There, in the midst of the darkness, sits the earth, glowing eerily, surrounded by silence. Slowly, the light rises and we meet our storyteller - he's that embarrassing 50-something Dad who still wears a hoodie and makes us do our homework.
Written, directed and performed by Iain Johnstone, this was an exceptional solo performance, covering the history of civilization and the evolution of astronomy, all in seventy minutes. It's about numbers. Big numbers. Mind boggling numbers, which Johnstone tries to help us imagine using a visually stimulating combination of toys (globe, solar system), sports equipment (tennis balls) and a very clever blackboard.
We journeyed from ancient civilisation through to the Greeks, the Romans and the Byzantines, discovering the origins of the day, month and the year, the planets and the stars. The Dark Ages heralded in a time when the church reigns over science and Johnstone played a sinister monk, complete with said hoodie. We heard about Aristarchus, Copernicus, Ptolemy, Marco Polo, Galileo and many more. There were moments of high drama, lights, darkness, music - everything from Johnny Cash to Zorba the Greek. The total eclipse of the sun is particularly stunning and at times, it was rather like being in a planetarium.
The performance flaged a bit at Ptolemy, with far too much information for an adult brain, never mind a child’s. There was some shuffling of feet (probably the adults), but no yawns and somehow we made it through the next two thousand years and back to where we started.The performance is enclosed beginning and end by the 1969 moon landings, rather like the way the ancients imagined the solar system encased in concentric celestial spheres. Beyond this, it's enclosed once again by our geeky Dad's ponderings over our damage to the planet. It makes you think.
Wee Stories bill the show for ages ten plus but there were several younger children there. Leander, aged five years, was laughing hysterically for the first 15mins and survived to the end, but he’s possibly a genius in the making. There was a little audience participation, but it was just a tease. A lot more interaction and a trim of the script would make this a five star show.
