REVIEW: UNTITLED SPACE PLAY at The Bread and Roses Theatre 8 – 12 April 2025
‘Doctor Who meets Monty Python’ ★★★
It is Space Year Thirty-Four Sigma Ninety-Nine. Peace talks between two great empires – Earth and Vangali – are unfolding aboard a spaceship. The fate of the universe hangs in the balance. Representing the two factions: three Earthlings, one Vengali, and the Ambassador of Xathoolian V – who looks uncannily like a green pompom. Elsewhere, a group of people who don’t know their own names find themselves stuck they don’t know where, looking for they don’t know what.
This set-up gives you the best elements of Untitled Space Play. It is an ambitious, sweeping sci-fi and joyful, absurdist comedy; think Doctor Who meets Monty Python. Harry Cowper’s script shines brightest in the first half, as we hop from one spaceship scene to another, each brimming with comedic potential. The cast make the most of this potential. Dan Rhodes is especially entertaining as Captain Artemis – a comic cross between David Brent and Buzz Lightyear. His scenes opposite Kimberley Ellis’s steely Vengali General sizzle with tension and humour.
Comedy is what this play does best. When it ventures beyond this, its offering is weaker. The first half throws a lot of ideas and plot beats at the wall, not all of which are satisfyingly played out in the second half. Characterisation, too, sometimes takes a backseat to humour, leaving some roles feeling thin. The biggest issue, though, lies in the convergence of the two plotlines – the peace talks and the nameless wanderers. I found it impossible to make sense of the sci-fi logic underpinning their connection. My suspicion is that if I sat Harry Cowper down, he’d be able to explain the mechanics in detail – and they’d probably be quite clever – but it simply doesn’t translate on stage. A version of the play that finds a clearer way to communicate this narrative logic would significantly strengthen the second act.
Despite these flaws, the play is just so much fun – especially the first half. In these challenging times, watching a green pompom babble in alien gibberish for two hours is exactly the kind of escapism we need. One would be hard pressed to walk out of the theatre without a spring in their step.
Untitled Space Play by Harry Cowper / Two Guys in a Room / The Bread & Roses Theatre / 8 – 12 April 2025
https://app.lineupnow.com/event/untitled-space-play
