The Girl Who Glows

The Girl Who Glows is a magical story about a glowing girl called Luna, who travels Australia meeting wonderous luminescent creatures in her quest stop the world from fading to darkness. Aimed at children from 5 upwards, it incorporates delightfully silly humour, live music, glorious lights and a story designed to wake interest in the natural world. The tale is told by Zeeko, a band that has been playing for children including through Musica Viva Australia since 2009. The music is eclectic, from melodic rock and beautiful ballads to opera and rap. As well as commercial instruments, Zeeko make use of all sorts of improvised noisemakers, notably a violin bow on a piece of polystyrene.

The show engages the young audience on many levels, talking to them directly, using cheeky clownish humour and avoiding any kind of fourth wall that could be a barrier. Vocalist and guitarist Jess Green, percussionist Jess Ciampa and keyboardist David Hewitt play childlike characters who work out the story as they go along. Jess Green slips between her character as “Jess” and voicing the character of Luna, a puppet made from a simple neon rope which is operated by different band members at different times. Luna is taken under the sea by a rapping platypus called Mono-Xtreme (Jess Ciampa) to meet phosphorescent animals, leading to a gorgeous, mesmerizing sequence involving light play and beautiful music (David Hewitt’s hula-dancing luminescent jelly fish had the kids squealing with laughter). The story later invokes a classic fairy tale trope with Jess Ciampa playing a frog/turtle/thing that begs for a kiss, which Luna of course refuses.

Rather than preaching environmentalism, writer and director Jo Turner aims to inspire the audience to think for themselves. The children are shown how easy it is to be creative with whatever objects they have on hand. The props are largely simple, household items. A trampoline on its side becomes a very cool, round screen for projected images. Three brooms upside down become trees. A spinning disco ball replicates the beauty of phosphorescent kelp as it would be seen below the surface of the sea. Use of objects as props and the way the characters build of the story together is reminiscent of how children do imaginative roleplay. The finale invites the children to join the roleplay, with the band calling for suggestions for how Luna should resolve her predicament. These suggestions are then wrapped into the ending.

The kids in the session I attended loved the show. The season is over at The Street, but the team is planning to take it on the road later in the year. Watch out for it locally if you have primary school kids or grandkids.

Cathy Bannister

Photo credits - top 3 images Nathan Smith Photography, and lower image Canberra Streets