Pale Blue Dot

Pale Blue Dot
By Kathryn Marquet. La Boite Theatre Company (Qld). Roundhouse Theatre 19 July – 9 August 2014

This play is a significant bump in the burgeoning local play-writing family.

It’s not quite there yet but promises greatness: Kathryn Marquet creates five memorable characters to engage us. She has a nifty style for creating engaging drama tempered with comedy.

She takes her title from the Earth photograph taken in 1990 from Voyager 1 at the edge of our solar system. Whatever your opinions about aliens, this play will challenge them. They are peripheral to the personal crises of the five central characters, but the possibility of their existence drives this story.

Fraud investigator for an insurance company, Joel, (Hugh Parker), doesn’t enjoy his job and at home his life is fraught with a highly-strung wife (Lucy Goleby) and suspicions of something wrong with their baby.

Caroline Kennison portrays Greta, mother of a teenager who disappears for 24 hours and reappears in a field 200 km away; and Deidre Spinnaker, President of a Toowoomba UFO observers club. Kennison must have cheered to land this delicious pair.

Ashlee Lollback, (Storm, the girl at the centre of this alien experience), makes a spectacular debut at La Boite.

My only reservation is about the Louise scene, which seems to be a side issue from the storyline and could be pruned out? This is the playwright’s problem, not Goleby’s who plays the part.

Multi-awarded director Michael Futcher guided his cast through this premiere and I’m confident he will continue to register audience reaction to the piece during its run. Splendid creatives supported the production.

I wholeheartedly recommend this to theatregoers.

Jay McKee

Photographer: Dylan Evans.

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