Claire Della and the Moon, Madness of Two 
State Theatre Centre of WA, 26 September 2023 
Reviewed by Jackson (age 13) and Chloe (age 8) Davis 

Claire Della and the Moon is a play set around a girl who is overwhelmed by everyday life and tries to escape by travelling to the Moon. The play uses various puppets, projectors, and different props to portray its narrative. 

The show is about a girl, Claire Della, who wants so badly to escape from her noisy, messy and argumentative world that she runs away from home by constructing a ladder to reach the moon from her backyard and she climbs up to it.  

At first, she loves the novelty of being on the Moon and the new and different things to explore, but after a while all she can focus on is the people back home. Finding there is nothing left to do on the Moon, she builds a device to contact the people on Earth. 

Claire Della and the Moon tries to convey the lessons of gratitude and to value the people around you.

There is no response, so in a fit of rage she breaks the ladder and her only way home. Then all the messages from Earth come through on her device, and she realises that people do care about her and that she has destroyed her only way back to them.  

Claire Della and the Moon tries to convey the lesson of gratitude and to value the people around you, and not letting your emotions take over when making important decisions. 

The play uses props in creative ways, making them useful for multiple things. For example, Claire’s closet is used to store all the different props needed for the scenes and doubles as a place she hides when she wants to get away from the world. 

Sound plays a major role, using sound effects and music to create a more engrossing experience. The play also used light from props such as the Moon and from the projector behind the actors to better immerse the audience, showing the background of the Moon or Claire’s bedroom window, for example. 

Claire Della and the Moon is funny with great acting and puppeteering and its creative use of the staging around the actors helps to tell an engaging story. The actors do an excellent job, with only two playing all five characters.  

The script is well written, and the dialogue thoughtful in some places and hilarious in others. 

Claire Della and the Moon is at State Theatre Centre of WA until 30 September 2023. 

Read Claire Trolio’s review of Claire Della and the Moon here. 

Pictured top: Our junior reviewers praise the acting and puppeteering in ‘Claire Della and the Moon’, as well as the staging. Photo supplied