I F*cked You In My Spaceship
Soho Theatre, Dean Street • 19th Jun - 8th July
With such an intensely rich program of fresh and original theatre at the VAULT Festival earlier this year, there were a number of plays that had unfortunately been allowed to slip under Jack The Lad’s radar, it being near impossible to get to see absolutely everything we might have wanted to. Thankfully, in the case of I F*cked You In My Spaceship, the Soho Theatre has come to the rescue, having brought it back to the stage for a limited run after its previously sold-out VAULT performances.
That being said, I confess to originally harbouring mixed feelings about seeing this play, alarm bells having already rung due to the title. I have definitely become a little jaded over the years by the amount of queer theatre that seemed to choose sex, and/or the almost obligatory promise of graphic and, in most cases wholly unnecessary, nudity over originality, this ‘all style no content’ approach often coming across like a more commercial, instead of an artistic decision. I know… as a position it all sounds very ‘Mary Whitehouse’, but I have often been left wondering wether our communities stories would be better served by taking the narrative into much less predicatable and more inventively told areas. So, it was with a sense of relief that I F•cked You In My Spaceship completely defied my initial, rather hasty expectations, delivering far beyond what I had imagined it would, and in doing so also reminding me never to judge a book by it’s cover… or indeed a play by it’s title!
Over its 65 minute run time we discover two stories that run in parallel, and whilst on the surface the scenarios in each of Louis Emmitt-Stern’s masterfully written script couldn’t feel further removed, director Joseph Winer manages to skilfully intertwine the two threads as we bounce between them at a fairly brisk pace, the subtle similarities between the stories slowly revealing themselves as the play progresses.
The first story focuses on Leo (Jonas Moore) and Dan’s (Max Hyner) relationship, a couple who have been together long enough to comfortably, (and comically) entertain the possibility of getting a third party involved in order to accommodate Leo’s cosplay fantasy for a bit of ‘alien’ sex, something his partner has not quite been able to fully muster the enthusiasm for, but is prepared to try… just the once… “as long as it’s not with Ryan from the office”.
Meanwhile, in the second storyline, we are introduced to Anna (Fanta Barrie) and Emily (Lucy Spreckley) who, as a seemingly equally established couple, are contemplating bringing a baby into their relationship but, preferring not to use a clinic as an option for Anna to get artificially inseminated, take matters into their own hands and decide to look for a donor themselves, and as the two stories unfold we watch as Leo and Dan interview Al (Felix Kai) for the role of the ‘alien’ in Jonas’s spicy space fantasy, whilst Anna and Emily interview Robert (Jacob Bukasa) for the role of potential father to their newborn.
Nothing is quite what it initially seems however, and as we watch the paradigms constantly shift it’s not long before Al ingratiates himself enough with his couple in order to turn the one-off alien experience into a regular paid Wednesday night gig, whilst Robert convinces his couple to allow him to move in, after a plea of poverty and oncoming homelessness. It’s interesting to watch the impending sense of foreboding, that slowly creeps into the narrative, being amplified by the decision to flit between the two storylines, and what could have easily been left to unravel into a more predictable ‘cuckoo’ scenario is saved by Emmit-Sterns deliciously unexpected twists and turns along the way, the biggest of which is saved for the very end… but you’ll be getting no spoilers from me!
What I will add is that I F*cked You In My Spaceship is not only a very funny play, but it is wonderfully cast, each actor more than capable of bringing to life a script so strong that combined it becomes a masterclass in how to stage a production with next to nothing in terms of set, props or even particularly dynamic lighting to hold the audiences attention, the quick-fire dialogue being more than capable to do all the heavy lifting, with the impressive and engaging performces being the icing on the cake.
The show-notes had promised “A razor-sharp comedy-drama about sex and relationships” and as I sat in the theatre waiting to see if the reality was going to live up to the hype, it soon became clear that it absolutely would… and did. Jacob Bukasa’s performance is hilariously understated as Robert, a textbook example of less being more, and a performance that would have threatened to steal the whole show were it not for the fact that he is matched by each of the other actors’ performances, portraying their own characters in an equally engaging and clearly defined fashion.
This is a fresh, funny and entertaining slice of queer theatre that succeeds on the merits of Louis Emmitt-Stern’s sharp script and the impressive performances from the entire cast. Don’t make my previous mistake of letting this impressive play slip under your radar.
★★★★★
