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

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

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, 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.

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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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