[box]THEATRE
“Void Without Void”
Directed by Barb Barnett, Street Theatre, season closed.
Reviewed by Simone Penkethman [/box]

“VOID Without Void” is a simple, elegant and delightful exploration of isolation and distance. Calling to mind 1970s songs such as Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, “Void Without Void’s” vehicle of expression is the spaceship and the solo astronaut.

It is an immersive piece with a single performer and no speech. On arrival, the audience is offered “space suits” to wear over their clothes – the take-up rate is surprisingly high.

The audience enters the performance space through a narrow corridor with walls reminiscent of a squashy, textile Tardis.

Inside is a universe of light and sound. Performer Cathy Petc?z hangs, suspended in a white space suit, slowly moving to a rich, live soundscape that includes recordings of her breathing and heartbeat as well as synthesised and acoustic sounds.

Gillian Schwab’s lighting is playful and intense. Are the lights around the walls the stars in space or the instruments on a ship? Do they flash and move or is that a trick of the light and the mind?

As “Void Without Void” progresses, Petc?z takes a journey to the edge of space. She vanishes into an expanding universe and reappears as a smaller puppet of herself. Another smaller puppet follows until the lonely astronaut seems to be too far away from us to ever return.

What could have been a heavy, claustrophobic piece, if delivered too seriously, is an intriguing and engaging 40 minutes that feels like 25.