Creators: Mollusc Theatre
The dream for a Camden Fringe show is to have the moon on a stick; well, Mollusc Theatre takes that all too literally in their 50-minute sequel to Italo Calvino’s short story collection The Distance of the Moon in which an actual papier-mâché moon on a stick wiggles into view. A surreal show that focuses on creating peculiar scenarios over plot and character, The Distance seems like a lot of fun for its five-strong cast even if the experience is often rather baffling for the viewer.
Professor Xlthlx is giving a lecture on moonsoil at the Centre for Earth-Moon Unity when a late student delivers an important but mysterious letter from an old friend. Returning to her home town by the sea, the Professor discovers a wasteland ruled by a mysterious presence out in the bay and a deafening noise keeping residents trapped in their homes.
Beyond the largely unresolved journey taken by Xlthlx to help a friend, The Distance is often a little uncertain of what its central narrative ought to be. Too little time is spent building the architecture of the story for the audience, either providing clearer exposition about the growing distance of the moon, what that means for Earth and why it matters, or what role the Professor’s friend has in the eventual discoveries within the desolated town – has he been the cause of them, and if so, why?
Creating presence for an unseen character is extremely important and more time could be spent in establishing the details of the town, how people live and why they obey the mysterious man at the shell castle as well as what exactly Xlthlx could even do about it. Even if the company want to leave the audience guessing on some of these issues, the viewer needs reassurance that it makes sense to someone. As a result, there are too many loose ends in this production, which sometimes feels improvised, such as the importance of moonsoil which the Professor gifts to the town but is never fully explained, the significance and source of “the noise” or why Xlthlx friend asked her back to the town in the first place, is it merely to observe his triumph?
Instead, the show tends to get stuck on incidentals, some of which reference Calvino of course including a use of ladders course and a chat with the late student that proves entirely superfluous. The political underpinnings of absurdist theatre are often in play here and credit to Mollusc Theatre that the mysterious power source that never appears, subjugated townspeople and dream sequences are all in the mix. However, the wackiness sometimes consumes time from what could have been more story – the very very long song about paella with endless verses seems to be the centrepiece of The Distance rather than Xlthlx’s purpose.
Performed by Frederique McCarthy-Wilkinson as Xlthlx along with Liv Horgan, Elisabetta Pezzaioli and Joana Fresca as indistinct local women / weird sisters and Davey Green as the ladder-teaching singer, The Distance has some content to work with and a shape for the show but needs to build a bit more narrative around its surrealist ideas. Maybe then it will really get the moon on a stick.
Reviewed on 31 July 2024
Camden Fringe runs until 25 August 2024
