Lesbian Space Crime
Laika was the first dog in space, Félicette the first and so far only cat, Yuri Gagarin the first man and Valentina Tereshkova the first woman while Neil Armstrong was the first man to step on the surface of the Moon, a new frontier charted and broadcast live across the world thanks to equally pioneering satellite technology able to transmit television globally, but who claimed the title as the perpetrator of the first documented lesbian space crime?
With only the names changed to protect those who were actually exonerated of wrongdoing following demonstrably false accusations, Airlock Theatre present the slightly fictionalised tale of astronaut Susan Albright, scheduled for assignment to the International Space Station where she will take part in another historic first, an all-female spacewalk, when the planned operations are sidelined by the statement by her ex wife Gaia Retrograde Saffron that she attacked her home using the ISS laser, reducing her conservatory to ashes.
Written and performed by Eleanor Colville, Rosanna Suppa and Robbie Taylor Hunt, the latter of whom also directs, with the songs orchestrated by Erin Rydal and Simon McKenzie, it is no surprise that Lesbian Space Crime is a high energetic particle musical, for what else could it be, Susan high-flying, ambitious and absolutely dedicated yet conflicted over her obligation to place her career over her young son, at odds with Gaia who behind her kaftans and healing crystals is toxic, manipulative and convinced that the Earth is flat.
With fast dialogue and fast costume changes through the rotating characters, not easy in clinging shiny metallic PVC, floating in freefall in three dimensional space and breaking the fourth wall, set in the wake of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” as the NASA official says “the cat is out of the bag and the cat is gay,” with each of the songs distinct and carried by powerful voices the rhymes may sometimes be two hundred miles from the expectation but the show crashes in with pride and exuberance, all the more powerful for knowing that the whole thing is absolutely and totally true.
Lesbian Space Crime continues at Pleasance Dome until Monday 25th August
