Lorna Irvine reviews a 'thin, rather dull' production.
There are many, many dim stars in the galaxy—Joey Essex and Jordan being just two. It is this concept—real muppets in space, if you like—which is at the heart of Adam Peck's comedy drama for PPP, a co-production between Oran Mor, Bristol's Tobacco Factory and the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.
A profoundly stupid but well-meaning and amiable couple, Dawn (Rosie Mason) and Neil (Darren Seed) are selected from thousands of ordinary people to join a Mission to Mars. Space, it seems, is the place where they can get away from Dawn's overbearing mother, who they have been living with after Dawn loses her job, and where they plan to start a new life together. Sadly, the only awareness the hapless pair have of Mars is the planet from sci-fi films and the branded chocolate bar.
As they are plunged into their mission, cracks in the seemingly perky relationship become apparent. It's beautifully portrayed all right, with both excelling in their respective stereotypes: broody, slightly stroppy wife; dim-witted, childish husband—the stuff that sitcoms are made of—but the script is both staggeringly banal and riddled with inconsistencies.
In placing the couple (who would patently be turned down for such a mission—it's a wonder they can tie their own shoelaces unaided) into a classic domestic crisis and with very little else to say, the script buckles under the weight of its own banal limitations, striving for a poignancy it never really fulfils. We have seen such characters before—not terribly bright, struggling to make sense of the world. Yet up until now they have never travelled, it would appear, beyond Bristol, and both share an ugly, tabloid world-view—cue clichéd remarks about 'too many foreigners 'round 'ere, taking our jobs' etc.
With a brilliant script, Mason and Seed would be fantastic—what they do have is a lovely chemistry together. But sadly, this is thin, rather dull stuff, and the ending merely elicits a shrug, as it has run out of rocket fuel a good twenty-five minutes in. A real shame, and a waste of talent.
Performs at Oran Mor until October 3 before transferring to the Traverse.
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