A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky is a refreshingly subtle and compassionate vision of the world on the edge of apocalypse.
Within a cosmological context, the focus is on a single family, their relations with each other and their unreconciled regrets, soon to become permanent. With an ensemble of strong, engaging characters, there are knotty, realistic family dynamics and a palimpsest of recent family history. The characters and dialogue are naturalistic but the serious themes are elucidated and alleviated with humour and quirky, surreal touches.
The play represents a unique collboration between three of the UK's pre-eminent stage writers. The ambition of the partnership is matched by the ambition of the play's sweeping scope.
A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky | Theatre review | Stage | The Guardian
Whilst the three voices collide, they also ring out individually without sacrificing the piece's coherent wholeness, and the play represents a rare, fascinating study in stage collaboration. Whatever global hysteria news of the impending Armageddon may have caused has apparently passed, and now humankind as represented in microcosm by this family is struggling to make amends as it waits for the final curtain.
This is, to put it mildly, a complex situation, but the two narrative realities never work in harmony. We find out late in the second act that the mother, Margaret Ann Mitchell , had Philip when she was 58, but the larger significance of this extraordinary birth remains unclear. Confusions are exacerbated by flaws in casting: Mitchell appears to be the same age as Williams 60ish when she needs to read nearly two decades older. These scenes sit somewhat uncomfortably with the grubbier realities of family and married life as played out in scenes between unhappy brother James Pearce Quigley and his chemist wife, Harriet Tanya Moodie , and between working-class Jake, his estranged, strung-out daughter, Nicola the wonderfully affecting Kirsty Bushell , and her adolescent son, Roy Rupert Simonian.
Another layer is introduced midway through the first act when Philip has an encounter with his dead grandmother who appears on stage matter-of-factly as a beautiful young woman Lisa Diveney ; Philip appears to have summoned her from the past, thanks to a conversation about a watch that has been in the family for generations. As it is, production feels increasingly ponderous and self-important as the evening wears on, though some images and ideas shine bright in memory afterward.
Obviously, how far this will be in evidence in their respective future outings remains to be seen. I went on a bit there, apologies.
A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky
Just a small correction but credit where credit's due, the people that instigated the Exchange season were the directors Tim Stark and Charlotte Gwinner, and their idea was championed by Sarah Frankcom within the Exchange itself. Sarah directed the revival of Across Oka, Tim the revival of Rafts and Dreams and Charlotte oversaw the three readings. Charlotte directed the reading of the only unproduced stage play of Holman's in his long and illustrious career, A Moon Unusually Large, Simon Stephens directed a reading of The Overgrown Path and I directed a reading of German Skerries.
Thanks for such intelligent comments David. David, As you say, credit where credit's due: It goes without saying, congratulations on 'A Thousand Stars But, what are we expecting?
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This continues as the action begins. A cancer ward symbolised by a single institutional strip light and a hospital bed.
Two of the actors I recognise with pleasure: It feels quite new. There keep on being these flashes of writing.