There’s something magical about theater—seeing a world being created and brought to life in front of your eyes, with real objects and real people who transform into something larger than life. In a way, it’s like reading a good book and seeing words become worlds, says actor and playwright Ralph McCubbin Howell.
“The Bookbinder” one-man production blends these two experiences: It brings to life the story of a bookbinder, who gets magically bound into his book, through shadow play, puppetry, pop-up book art, and music, in an award-winning play that has been praised for its spellbinding storytelling.
McCubbin Howell and Hannah Smith, founders of the New Zealand theater company Trick of the Light, are bringing “The Bookbinder” to New York’s Lincoln Center with a children’s performance on March 4.
It is an epic adventure-type story with a fairy-tale mood.
“The Bookbinder is told there is one rule he is never to break,” said Smith, the director. And in the classic nature of all fairy tales, he goes and breaks the rule and becomes trapped within his book.
“It is a mixture of dark and light,” said McCubbin Howell, the writer and narrator. He remembered that stories he liked as a child were ones that did not talk down to children, and he wanted to create something that didn’t belittle the audience. “It’s classic in structure but also complex.”
