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| Pale Blue Dot - see it? In the sunbeam on the right? That's Earth from 6 billion kilometres away |
The cinema has a grand tradition of science fiction that is
cherished and respected, lauded and revered. The genre seems quietly overlooked
by theatre. Where are the great plays about scientific discovery? Where are the
great plays of specualtive fiction? Please, if you know of any, recommend them
to me. It’s certainly a wish of mine to try my hand at science fiction on
stage.
Optic Nerve’s Pale
Blue Dot is a mix of fact and fiction – an ode to science, which reveres
its grandeur while also poking and proding its humanity. A collage of stories
about the infinity of space and the limits of photography and art at capturing
such epic majesty.
“Pale Blue Dot” is a photograph taken by the Voyager space
craft in 1990, a photograph of Earth not taken for strict scientific purposes
but as a picture of perspective. Carl Sagan fought to have the photograph
taken, just as early astronauts postponed sleep for mere minutes of “sight
seeing” in space – human need over scientific necessity.
The play fictionalises the stories of Carl Sagan and his
wife Annie Druyen, and their role in creating the “golden records” – pressed gold
archives of songs, sounds, greetings, music, images and brainwaves that were
sent on Voyager as a depiction of Earth. The experience of watching this
production feels pressed into me, just as these images, sounds and songs of
Earth are pressed into those records.
There is also the story of a French New Wave filmmaker, a
war photographer and a child – and the ebb and flow of these characters and
their reaction to light and movement, reflecting the many different emotions
contained in the record of Earth that is “Pale Blue Dot”.
Entering the theatre, I knew little of Optic Nerve’s work
but a lot about the premise of this play – given the title alone. The glossary
in the programme, with its definitions of the titular photograph, the Golden
Records and Voyager, etc., suggests the general public aren’t as
familiar with Carl Sagan’s work as I am. Space exploration is a keen interest
of mine. A subject that fascinates me. And a genre I have and will always try to
write in.
But knowing the subject matter and having a preconcieved
notion of what may lie in store could easily have worked against this
production. What if I didn’t like the depiction of Carl and his wife? What if I
thought the metaphor was overused or the importance of the photograph were
diminished? What if the collage was more a mess than a cohesive experience?
The work of a smart, inciteful cast of actors and a strong
director respected the material – they found a way to capture this vast subject matter
and distill it into a 75 minute meditation on light and photography, space and
infinity. Distilling the essence of “Pale Blue Dot” into an extraordinary
theatrical experience.
Theatre, at its best, feels universal but plays to the
personal. As a theatre-maker, I want my audience to understand and empathise.
As an audience member, I love to feel like the play is talking directly to me.
This show, in particular, felt like it hit many of my buttons – my passion for
space exploration, my wonder at the universe, my general interest in
photography and my intrigue in the life of war photographers – who choose to be
observers, their camera sometimes distancing themselves from the hand that reaches toward them.
And light. And constants. And space. And movement. And
memory.
In a very insightful Q&A forum after the show, hosted by
an astronomer, there was a discussion about finding a way to draw this vast
subject matter into a coherent piece of theatre (stemming from a question of mine). But there was also a discussion
about how science and theatre are similar – and how they can support each other
through shows like this. And how the limits of both can inform each other;
science is dictated by certain universal laws and theatre is defined by its
ephemeral nature.
To creators and performers Stephen Phillips, Lachlan Woods,
Luisa Hastings Edge and Ben Pfeiffer – whose collaboration on and off stage are
second-to-none. Director Tanya Gerstle, whose wise choices kept the show in the
precise focus it needs to be. And the entire
crew – particularly Russell Goldsmith and Tom Willis, whose sound and
production design were the icing on the cake.
Thank you.
Pale Blue Dot finds the human inquistiveness behind the
scientific principal and conveys it to the audience in a carefully judged,
beautifully captivating piece of theatre. As the great Arthur C. Clarke once
wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” And
any greatly concieved, exquisitely produced piece of theatre is indistinguishable
from magic, too.
*
"Consider
again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love,
everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was,
lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of
confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and
forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization,
every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father,
hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt
politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader",
every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of
dust suspended in a sunbeam."
- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Pale Blue Dot is on at the Tower Theatre at the Malthouse as part of the Helium season until September 15
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