Writer and Director: Emma Kopf
Sci-fi plays are something of a rarity. Perhaps the genre’s niche appeal and expectations around production costs discourage creators. So, hats off to writer and director Emma Kopf for having a crack at the category in her elaborate piece SpaceEater. The resulting 75 minutes is maddeningly impenetrable and suffers from some odd directorial choices, but you cannot fault Kopf’s ambition here.
Astronaut (a perpetually annoyed Corey Lee) is 3333 days into an intergalactic voyage of exploration. Four white-clad strangers have mysteriously appeared on his spaceship. Who they are or why they are here is, like much else in the piece, entirely unexplained. The strangers want to go home, wherever that is, but cannot get there until Astronaut gets wherever it is he needs to be (also unclear). In the background, a computer emits occasional updates on the flight trajectory, although mostly the recordings are inaudible so add little to the mix.
Kindly stranger Reverie (Gabrielle Crook) seems to be in love with the Astronaut. Anxious stranger Athymy (Tyler Reuben) seems to be having an existential emotional crisis of some kind. Onism (Alice Bain) meanders in and out telling us “the code has already been written”. Something goes wrong with the SpaceEater which seems to be the ship’s method of propulsion. Astronaut asks nasty stranger Hiareth (George Goddard) for technical assistance, which he refuses. “I don’t understand,” says Reverie. “Me neither,” says Astronaut. Ditto the audience.
One supposes the cast has been directed to speak at half speed because they all do it. “There… certainly… isn’t… a… point… to… all… this…” Hiareth tells us, adding in entirely unnecessary pauses in the dialogue, presumably in the hopes some kind of meaning will emerge in the space between the words. It does not. What is SpaceEater about? “Meaning? There’s no such thing unless we invent it” Athymy tells us, which seems to be another way of saying your guess is as good as anyone else’s. Roll on day 3334.
Reviewed on 19 August 2024
Camden Fringe runs until 25 August 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Impenetrable sci-fi drama.
