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Shallowspace Cryotech Feverdream

 
Richard Beck Review by Richard Beck 4 Published: 18 Oct 2025 Multiple Venues Show Dates: 18 Aug 2025-23 Aug 2025

Prepare to be transported to another world – or at least to deep space on an enterprise of the starship Theseus with just one person on board, August. Having visited the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the mission has now reached Dundee Fringe, where Shallowspace Cryotech Feverdream is receiving similar recognition as a startling debut work from trans writer and performer Callie O’Brien and the team at Elastic Fantastic, who created Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party.

Grippingly powerful and commanding performance

August’s mission is to protect a deep-space digitised archive of civilisation. Although rigorously trained and theoretically prepared for the task, the reality of isolation and cryogenic stasis becomes a deeply disturbing experience. The monotonous drudgery of repeated routines and the recurrent recitation of data begin to take their toll. In a performance that is both physically demanding and mentally taxing, O’Brien personifies how August’s psyche becomes increasingly tormented by resurrected dreams, memories of home and wonderings of what it must now be like – all accompanied by strange feelings in her limbs, as though on a rack.

A complex and evocative original synth-wave soundtrack of noises and diegetics, co-created by O’Brien and sound designer Fraser White, pulses over projected visuals, interspersed with voiceovers and songs composed by the highly talented Ronan Goron. This ambitious soundscape is played in cold steel lighting, colour effects, blinking bulbs and icy mist – the multi-talented O’Brien also being responsible for lighting.

Although alone in person, there is the ever-present AI voice: a menacing, chilling and uncompromising presence in a pre-recording by Ally Haughey. What comes through the loudspeakers is a constant and demanding reminder that there is no turning back, no chance to abandon the project – only to endure whatever the mission requires and, if necessary, suffer.

Referred to by the company as a “Trans Sci-Fi Body Horror Play”, it more than ticks all those boxes, but rather than falling into any narrow genre, it has universal appeal. Depending on where you’re coming from and the area that most appeals to you, there is plenty for everyone in each of those descriptors.

Beyond any content or message, however, is the grippingly powerful and commanding performance of O’Brien that evokes a deep “wow” exhalation.

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The Blurb:

A disembodied artificially intelligent voice awakens August deep in space. In a daze, she confronts her reality – one of the last human beings floating in the void, guiding the archive of civilisation towards its destination in the far beyond. Frozen blood. Coolant in your veins. Every moment of human history preserved in digital hyperspace. Memories become data. Routine becomes regimen, yet somehow, your limbs feel… wrong? A new trans sci-fi body horror play exploring humanity's legacy in the stars. Praise for Elastic Fantastic's previous work: 'Absolutely Flawless' ***** (EdFringeReview.com). 'Mesmerising' **** (AllEdinburghTheatre.com). 'Genuinely Exciting' (Scotsman).