Idaho Repertory Theater’s ‘Little Prince’ sticks to script

Since its publication in 1943, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s illustrated novella “The Little Prince” has been revered as one of the greatest children’s stories ever written. It’s been translated and adapted into every medium imaginable, and next week Idaho Repertory Theatre will premiere its take on the classic tale.

The original French text recently entered the public domain in much of Europe, which inspired Matt Foss, the show’s director and an assistant professor in theater at the University of Idaho, to adapt it to the stage. Because the story is so timeless, he and co-writer Christopher Wayne Grimm stuck closely to the original source material.

“It’s a great story about how love is really about the other as opposed to just one’s self,” Foss said. “That’s always been attractive to me. It’s a melancholy story, but it has a nice sense of humor. … There have been a number of productions popping up, so it seems that people are interested in what this story has to say for us right now.”

That story is simple and allegorical, and the Repertory Theatre’s production follows suit. It concerns a WWII-era pilot (played by Dan Poppen) whose plane has crashed in the Sahara. While wandering the desert, he comes upon a young prince (Lo Miles), who is visiting Earth from his home planet, a volcanic asteroid the size of a house. As the prince recounts the story of his strange intergalactic journey, Saint-Exupéry weaves a gentle fable about the human condition.

Foss and his actors recently made a trip from Moscow, Idaho, to Moscow, Russia, where they spent four weeks studying the country’s theatrical history. Foss says the impressionistic style of Russian theater helped shape this production, which relies heavily on abstract imagery.

Saint-Exupéry’s original story dealt with the disparities between a child’s view of the world and an adult’s, and Foss and his designers have channeled a sense of childlike imagination by transforming mundane props into objects of fantasy. There are also puppets, created by Jesse Mooney-Bullock, which represent the colorful coterie of characters that the Prince encounters.

“An old umbrella with some paper cranes becomes a flock of birds,” Foss said. “A suitcase can become a planet. We’ve got a really beautiful fox puppet that’s made out of a discarded old fur coat with a carved wooden head. … Hollywood fills in all the blanks, but we leave the blanks open for the audience’s imagination.”

As for the longevity of “The Little Prince,” Foss believes it’s a matter of mass appeal: Its simplicity and grace appeals to children, but its deeper meanings will resonate more powerfully for adults.

“This story still speaks to adults in a meaningful way, and as a children’s story it doesn’t condescend to children,” he said. “It really trusts that young people are capable of and are experiencing loneliness, love, joy, sadness, and are learning a great deal about what it means to love.”