THEATRE REVIEW: Stars, An Afrofuturistic Space Odyssey - The Contact Theatre, Manchester.

Science fiction can occur anywhere, and with any resources. With a simple set, a live DJ, and some

swirling animations projected onto a modest-sized cyclorama, this new one-woman play by Mojisola

Adebayo took the audience to the stars and back. Presented by Tamasha and ICA, this evening’s

performance of “Stars: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey” was at the Contact Theatre, Manchester.

Designer Miriam Nabarro’s set was of an unremarkably ordinary kitchen of the late twentieth

century, fixed on a slanted disc to reflect our tilted planet. A DJ’s box floated in celestial darkness to

one side, pumping out an ongoing series of cosmically-themed tunes in a variety of styles, from R&B to reggae.

Sitting at the kitchen table with her goldfish, her radio, and the urn containing her late husband,

“Mrs” was an unremarkably ordinary London woman. As she began to talk, we were brought into a

world that on one hand was so small, and so familiar – the mixed-race war baby adopted by Irish

Catholics who was forced to marry her first seducer, who had a loveless marriage filled with alcohol

and unfaithfulness and violent temper, now an elderly widow with an adult son who worked as a DJ

somewhere else – and then, there would be a side dive into a world that was so much bigger and

wider than a kitchen could contain.

The conduits for that were the little girl Mariam who lived nearby and wanted to be an astronaut;

several other women of the neighbourhood; and the myths of the Dogon people of Mali, who still

talk of extraterrestrials that long ago visited them from Sirius B. Animation artist Candice Purwin had

monochromatic illustrations that swirled and glowed on the dark night sky behind “Mrs”, depicting

stars and planets and fishy-amphibious Sirius B aliens. In his box, “DJ Son” spun out Debo Adebayo’s

sound design, which pulsated through onto “Mrs”’s radio.

Playwright Mojisola Adebayo balanced the celestial dreams of sci fi with the earthy realities of the

female body. Poignantly, there was a storyline about Mariam’s FGM ceremony, and all the presents

she received to mark her transition to womanhood – coupled with lengthy descriptions of the

constant pain she was in, and how difficult it was for her to now go to the toilet. Maxine, a friend of

“Mrs”, had a lot to say about the doctors who wanted to fix her intersex features when she was a

baby, and thanks to a bolshy mother who refused, she was now having the best sex life of the

neighbourhood. “Mrs”, now past menopause, had never yet had an orgasm – and had had to

suppress feelings for women over the years. Was there still time to get that rectified?

As “DJ Son”, Bradley Charles was a charismatic presence who cringed from maternal gushing about

his success in life. As “Mrs” and all the other characters, Debra Michaels was a richly vibrant

performer, switching from character to character with only the most subtle changes of voice and

movement, but making them all so real. And yes….. that was quite an enthusiastic use of a washing

machine…..

Reviewer - Thalia Terpsichore
on - 9.5.23