By Gianni Truzzi
PostGlobe Theater Critic
The romance of the air seems a distant, sleepy memory in these days of security screenings and lost luggage. That’s the very reason why Book-It Repertory Theatre’s elegiac marriage of literature and music is so dreamy.
The age of flight was still quite young when Antoine de Saint-Exupéry published his first major book in 1931, “Night Flight,” based on his experiences as director at an airmail carrier in Argentina. Smitten by aviation since his first ride in an airplane at the age of twelve, he became a pilot in the French Air Force and, later, a writer whose works featured aviation and philosophy.
Adapting the work to the stage, co-Artistic Director Myra Platt has partnered with composer Joshua Kohl (of the experimental group Degenerate Art Ensemble) to set the lyrical text to music. The winning cast sings much of the prose, in a hybrid form of what Platt labels an “operetta” (although “oratorio” might equally apply).
The story of pilots and their ground crews daring the elements to run postal service over the Patagonian steppes and Andean foothills of Cuyo unfolds amid the café sounds of French and Argentine accordion. Matthew Smucker’s spare set is as utilitarian as a mechanic’s shed, feature aviators riding aloft on scaffolding and ladders under the 30-foot proscenium of the Moore Theatre, crooning their self-reliant commands to their wireless operators.
For Saint-Exupéry, they are knights of the air, conquerors of nature. Yet they are also men, young men exclusively, with wives and dreams of family, the same sort of pilot to whom his better-known “The Little Prince” would later tell his tale of interplanetary quest.
While aviators such as Fabien (John Bogar, in excellent voice) chart the new frontier of flying at night, it is his boss Rivière (John Patrick Lowrie) who agonizes on the ground. His decisions govern the likelihood of survival, and he must balance the demands to keep schedule against the safety of his pilots.
Lowrie deftly handles the contradictory nature of Rivière who bullies his staff, charging a pilot that, to meet his assigned itinerary, “He should have had his breakdown somewhere else.” About another aviator timid about storms, he explains, “When you punish them enough, the weather will improve.”
The job forces him to be equally hard on the ground crew, as when he must demote the wizardly mechanic Leroux (Tom Butterworth) for a rare wiring mistake.
The skyward are revered by the earth-bound, as illustrated by the inspector Robineau (Brandon Whitehead) whose reveals his own impaired self-image to a cocky pilot (dashing Brian Demar Jones).
Kohl’s music creates a sultry air of romance, and choreographer Sonia Dawkins incorporates dance into dramatic scenes, as when confrontation between Rivière and Robineau is expressed in tango steps.
The challenge for a composer is evident, however, in trying to set prose that has neither meter nor verse to song. It’s not a new idea, as when baroque and classical composers set music to the Gospels. Yet the strict adherence to the arrhythmic text practiced here often flattens the tunes.
Singing is not a specialty of all cast members, either. Lowrie’s voice, in particular, is ill-served by Kohl’s drifts in range assigned to him.
Where Kohl’s score works best, however, is in the lithe hands and strong voice of Ellaina Lewis, who plays Fabien’s newlywed wife Simona. Lewis, an accomplished opera performer, captivates with her long-legged habanera slithers.
Where Platt’s adaptation succeeds most is in the recreation of adventure on the small scale of everyday necessity. These chevaliers seek not the grail, only the timely delivery of the post. What drives them is simple enough, as the Europe mail pilot (John Ulman) explains to his wife, “I don’t want to feel old.”
Watching this graceful and elegant production, the spurring drive of youth is easily recaptured.
Book-It Repertory Theatre’s “Night Flight” runs only one more weekend, through June 14, at the Moore Theatre, 1932 2nd Ave. (at Virginia). Tickets: $15-$35; (206) 216-0833 or www.book-it.org .
