disappoint. But when her link between worlds is shattered, Claire must team up with Laika, the adventurous space dog, to find a way home or else be lost forever.
CLAIRE DELLA AND THE MOON is a tender and beautiful new theatre production for young audiences, addressing issues of mental health, depression and anxiety. Using puppetry, music, striking visuals and poetic storytelling, CLAIRE DELLA AND THE MOON opens the doors for honest conversation and provides audience members of all ages with a metaphoric vocabulary to positively manage their own mental health.
STAGING: A highly imaginative approach can be taken to the stating of a production of the play. There are specific set pieces mentioned – wardrobes, wheelbarrows, rickety ladders – but the almost magic realism feel of the work takes the audience into space “a beautiful array of people on their own planets, they float past, a whirlwind of colour and stillness”. Many possibilities.
