MISSION CONTROL
***
Sat 23 Nov, Principality Stadium Cardiff
Protesters rage with placards outside the entrance. We step through them, and enter the building. As soon as we do so, our bags are searched, and then we are sorted into groups. I am in ‘red group’. We are shuffled into a waiting area where multiple screens await and, soon enough, they light up, confirming with us the story of Monolith, the mega-corporation who have gained exclusive rights to colonise the planet, Anomaly #1, which appeared one day in our solar system. It looks like Earth, but is un-populated, unpolluted. We have been chosen to colonise this paradise. Today, we will blast off from this place into a new world, a new future, and offer a new hope to all humanity.
Monolith’s charismatic leader, Conga Busk (played brilliantly by Adam Redmore, and clearly a parody, in name at least, of billionaire Elon Musk) greets us with a rousing speech soaked in new-age platitudes. I am in red group, apparently, because red is the colour of the root chakra and aligned with concepts of safety and security. This satirical take on the mega-rich was well-conceived, in this partnership production between National Theatre Wales and Hijinx Unity Festival.
After this, the various groups were led through the Monolith National Crisis Centre (aka Principality Stadium) and given the ‘story’ of the show. The creation of a new AI entity, ‘Honey’ (Tesni Kujore), again reflected the emergence of AI devices such as Amazon’s Alexa but, in this case, the tech was rather more advanced – Honey controlled simply everything. The story we were led through weaved this narrative along with others, in particular that of the protesters who believed we should be returning to a more simple, communal way of life, and who believed a prophet by the name of ‘Joanne’ would save us all… Who Joanne was only became clear at the end of the show during its exciting finale, of course.
Despite some stunning sets, such as sci-fi, ship-like corridors and space-suited figures on the Stadium pitch in the show’s final scene, the narratives didn’t run together as smoothly as they perhaps could have. Sometimes, I was unsure why we were being given a certain scene at a certain point, and perhaps the need to lead several groups through the space was the reason for this. There was also some waiting around for other groups to catch up at particular points, and this, too, served to impede the narrative flow.
My partner, an environmentalist, also pointed out the irony of audience members being given several pieces of paper along the route (hundreds of pieces all told) when environmental issues were one of the themes of the story.
All in all, however, this was a fun night out, with impressive costume and set design compensating for a slightly vague narrative drive.
words MAB JONES