Melbourne Fringe: Laika and Wills

In 1957, the Soviet space program launched Laika the dog into orbit around Earth to collect data as a precursor to sending people into space. Sadly, the mission didn’t end well for Laika. A dog in space has its limits.

I had a  poster of our moon on my wall until well into my teens. Reading about Laika and Wills caused this youthful obsession with space to stir, and I’d been looking forward to the performance. How amazing it must have been to be around in the time of Sputnik, when the space race wasn’t just shorthand  for a technology contest between superpowers. Were people invigorated that the stars were within reach or fearful of what would happen should another country gain control of the skies? The fringe blurb posed some other questions that didn’t relate that closely to the performance itself. I wouldn’t have minded this too much, but I did hope for something more involving or of greater substance.

The story of this three-hander starts with Scott Wills (Michael Wahr) an English journalist in mid-1950s London, espousing a fascination for how the Soviet system will evolve, and his daughter Needle (Leila Rodgers). In 2012 Australia, Aboriginal astronomer William (Ian Michael) is 25 and has just been dumped by his boyfriend. Their stories form a loose weave, which suggests that the play might be trying to cover too many areas, or doesn’t quite know what story it wants to tell. While their lives share a moment of stellar awareness, their commonality comes across as contrived at times and has a pretty thin link to Laika’s story.

It might not have been the intention, but having thought about the play for some time, I can’t help but feel that this play was checking off elements for approximating an avant-garde Fringe show. Have an interesting period of history as a backdrop, a nonlinear narrative structure, snippets of quirky vintage music, and characters who when not speaking either dance or stare offstage wistfully. I didn’t feel like the countdown resulted in liftoff.

The bright spot in the sky was Michael’s performance. In a slight role he brings an element of truth; the subdued resentment of a man accustomed to maintaining professional conduct in the face of casual racism, and a very Aussie self-deprecation to lighten the heavy going.