Photon Starblaster and the Suicidal Spaceship
Flying with the safeties off and heading for the Stargate, the dead Earth behind him, Junior Galactic Agent Photon Starblaster has a mission ahead of him to unravel an interplanetary conspiracy and no time to grieve his mentor, Senior Galactic Agent Brundle, lost in a black hole without even leaving a message behind, any communication impossible beyond the event horizon.
An impassable barrier which divides what was before and what is now, Photon Starblaster doesn’t want to talk about it, doesn’t want to do anything other than throw himself into the stars and lose himself in another way, always running because the thing he needs to escape from is himself, seeking light in the inescapable and infinite darkness.
Written by John McEwan-White and directed by Debi Pirie who also perform as Photon Starblaster and the avatar of his ship Space Junk, somewhat sulking at her captain and justifiably so after uncalled for remarks about her spaceworthiness, Photon Starblaster and the Suicidal Spaceship is an escapist science fiction fantasy about a man whose front of capability and invincibility is a mask to hide the wounds which won’t heal.
The set simple with little more than the captain’s chair and a solar system strung from the lighting rig, at the flick of a switch the stage is transformed to the edge of the galaxy, glittering stars scattered across the ceiling but distant and untouchable, cold points in the darkness of despair, while in another place and time more recognisable John Brundle’s widowed mother is just as angry as the adventuring space captain.
Every bit as betrayed as her son but without the luxury of retreating from the world when she has a child to raise alone and no space for her own grief, she must find a way to bridge the stars to reach him so together they can search for a way out of what seems to be an infinity of sadness, Photon Starblaster and the Suicidal Spaceship itself less a means of leaving the Earth than a rescue pod returning to the safety of home.
Photon Starblaster and the Suicidal Spaceship has concluded its run at C Aquila
