The Far Side of the Moon portrays two brothers during the space race between the Americans and the Soviets. Philippe, the elder brother, has written a thesis about building a huge tower on the dark side of the moon, and also decides to enter a home movie contest sponsored by SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) in which the winning entry will be sent into space. Andre is the younger brother, a highly successful weatherman. The piece explores their relationship (conveyed by telephone conversations since both are performed by LePage), and their differences in personality. Particularly, how each handles "space" in his life. Andre is neat, vain, somewhat impersonal, whereas Philippe is thoughtful, sentimental, tends to be a pack rat, and is full of unachievable aspirations. Their attitudes perhaps represent the contrast between how Americans saw landing on the moon (a race) and how the Soviets did (a dream to reach the stars); one competitive, the other passionate.
The set, simple yet mysterious. A metephor for space, or lack thereof. While Philippe does laundry in a working laundry machine portal embedded in the wall, a video projection next to it shows the inside full of water and tumbling laundry. The same space of the laundry portal becomes an airplane window, the Earth, an MRI machine, and a fish bowl. As Philippe lectures about the lunar tower, he draws an elevator door with chalk, complete with up/down buttons against the pitch black wall. And like magic, the rest of the elevator fills in (15...14..13...12...) Just as your mind gets used to the idea of it appearing, the complete door (now real) slides open and he walks through! In another scene, the same ironing board for one brother becomes the gym equipment for the next.
Far Side is replete with puppets, but these are never tacky, and always subtle. A tiny astronaut sits inside Philippe's cluttered closet. We barely notice it until it picks up a ball as if playing with the moon itself. At one point, the set rotates flat, representing a bar overseas where Philippe has a drink, waiting for a guest that never shows up. Then the light changes and we are transported to a lunar landscape; the bar surface now the barren, unexplored moon with a moon buggy rolling silently across. Pierre Bernier (the puppeteer) does a great, yet deliberately understated performance.
Far Side of the Moon is quite intricate in its interweaving themes: space, loneliness, success, failure, ambition, memories, and dreams. But it has evolved into an extremely moving piece. I've never seen such a spectactular fusion of acting, writing, video, music, the set itself, and puppetry serving a theatrical idea (rather than being mere effects). The sume becomes bigger than the parts. The last scene took everyone's breath away -- not so much because it was an impressive illusion (which it was, and I just can't give it away) but because we witnessed Philippe's hardships. We could then feel his final ascension, emotionally and visually. The sheer contrast of the mundane set and what we saw only heightened this experience. Truly inspiring work.
I had the privilege of chatting with Robert afterwards. He admitted this was their first work to utlize puppets, which was surprising to me. As I found out later, Robert is a famous Canadian stage actor, who even has a documentary about him. He and his troupe Ex Machina have been working on this show since the 1998 Henson Festival in New York when it premiered, and more puppetry has been added since. I urge you to try and see it February 14-17 at UCLA in Los Angeles next year!