It's a brave director that takes on the rarely-produced (since its Moscow premier in 1908) Maeterlinck fantasy, The Blue Bird and comes away from the challenge unscathed. Unfortunately, Bonnie J. Monte, artistic director of the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, doesn't escape the curse. No matter that she states in the program that the play is close to her heart, the result of her efforts is a deadly dull and ponderous consideration of a very strange and remote children's adventure tale. This production may, indeed, be the nadir of her otherwise impressive 10 years in the driver's seat.
While there is nowhere for Monte to go but up from this fiasco, there is also no denying that she has lavished more extravagantly whimsical costumes and decorously dreamy set designs on this play than this critic has ever seen at this venue. In addition, 20 actors, both professional and non-professional, take on more than 60 roles in this play. But, with one exception, no performer - regardless of age or union affiliation—rises above the level of rank amateur. The one actor to turn in anything close to an enchanting portrayal is Andy Paterson, whose spirited and quirky portrayal of a faithful and spunky dog keeps the action from becoming totally stultifying.
The Blue Bird becomes a parade of arch presentiments and archaic sentiments. The performances, with few exceptions, are barely tolerable, and the overall mood created never more than soporific. While you may have seen the two most recent failed and flawed film versions (one in 1940 starring Shirley Temple, the other, a 1976 multi-star Russian endeavor featuring Elizabeth Taylor), it is unlikely that you have seen a live staging. The philosophical, episodic tale of a brother and sister in search of the blue bird of happiness had its day. Unless there's someone around to re-consider how the largely European metaphysical inferences, the dark witchery and obscure motivations can be translated into contemporary theatrical terms, it should be put back on the shelf. (One can, however, envision it as a ballet.)
In this staging, the two lead children—Paul Molnar, who plays Tyltyl, and Holly Haire, who plays Mytyl, are and appear both old enough to play the parents, thereby making their affected romping and their cloying childishness difficult to bear. Their Christmas night-marish journey in search of the blue bird is marked by close encounters with animate creatures and inanimate objects, all personified with little or no imagination. The result of the kids' search is something I didn't wait to see.
