07/10/26

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Not exactly a play and not exactly a science-fiction movie, The Void occupies a curious space in the hinterland somewhere between the two. While Caitlin Marwhinney’s spectacular set design is impressive and Nick Sagar’s sound design provides plenty of jolting jump scares, the story itself isn’t quite as assured.

An impressive circular screen imparts important information in the voice of Nova (Olwen May), an AI. It’s the year 2160, the Earth has been destroyed and a massive corporation now dictates the lives of the remaining humans, who all have a chip implanted in their brains to ensure that they do exactly what they’re told. Space Ranger Flint (Alex Moran) encounters a starship called The Odyssey drifting somewhere near Saturn. He boards it, only to find that all but one of the crew are dead, most of the corpses kneeling with their faces pressed to the nearest wall. The lone survivor is Blair (Ryan Simmons, who also wrote the script and directs), a scientist who seems to be concealing some kind of secret.

Flint explores the ship trying to find out what happened to the crew but he’s haunted by the fact that some of the things he encounters on his search seem weirdly familiar to him…

There’s no doubting the ambition of Thunder Road’s production – and this genre rarely gets a look-in on the stage, unless it’s backed by a budget the size of a small planet, so I’m primed to want this to succeed. While it does on a technical level, with the accomplished cinematic elements expanding the story’s universe beyond the limitations of a stage, I feel that the convolutedscript too often leaves me puzzled about what exactly is going on. While this would be fine if all the disparate plot-strands felt resolved by the conclusion, I still find myself drawing a blank on some aspects of the story as I leave the Traverse.

On the other hand, I am pretty impressed by the almost magical effects that are utilised in the telling, particularly the ‘space walk’ sequence and a couple of sudden disappearances that leave me wondering how they were achieved. Is there a skilled magician directing from the wings?

Moran’s performance is physically impressive (especially in the aforementioned ‘space walk’, which clearly requires formidable core strength); however, his vocal delivery is perhaps a little one-note, though this will surely settle down as The Void sets off on an extensive tour around the UK.

I for one applaud its intention to boldly go where few productions have gone before.

3.4 stars

Philip Caveney