The Void
Waking in confusion on the bridge of his vessel under flickering lights, the only company Flint has is NOVA, the Neural Operations Visual Assistant, an integrated artificial intelligence less than helpful or forthcoming with the information it offers him in his disoriented state, the ship floating near Saturn with another vessel detected in the Cassini Division, the gap between two of the main rings.
The Odyssey an embryo ship listed under the command of Captain Phebus, it holds memories for Flint that he cannot place, the crew of over forty all dead other than biological engineer Blair who prevents Flint from a direct neural interface with the systems, reticent to explain why or what has happened, only confirming that they are now on an irrevocable course for Titan.
Largely a two-hander with Alex Moran and Ryan Simons as Flint and Blair, The Void is billed as a cinematic science fiction horror performed as theatre, the complex set of damaged control panels and the spars of the hull like fragments of broken eggshell over the dodecagon screen where NOVA (the voice of Olwen May) manifests impressive and oppressive even damaged, battered and burned with torn wires and circuitry hanging down.
Set in the year 2160, governments collapsed and the Earth destroyed, the International Alliance Corporation the only remnant of civilisation, loyal IAC officer Flint is conditioned though somehow tainted, the chip in his brain damaged and memories missing but not so much that he is not immediately suspicious of Blair who has somehow removed his own chip, marking him as a rebel, possibly aligned with the miners of Titan.
Directed by Simons, it is the set and visual design which dominates The Void, with graphics of the rings of Saturn and the ships moving through them projected on the screen while NOVA is more abstract, the access ports creaking open with sinister ambiguity, the ship itself perhaps keeping secrets by design and Blair requesting “veil” be activated so he can talk openly, warning “there’s a ghost in the machine.”
Split by an unnecessary interval when a single continuous act would run smoother, with echoes of Alien, Flatliners and Event Horizon despite the visually striking production The Void is not all it might be, Flint given to monosyllabic shouting and with little variation in the delivery of lines by either, the slim plot never offers the needed complexity to maintain momentum, more concerned with jump scares than sense as it resorts to power tool brain surgery, the stagecraft clever but insufficient to fill the vacuum in the script.
The Void continues on tour until Sunday 7th November
