Space Hippo
Wooden boxes filled with transparencies, a projector and a tablet standing by as David Bowie sings of a weeping sky and warns us that the Earth is really dying and that we only have five more years, two visitors enter the stage, Daniel and Seri, one from Zeta Reticuli and the other from Andromeda, former enemies who learned of peace through the message of the Space Hippo.
At first wearing hippo masks themselves, presuming the hippopotamus to be the dominant intelligent lifeform on Earth, their misapprehension comes from the profound effect that first ambassador to deep space had on their cultures, not understanding she was an unwilling traveller taken from her land and her family on the whim of a politician who mocked the proposals of scientists fighting climate change, saying they might as well send a hippo to space.
The presentation of Space Hippo simple but magical, the action unfolds on a projection screen dominating the stage, the traditional art of shadow puppets given a new life in an environmentally aware science fiction adventure bearing a profound message without preaching, that while everyone is responsible for the planet it is the leaders who set the agenda and that their inaction is not an acceptable choice.
Space Hippo becoming a mascot for the people to rally behind, a distraction while the world burns, receiving adulation but denied freedom, with only her food robot as companion can she save the world? Presented by international theatre company Mochinosha the answers may not be the ones which are wanted, changing people apparently more difficult than changing the planet for the better, each generation inheriting and repeating the same mistakes.
Space Hippo runs at the Blue Room at Assembly George Square until Monday 29th August
