FIRST PIANo on the Moon

This critically-acclaimed family show was premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2019. During the 2020 pandemic lockdown, it was adapted for Zoom audiences by director Lu Kemp, presented by Horsecross (Perth Concert Hall). After a return to live theatre for Fringe 2021, the stage version is being further developed for audiences from 2022 onwards.

When I was at school, I noticed that pianos were often locked, or stowed away under some dust cover, out of bounds. Why would you lock up a piano? Why would you prevent people from making them sing (or scream). The forbidden piano I recall best was one in Salzburg. In fairness, it was Mozart’s actual piano. But to stop people playing it full stop. What? Banned so that future generations may also be banned from playing it? Forget that. I needed to connect with the great composer. I was thrown out the museum by security after a few bars of Rondo alla Turca.

Growing up, piano was my thing. I just loved it. But even at a young age I felt suppressed by attitudes, snobbery, expectation. These felt like just other ways in which the piano was locked up.

In First Piano on the Moon, a young boy’s dream of playing big concerts becomes a nightmare when he is suddenly given the very opportunity. Sent to Salzburg to represent the school at Mozart’s birthday celebrations, he discovers he is alone in not having a proper piece. He just has tricks. Enter Mozart, the middle of the night, to trade genius insight for a glimpse of the future.

Written and performed by Will Pickvance
Illustration by Tim Vincent-Smith
Technical direction by Tim Reid
Zoom direction by Lu Kemp
Stage direction by Magda Dragan
Supported by Horsecross

Review from THE NATIONAL

The show is combination of Pickvance’s wonderfully engaging storytelling, lovely piano playing and some delightful little video animations. As he unfolds his tale, the performer exudes, by turns, enthusiasm, excitement and trepidation in a way that transports children and adults alike.

There’s the wild-eyed wonder at being taken into the Mozart Geburtshaus (the museum to the composer, where young Will is to play in the concert). Then there’s the panic, upon meeting two of the other young musicians, in realising that, unlike his new, somewhat precocious friends, he has no great, classical piano piece to play to the audience tomorrow morning.

All of which, given young Will’s imaginative bent, leads to a long, late-night conversation with the ghost of Mozart himself. The spirit of Wolfgang Amadeus is, as you might expect, sympathetic and encouraging. The great composer is particularly excited to learn that his music has remained so popular over the centuries that it has even been played on the moon.

This storytelling is interspersed with high-energy piano playing, ranging from crowd-pleasing tricks (including playing upside-down) to a virtuosic medley (which goes from blues and jazz to tango and rock ‘n’ roll). It’s all very humorous, educational and highly entertaining stuff, as the little girl who shouted “Bravo! Bravo!” after every piano piece on Friday afternoon can attest.

Like all of the best children’s theatre-makers, Pickvance doesn’t patronise his young audience. He connects his childhood memories with their life experiences as a benign adult talking to a child, without recourse to any of the toe-curling mimicking of children that we still see in our culture.

Indeed, Pickvance is quite willing to stretch the vocabulary of his youngest audience members. His school report card, for example, is “incriminating evidence”.

This year’s Fringe is sadly, if inevitably, dominated by online shows. However, this brilliant piece, returning to its in-person roots following a pandemic-related sojourn into digital presentation, is a beacon for the return to live children’s theatre.