Up on a hillside, somewhere in Chile, a terminally ill scientist – John Bootes (Bill Hutchens) - is watching the heavens. His blind daughter Mira (Samantha Hopkins) is with him, together with a young man, Lau (Matt Addis), who works as his assistant. The scientist knows, through some unconventional method, that on that night, a returning space shuttle is doomed. On the same night, his wife, who left him 18 years before, returns.

Lau, (short for Lowry, apparently) has a double role. He is a character in the drama, and the would-be lover of Mira. He is also a narrator, picked out by spotlights (lighting designer Esteban Nunez must be having a busy night) to deliver thoughts and commentary from a distance of time and space.

So, for a fairly straightforward one-act play, there's a lot going on in terms of theme and possibly character too, though the figures portrayed here don't seem much more than devices - Lowry's matchstick men, perhaps? - rather than rounded individuals with psychologies and motivation.

The presentation enhances the production. The Blue Elephant isn't a big theatre, and most of the characters are already on stage, standing silently when the audience enters. It's impossible to get to a seat without experiencing the texture of the stage beneath the feet; and the simple set (some chairs, rough matting, and a star curtain behind) together with the atmospheric music (zither or guitar) all conspire to create an expectation that this is going to be a theatrical experience in the best sense.

That it doesn't quite live up to the initial expectations isn't any fault of the actors. Matt Addis (Lau) gets better as the play goes on and develops a vulnerability that isn't so much in evidence in his early speeches. Bill Hutchens as the scientist looks a bit unenthused early on, but this is a preview night.

The script doesn't give a lot of help to Samantha Hopkins as blind Mira, who seems to be there principally so that a question - are things there if you can't see them? – can be developed; and Ruth James's cartographer Cass, to set up a contrast between describers and discoverers. But the figures used here in this way are oddly effective. Their lack of any depth of psychology sometimes brings into sharper focus the arguments that they (as qualities) figure in. But the script feels as if it hedges its bets a little in those terms.

What is the play about? At its most basic level, perhaps about space, and the fact that the spaces between people have no relation to physical, measurable space. (Mira is a scientist too, studying the Fermi paradox, the question about why, if the universe is throbbing with intelligent life, people experience no evidence of it). Human desire may overcome many of these physical problems (people can be close, even when they are distant; planets become planets because people say that they are) but people have to want to make it happen.

The presentation is excellent and the production well worth seeing. There are just a few too many themes running around in the script.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Matt Addis - Lau. Samantha Hopkins - Mira. Bill Hutchens – John Bootes. Ruth James - Cass.

Company Credits: Writer - Jon Bonfiglio. Director - Emily Agnew. Lighting Designer - Esteban Nunez. Sound Designer - uncredited. Technical Operator - uncredited. Stage Manager – Mariana Guillen. Producer - uncredited. Company - New Writing Collective, GRIT Productions, Mokita Productions. Blue Elephant: Theatre & Programme Manager - Jasmine Cullingford.

END

(c) Michael Spring 2008

reviewed Wednesday 28 May 2008 / Blue Elephant Theatre

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com