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LaLaLuna Wolfe Bowart in LaLaLuna_can.jp

An enchantingly loony dreamscape … Wolfe Bowart specializes in a magic realism that evokes childlike wonder.

 

The Australian

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ABOUT LALA LUNA

A surreal and enchanting tale of the moon’s caretaker as he struggles to re-light the darkened moon, LaLaLuna is circus, theatre and film woven together with a poetic and comic physical language all its own. Since its first performance in 2005, LaLaLuna has elicited raves from critics and audiences of every age in all corners of the planet. LaLaLuna ’s Australian tour in 2006 spanned 5 states, 7 months, 3 festival seasons, 49 venues and 113 performances. Bowart’s distinctive appeal to all age groups was none more apparent than during this tour, when he performed LaLaLuna first at the Melbourne Comedy Festival for adult audiences aged largely between 18 and 34, and then moved the production to Brisbane for QPAC’s family-oriented Out of the Box Festival, where nearly 10,000 school children and their families witnessed the magical mayhem. In 2007, LaLaLuna premiered in the UK at the Southbank Centre as part of the London International Mime Festival, and in Greece at the Volos International Theatre Festival. Also that year, SpoonTree was awarded its first Playing Australia grant to facilitate a second national tour of Australia with LaLaLuna.

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Bowart is the ultimate physical performer. He has a breathtaking awareness of his own body, and glides effortlessly across the stage with balletic skill. His slight of hand is magnificent and fits in so neatly that you sometimes barely notice that it’s there, which allows the audience to be swept away in the dreamy mystique that Bowart seeks to create. LaLaLuna ... is sheer brilliance.

 

The Arts Program, Australia

Reviews

 

Through it all Bowart is the master of ceremonies and there is never a lapse, not a stray move. Every breath, it seems, is within the control of a clear and very precise physicalized expression of a magical imagination.

Australian Stage

Endearingly humorous and bizarrely ingenious.

The Daily Telegraph, Australia

LaLaLuna … injects real joie de vivre into the 29th London International Mime Festival.

The Stage, UK

Wolfe Bowart’s show about the night the light in the moon went out will have you howling with laughter at the dark circle in the sky.

Luminously inventive and magically silly, LaLaLuna flies you to the moon and back on a winged unicycle to a symphony of whoopee cushions and ukulele. It plumbs the collective unconsciousness with a toilet plunger; embosoms the collective imagination in a giant balloon; animates musical sketches and further charms with an interactive clothes-line film.

LaLaLuna is a topsy-turvy world in which gravity isn’t always on its best behaviour and the universal cart of dreams is upturned. Bowart’s roundabout quest to illuminate the moon will take you to the top of a windswept stack of suitcases and spear your bum with cactus spines.

When the moon’s a balloon, or a pretty bubble, it’s impossible to resist rekindling warm childhood memories with LaLaLuna.

The Age, Australia

Awards and Nominations

Awarded, Playing Australia grant 2007

Nominated, Drover Award, Excellent Audience Response 2008

Awarded, Best Young People’s Event, Brighton Int’l Arts Festival (UK) 2010

Finalist, Australian Arts in Asia Awards 2013

In 2008, SpoonTree Productions continued touring LaLaLuna , with a 23-show season at Sydney’s Seymour Centre, a 10-show season at the Melbourne Arts Centre, and tours to Tasmania, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Greece and Brazil. In 2009, LaLaLuna was invited back to the UK to headline the Theatre Royal Bath’s inaugural Family Theatre Festival. In 2010, LaLaLuna reached an ever-widening UK audience via a 7-city tour that included seasons at the Salisbury Arts Festival and the Brian Eno-curated Brighton Arts Festival, where the production was awarded Best Young People’s Event. SpoonTree also toured LaLaLuna through New Zealand, and in Austria the production was part of the 20th anniversary edition of the Festival der Träume, the eminent European clown theatre festival. In 2013, Bowart toured LaLaLuna to South Korea. Arising from a collaborative effort between SpoonTree, Seoul-based Ludi Co, Austrade Korea and the Australia-Korea Foundation, the multi-city tour marked Bowart’s premiere appearance in South Korea. He was invited to undertake a return tour the following year.

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TOUR Highlights

Australia

Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2006

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2006

Out of the Box Festival, QPAC Playhouse, Brisbane 2006

National Tour (49 venues through WA, QLD, NSW, VIC) 2006

National Tour (Playing Australia grant, 20 venues) 2007

Seymour Centre, Sydney 2008

Arts Centre, Melbourne 2008

Theatre Royal, Hobart 2008

 

United Kingdom

Southbank Centre, London International Mime Festival 2007

Theatre Royal, Family Theatre Festival, Bath 2009

Warwick Arts Centre 2009

The Lighthouse, Poole 2009

Brighton International Arts Festival (Curator: Brian Eno) 2010

Salisbury International Arts Festival 2010

Spark Childrens’ Arts Festival, Leicester 2010

York Theatre Royal 2010

Northern Stage, Newcastle 2010

The Lowry, Salford, Manchester 2010

Artsdepot, London 2010

 

New Zealand

FUEL Festival, Hamilton 2008

Regent Theatre, Dunedin 2010

Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch 2010

Civic Theatre, Invercargill 2010

Theatre Royal, Nelson 2010

Austria

Festival der Träume 2010

 

Brazil

Festival Internacional de Teatro 2008

 

Hong Kong

Sha Tin Cultural Activities Hall 2008

Sheung Wan Civic Centre Theatre 2008

Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre Theatre 2008 Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre Theatre 2008

 

Greece

Volos International Theatre Festival 2007

International Puppet & Mime Festival 2008

 

USA

Berger Performing Arts Centre, Arizona 2005

Bangor Opera House, Maine 2005

 

South Korea

Guro Arts Valley, Seoul 2013

Suseong ArtPia Theatre, Daegu 2013

Garden 5 Arts Hall, Seoul 2013

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LaLaLuna Wolfe Bowart inside the balloon
LaLaLuna Moon-on-Parasol.jpg Photo Rom H
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