Moon on a Stick’s Land of Nod presents a wonderful story of questioning where we go when we fall asleep through puppetry and song. The three ‘Sandies’ help Isaac- a puppet boy- get to sleep despite numerous distractions. It has a beautiful concept but at times lacked energy from the direction. Several moments of the production could have been much faster paced as it was not entirely gripping for children as young as three.
Unfortunately, the musical element of the show was unimpressive and under-rehearsed. The sound was of bad quality and must have been difficult for the actors to hear because the songs were mostly out of time. It seemed unnecessary having one Sandy mime playing the guitar and strumming it, untuned, at the end of the song. I wasn’t sure what the purpose of this was and think it should be reconsidered for future performances. Occasionally the lyrics were lost over the backing track, which was a shame as they would have been an interesting musical break to the production if they had had more work.
