Wolfe Bowart’s fantastical LaLaLuna to engage at AWESOME Festival

LALALUNA is a solo show physical theatre performer Wolfe Bowart needs a lot of words to describe.

“But the first thing to say is that it’s a family-friendly theatre piece,” he said.

“Some people call it magic realism because the story is quite fantastical; the light bulb in the moon burns out and the caretaker of the moon is trying to find a way to relight it.

“Shadows, film, magic, juggling and acrobatics are all used to further the story, so it’s not a circus piece per se where it’s a trick and then stop and say ‘ta-da’.

“In theatre you’re telling the story first and using the circus skills or magic to further that story.”

Having grown up in Tucson, Arizona, Bowart now calls Perth home when he is not touring, after meeting his Perth-born wife, Kerryn Negus.

The two were working in Hollywood, Bowart as a script writer and Negus as a publicist for Cannes Film Festival.

The couple now have SpoonTree Productions, which has toured Wolfe’s shows LaLaLuna, The Man The Sea Saw and Letter’s End worldwide.

LaLaLuna will be the final in the cross-generational production trio to be performed in Perth during this year’s AWESOME International Arts Festival for Bright Young Things, despite being created before the others and performed more than 300 times everywhere from the UK and Brazil to South Korea and Bahrain.

“This show was honed with Australian audiences and it’s just an honour to come back,” Bowart said.

“We do a lot of children’s festivals all over the world and this is one of my favourites; I wish I had 10 more shows to bring back year after year.

“This piece is about dreaming, imagining, wonder and creativity.

“They’re not ‘kids shows’ or ‘adult shows’, they’re ‘everybody shows’, so I have to engage everyone and there’s a lot packed into the 70 minutes.”

THE ESSENTIALS

What: LaLaLuna

Where: Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA

When: October 6 to 9

Tickets: www.ticketek.com.au