The Neverending Story
University Centre Farquhar Auditorium
University of Victoria
December 12 – 18, 2013
J: Whenever The Neverending Story is mentioned, people will most likely remember the film more than Michael Ende’s book that this play is based off. The film is on many lists of the “Top 100 Family Films of All Time.” It comes as no surprise that David S. Craig was under tremendous pressure to adapt Ende’s work for the stage while staying true to the book. Perhaps it was even equal pressure that Kaleidoscope’s Artistic Director, Roderick Glanville, present a show that both fans of Wolfgang Petersen’s film and their children could enjoy.
In this adaptation, Atreyu (Ayden Turpel-Stewart), a young warrior from the plains, is chosen by Fantastica’s ruler, the Childlike Empress (Emily Van Oosten), to take up a quest to save the land and its people from an enveloping black emptiness called The Nothing. Atreyu seeks the aid of many of the land’s inhabitants to stop The Nothing, but the one person who plays the biggest role is Bastian (Stuart Cameron), a boy from a different world who uses his imagination to keep his loneliness at bay.
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