Neuqua Valley presents 'The Little Prince'

For its first fall production, Neuqua Valley High School presents "The Little Prince," based on a 1943 novella that has become the third most-translated book in the world.

The show is staged at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 8 to 10, with an additional 3 p.m. matinee Saturday in the Neuqua Valley High School auditorium, 2360 95th St., Naperville.

Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for seniors, students and children. Tickets can be purchased at the box office prior to the performance or in the rotunda during most lunch periods at Neuqua Valley High School's main building and at the Birkett Freshman Center from Wednesday to Friday, Oct. 7 to 9.

The most famous work of the French aristocrat, writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "The Little Prince" was voted the best book of the 20th century in France.

In "The Little Prince," the narrator, an aviator, crashes with his airplane in the middle of the Sahara Desert. While he is trying to repair his airplane, a little boy appears and asks him to draw a sheep. The narrator learns that the little prince comes from asteroid B-612, where he has left behind three volcanoes and a rose.

Before reaching Earth, the prince has visited other planets and met some very odd people: a king, a conceited man, a lamplighter, a geographer. Since arriving on Earth, he has met a snake and a desert flower, and spoken to a fox.

The fox has taught him that to know someone or something, you must "tame" them, and that makes them unique. The fox also provides the most important message of the play: "What is essential is invisible to the eye."

To return to his planet and his rose, the little prince allows himself to be bitten by the poisonous snake because his planet is too far away to take his "shell." The aviator, who successfully repairs his plane and leaves the desert, hopes the little prince will return one day and asks us to write and tell him if ever we should meet his friend.

If you go

What: "The Little Prince"

When: 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, Oct. 8 to 10, and 3 p.m. Saturday

Where: Neuqua Valley High School auditorium, 2360 95th St., Naperville

Tickets: $8 adults; $5 seniors, students and children

Info: nvhs.ipsd.org