The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon, which appeared at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts this past Sunday, which was produced by Enchantment Theatre Company’s production, is based on a picture book by Crockett Johnson. It tells the story of Harold, who one evening decided to go for a walk in the moonlight. He wears face masks so that only the actors’ body movements can convey emotion, though the audience will think that the actor is only five.
To conquer his fear of darkness, he draws a moon (through video animation) and a path to walk on, and thus his journey begins. Resourceful and brave, the very energetic Harold creates the world he wants to explore, using nothing more than a big purple crayon and his healthy imagination.
Harold takes the audience through jets to Mars (shooting stars, spaceships), joins a circus (he walks a tightrope), and meets a king in an enchanted garden (of course, there’s a dragon).
Each night ends with another moon rising to take the old moon’s place. Harold is unsure when he’s in the dark, hiding under the covers to keep the monsters away, but when he’s up and drawing the moon once again, he can steady himself. The journey demands courage and responsibility and will take the adventurer towards a growing awareness of “other” and of learning how to share and to give. With the crayon, Harold finds that he can turn his house into a rocket and shoot up into space. He can make a balloon that takes him skyward. He makes a circus with sword swallowers and acrobats and tames a lion with a head and a enormous tongue that you hear him roar, though he never does.) (don’t have to put this part in.
The play combines life-size puppets, masks, magic and jazz music, composed by Charles Gilbert). However my daughter, aged five, kept asking me “Why Harold is not talking?” Since he was not talking, and there were many moments without a narrator, many of the kids around us started talking to their parents and friends.
If you have a child who has a healthy imagination and a fear of darkness, monsters, dragons, or any other existing and non existing creatures, telling them there are no dragons, monsters or bad clowns will worsen their frear. Letting your child sleep with you at night might get rid of your husband but not the monsters! Reading the book, The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon, will also not help get rid of the fear, but maybe seeing the play will do the job, not because the kids are not familiar with Harold’s technique, since you read them the book over and over, but because they see on stage a kid who has the same fears as they have and overcame them with his imagination.
The play teaches kids that their imagination can get them into trouble but can also get them out of trouble, your enemy (imagination) becomes your ammunition. The play gives legitimacy to their fears in addition to tools dealing with fears and obstacles in life and it demonstrates that finding a creative way to conquer fears is your best bet to fight the inner monsters. It might not help, but at least you tried.
This spring, the Brooklyn Center has a whole slate of interersting programming for tots including The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other Eric Carle Favourites (April 19 at 2pm) from the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, Jim Henson’s Dinosaur Train LIVE! (April 26 at noon and 3pm) and The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley (May 17 at 2pm). Get more info here.
About the author: Liat Ginsberg is a mother and a former Journalist for the Israeli newspaper Maariv. She taught in the Film and Media department at Hunter College.
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