‘The Darkest Dark’ successfully brings Chris Hadfield’s bestseller to the stage

The Darkest Dark

Written by Jim Millan and Ian MacIntyre, based on the book by Chris Hadfield and Kate Fillion, directed by Millan. Through April 2 at Young People’s Theatre, 165 Front St. E. youngpeoplestheatre.org or 416-862-2222

We all have our fears. And paradoxically, it’s often the thing we’re most afraid of that will set us apart in the world.

That is certainly the case with commander Chris Hadfield, who overcame a childhood fear of the dark to become an astronaut, way up there in “the darkest dark”: outer space.

This world premiere play for young people is based on the bestselling children’s book of the same name by Hadfield and Kate Fillion, and is set in the days leading up to the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969. Nine-year-old Chris (Ziska Louis in a notably nuanced performance) is spending the summer at an Ontario cottage with his loving mom and dad (Aurora Browne and Craig Lauzon) and annoying older sister Cindy (Evelyn Wiebe).

Chris is totally obsessed with space travel, communicated charmingly in the first minutes of the show in a fantasy sequence in which, wearing an astronaut’s helmet and pyjamas, he communicates with NASA and explodes imaginary asteroids with a toy gun. His besties Jane (Hannah Forest Briand) and Herbie (Xavier Lopez) enthusiastically get on board his space travel bandwagon, and the three collaborate on a play about the moon launch when they’re not taking canoe lessons from local hippie Keith (Shaquille Pottinger).

It’s all idyllic on the surface, but at night Chris is tormented by visions of monsters outside his bedroom window, and it’s not easy for his long-suffering parents either, who devise strategy after unsuccessful strategy to help him overcome his fear.

Jim Millan and Ian MacIntyre’s play is well structured, slowly layering in details about each of the younger characters to build the point that each of them is struggling with a fear or knotty problem, from Herbie’s inability to swim to Cindy’s unrequited crush on Keith.

The show’s lesson in many ways echoes the title and theme of a book for adults by another famous Canadian, Sarah Polley: Chris and his friends learn that they need to run toward the danger and face their fears head on.

This Young People’s Theatre production is over five years in the making and was the first English-language production for young people to receive support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund. Those resources have been well spent: the physical production is gorgeous and multi-layered, featuring a smart and fun set by Anna Treusch of a cottage exterior that breaks in half and flips around to represent interior spaces. A curved set of flats frame the action and become screens for projections of video and historical stills of space travel and the moon launch (video design is by Daniele Guevara).

Bonnie Beecher’s sensitive and dynamic lighting splashes the daytime scenes with summertime sunlight and makes the nighttime scenes in Chris’s bedroom moody without being overly scary most of the time (though the sudden appearance of a monster through the window made me jump in my seat and the full house of six- to 12-year-olds giggle with glee).

The show’s even got magic: Chris’s fantasy sequences are enhanced by hand magic tricks (David Ben is the magic consultant) that dovetail enchantingly with lighting and video effects, underscored by Deanna H. Choi’s musical compositions (Choi is also the sound designer).

At 70-plus minutes the show seemed a trifle long for the youngest spectators: the audience got a bit restless whenever the action became grown-up-focused rather than child-focused, but those passages are brief. Under Millan’s direction the pace is strong and steady, and there’s always something new to look at, from the projected images to scene breaks communicating the late ’60s setting (yes, there are hula hoops).

As is Young People’s Theatre’s usual practice, the production alternates between performances for schools during the week and for families on the weekends; and there are family performances throughout March break. Hadfield fans will enjoy the short video that launches the show and older viewers will also likely get a pleasing hit of nostalgia (where were you on the day of the moon launch?).

And who knows? Perhaps Canada’s next star astronaut will be among this show’s young viewers, drawn in — as was Hadfield all those years ago — by the lure of the darkest dark.