Writer: Callie O’Brien
A lone human and a potentially corrupt, soulless computer stuck in deep space with nothing but the endless universe to explore, it is the very essence of science fiction and the basis for Callie O’Brien’s new play Shallowspace, a one-person show performed at the Camden People’s Theatre. From Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey to Holly in Red Dwarf and now the unnamed computer aboard August’s ship The Theseus, the limits and loneliness of human existence are tested across thousands of years alone in this inventive, world-building monologue.
Waking up from a cryogenic sleep every 1000 years, human August is required to pass a series of cognitive tests before being granted 10 days of wakefulness to tend to the archive – the entire recording of everyone who has lived between now and then, to preserve the knowledge and memory of humanity for its future reintroduction. But alone, August becomes increasingly destabilised, searching for the meaning in the computer as possibly the last example of humanity degrades.
Shallowspace is particularly good at creating its scenario, and from the minute the audience takes their seats in this 65-minute show, O’Brien immerses them in a detailed and considered space-based concept. From the descriptions of the cryochamber process as it works through the cells and neurons of the body to the thorough explanation of the “archive” and its purpose, to the role of “shepherds” like August selected to be non-perfect specimens preserving this great legacy of data hurtling through the cosmos without any expectation that they will be the basis of a new human race, the detail in O’Brien’s show is impressive and credible within the genre.
Alongside this, O’Brien also introduces some of the classic moral and philosophical questions usually explored in space-based sci-fi, such as the grand nature of life and death, as well as the isolation that drives the central character to despair. The notion of three stages to human death is very strong, a bodily end, a social finale when friends and family accept you are gone and a much longer stage when the last mention of a name is heard decades or centuries later, something which The Theseus project seeks to prevent, and this idea of eternal life in another form is an attractive one, offering an interesting twist here.
Shallowspace does have more to give, though, and while some of the tests and conversations with the omnipotent computer are too repetitive, the show could replace them with greater interaction between August and the digital female voice that may once have been a real woman. There is a far bigger story, too, in who August was and how their former personality starts to break through, precipitating the mental and physical collapse that becomes the climax of the show. What is the pain that the computer makes them feel, and how was the archive itself selected?
An engaging performance from O’Brien combined with evocative technical projections, brings this to life and sustains the concept throughout, but there are some deeper journeys ahead for Elastic Fantastic theatre company as they fly this ship boldly on.
Reviewed on 13 March 2026
