★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. SAYarts. The Gallery at The Courtyard of Curiosities, Migration Museum. 17 Feb 2024
Sci Fi nuts will love this quirky off beat show with roots in time travel, time crime and a light dash of Matrix-like darkness.
You may recall films referencing time as a travel company enterprise, life experiences in the past experienced and mediated by cryogenic freezing. Evil greed of a controlling nemesis. It’s all in this show!
Josh and his brother Harry, the science genius, stumble discover time travel. They build a time travel empire. Josh is fixated on getting girlfriend and company CFO Steph back. Therein lies a paradox of temptation, bad decisions, feisty investigative journalism and unpaid interns boiling on revolt amidst a whodunnit scenario.
Playwright Jamie Hornsby’s script isn’t all rip ‘n’ tear comedy. There’s a subtle sub textual undertone of observation about the meaning of living in time, human value and relationships in time with others and the greater world.
That subtlety is brilliantly managed by Director Alby Grace. The cast of 10 artfully play the comedy off darker undertones with great aplomb. You think serious stuff while laughing. Slowly being prompted to ponder what ‘all the time in the world means.’ A damn serious issue in sci fi.
On a tiny stage, featuring brilliant tie dye come psychedelic costumes, the production rips along with the slick pace of a noir sci-fi flick. The funny lines are so deftly delivered by the three hapless interns. Steph is at once deeply serious and fantastically hilarious. The fine line between the evil in Josh and something better is brilliantly delivered.
Comedy has always been the perfect vehicle to get serious issues across. Combine that with the allure of science fiction, you double the power to achieve that aim.
Mission accomplished!
David O’Brien
When: 16 to 18 Feb
Where: The Gallery at The Courtyard of Curiosities, Migration Museum
Bookings: Closed
