"The Little Prince" has been reinterpreted often since its publication nearly 80 years ago. But when Dominique Serrand agreed to direct it for the Guthrie Theater, he zeroed in on a couple of questions: "How do we make it speak to today's world, where we feel so isolated? And what is it we need most from it?"
The answer involves hope.
The Guthrie's "The Little Prince" takes place in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's New York studio, where the native of a small French village escaped war in the 1940s, trying to create something to encourage himself and others.
"New York City was so overwhelming and different from what he was used to, so this is a bit of comfort," Serrand said. "It's in his mind but also the reality of his life every day. So I'm trying to put both [onstage]: the room in which he is and the sense of the war and isolation and that burden and guilt. And, also, creating this character who questions everything."
The hope is that this "Little Prince" will glide between the title story, as interpreted by adapters Rick Cummins and John Scoullar (and Serrand, who reinserted parts of the book), and the story of the man who wrote the children's-book-that's-maybe-really-for-adults. One thing that eases those transitions? Both main characters — a desperate aviator who crashes in a sand dune and a mysterious boy who guides the aviator to answers about existence — are versions of Saint-Exupéry.
"He's giving a chance to the child in himself to live again. So that's what I'm addressing in the show. We approach the audience to look at the child in ourselves, whether we find it vexing at times or hurtful, to let it out and let it question us," Serrand said.
Theater fans may recall that Serrand tackled "The Little Prince" in a 2005 Theatre de la Jeune Lune production that also featured Steven Epp (who plays the aviator at the Guthrie) and Nathan Keepers (who plays a snake, king and fox who parry with the prince, played by Reed Northrup). This will be a much different take (Epp and Keepers also are Serrand's collaborators in The Moving Company).
"Something we found out years ago, doing different shows, there was always some cynicism or anger or frustration — so many different emotions that come along with plays — whereas this one is so clearly about hope and innocence," said Serrand, who first envisioned a version on the Guthrie's thrust stage but realized the proscenium was a better fit. "There's a lot of magic in the show, not like Las Vegas-type magic but truly magical moments, and the proscenium allowed us to do things we wanted to do in a beautiful way."
