Theatre review: The De Nova Super, Assembly George Square, Edinburgh

Two astronauts (Will Palmer and Alex Hughes) pick up a distress signal from the De Nova Super, a state-of-the-art space ship dispatched to find mankind a new home among the stars which has been lost in deep space for seven years.

The De Nova Super, Assembly George Square (Venue 8)

The De Nova Super, Assembly George Square, Edinburgh * * *

What they find when they board will test them to their limits, and beyond.

The visual world created by theatre company A Brilliant Everything is both gripping and grotesque, and is all the more of an achievement for taking place in The Box at George Square, on a stage of postage-stamp proportions. It’s an ambitious production employing a pastiche of styles and influences: music, dance, physical theatre, BSL and recorded text and sound, but the actors rarely (if ever) speak.

While the tense, foreboding atmosphere tugs at the imagination, the elements of the story which are revealed - the rescue mission for an overheating earth, the onboard computer gone wrong, the android crew member - all feel like pastiche from existing sci-fi books and movies. Eventually, the fact that the men don’t talk - when there’s no obvious reason why they shouldn’t - wears away at the show’s credibility.

Until 26 August

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