Love Will Return

Love Will Return is a wordless puppet play for children aged 4 and up, in which music plays a primary role in the storytelling. The piece recounts the story of Béa, a tiny girl living alone in a rusty kettle in the woods, looking for companionship. When several attempts to befriend the creatures around her fail, Béa steals an egg from a chickadee’s nest. She nurtures it as she would a child: carrying it, singing to it, anxiously awaiting her new friend. The egg, however, refuses to hatch and Béa’s patience runs out. She breaks the egg. Devastation. Béa lights a candle to commemorate her lost friend after burying the broken egg shells and, heartbroken, falls asleep. A moth is drawn to the light and flits around the flame, singeing its wing. Béa discovers it, gives it shelter and successfully nurtures it back to health. On a moonlit night she releases the moth and it flies upward, leaving Béa alone on stage. The play explores themes of solitude, friendship and resilience as well as our interconnectedness with nature. Love Will Return is born of a love of the environment and is inspired by Quebec flora and fauna which we meet alongside Béa during her quest. Although never overt, the play asks us to examine our relationship with nature. The themes of solitude and loss addressed in the piece have new resonances against the backdrop of the recent global pandemic affecting mental health worldwide, especially that of children.

Inspired by writers such as Astrid Lindgren and Roald Dahl, we believe that children need stories that tackle difficult themes, precisely to break the isolation they feel when experiencing such emotions. Visually stunning and drawing from the beauty of the outdoors, this optimistic and touching tale presents our interconnectedness with the natural world as a balm for solitude, reassuring us that we are not alone when we befriend nature. It introduces children to the recognition of certain animal and plant species, and sensitizes them to a respectful and fulfilling relationship with the environment.