A Date with a Very Hungry Caterpillar and Friends

Eric Carle's books are staples in our home library and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Mixed-Up Chameleon and Little Cloud are among our favourites. So you can imagine how delighted the children were to get up close and personal with some of their favourite characters as they leapt off the pages of the books onto the stage in the stunning production of The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia.

I'd watched this production with Noey on a school excursion two (or maybe three) years ago and was fascinated by the magic of black light theatre. This year, thanks to Act 3 International, the kids and I were in for a treat as we were invited to step backstage, turn up the lights and learn a bit about how the puppets come to life. I was definitely as excited as the kids were.
If you are not familiar with black light theatre, it involves the use of UV lighting, a dark stage, black curtains, and fluorescent costumes to create a magical effect where the puppeteers disappear into the background, with the puppets and props appearing as if they are animated on their own.

Lights on...

… and lights off!

It is in theory a very simple concept, but we were soon to learn that it wasn't that simple at all to pull off! For one, the puppeteers work in complete darkness, dressed in black with black gloves and black hoods over their heads and faces. I was also surprised to realise that there were only three of them (two puppeteers and one stage manager) working all the puppets and shifting all the sets around. In perfect synchronisation too!

We were given the opportunity to try to manipulate the puppets ourselves and found that it was not that easy to make the puppets move in the same life-like fashion as they do in the hands of the professionals. The caterpillars (there are actually three used in the show) are actually made out of a thick cushion-like material, with the individual donut rings threaded together. Like all the props, they were all handmade in-house. I was personally wowed by how much the puppets resembled the original artwork.

Getting the caterpillars to "crawl" forward. The longer caterpillar has two poles which you can manipulate while for the smaller caterpillar, you simply pinch a segment in each hand to move it.

On Monday he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry.
You can see the flaps on the apple which the puppeteers would fold over as the caterpillar "eats".

We moved on to give the chameleon a go and the kids had fun re-enacting the scene where the chameleon shoots out its tongue to catch the fly. In the process we learnt that the flickering fly is created simply from twisting a two-sided painted fly-on-a-stick between your hands, and flying it around of course. The long tongue on the other hand actually affixed on a conveyor belt adjusted at an appropriate angle, which the puppeteer can pull in and retract easily. The kids tried their hands at this and hmm, maybe it didn't quite come out right, but they sure had fun!

The chameleon trying to catch the fly!

I thought Little Cloud might be easier to manipulate but was quickly disabused of the notion when we were taught how to move like clouds. You don't see clouds bouncing around do you? We were shown how to move smoothly and the kids eagerly volunteered to try out for the part. You can see that they took it very seriously, especially Mei, who I think did a great job with her footwork!

After the wonderful opportunity learning about what goes on behind the scenes, the three of us settled down to watch the show. And I was glad to note that it was as good as I remembered. Better, in fact, given the additional knowledge that we now had. Mei who has never seen the production before was utterly captivated, and got really excited when her favourite very hungry caterpillar came on stage. As for Noey, he was busy explaining to be the whole time how things were done. A little knowledge can be dangerous in his hands. It was a good thing that the whole show was very child-friendly no one batted an eyelid at the excited comments made by the young audience.

I was reminded that I was watching the show with an honest-to-goodness 6-year old though when Noey started protesting about the caterpillar making a cocoon. "It's not a cocoon, it's a chrysalis!" he said indignantly. "Only a moth makes cocoon, a butterfly makes a chrysalis! And it is not a hairy caterpillar! Moth caterpillars are hairy! Tell Eric Carle!" he ended rather huffily.

Cocoon or chrysalis notwithstanding, it was a very enjoyable show. The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites has just ended its run here but I wouldn't be surprised if it or its other companion production A Brown Bear, a Moon and a Caterpillar: Treasured Stories by Eric Carle (which we have also watched) return again in a couple of years! Do also check out Act 3 International and join their mailing list to be first to know about other upcoming workshops and productions.

*We thank Act 3 International for the media invite to the workshop and show. All opinions are, as always, our own.