Royal Lyceum Theatre,
Edinburgh
Four Stars
When the twin Suns come
out on the floating ocean of planet Solaris in David Greig’s new adaptation of
Polish writer Stanislaw Lem’s 1961 existential science-fiction novel, the swathes
of red and blue light up psychologist Kris Kelvin’s entire world.
Kris has been dispatched
to the ship keeping an eye on Solaris to find out why radio silence has been so
prolonged. The answer from Drs Sartorius and Snow comes in the form of another
set of visitors, seemingly flesh and blood reincarnations of significant others
brought into being by the planet capitalising on the crew’s emotional baggage.
This is the prognosis of
the now deceased Gibarian, seen played on film by Hugo Weaving in a series of
left behind video diaries. These gradually shed light on the ghosts that linger,
too often stymying us from taking a leap into the void of unknown tomorrows.
Matthew Lutton’s
co-production between the Lyceum, the Malthouse Theatre Melbourne and the
Lyric, Hammersmith wafts woozily through its series of short scenes on Hyemi
Shin’s ingenious white box set. These are illuminated by lighting designer Paul
Jackson’s washes of colour, and punctuated by the stage curtain being slowly
lowered and raised as if moving ever deeper through assorted psychic hatches to
get to the truth of being.
In this sense, Greig,
Lutton and their team have taken Lem’s story - famously filmed by both Andrei
Tarkovsky and Steven Soderbergh - and dramatised it as the sort of therapy
session the cosmonauts of inner space behind me-generation sci-fi made their
own.
The five actors onstage,
including either Almila Kaplangi or Maya McKee as a visiting child, give their
heart and soul to this, with a wonderfully ebullient Polly Frame as Kris and
Keegan Joyce’s Ray the fools who rush in where Jade Ogugua’s Sartorius and Fife
Simbo’s Snow fear to tread.
In the end, Greig and
Lutton explore how past, present and future worlds collide as we orbit in our
own space around each other, looking for somewhere safe to land among the
hopefully brave new worlds that offer up infinite possibilities.
The Herald, September 16th 2019
Ends
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