one4review | On 15, Aug 2023

This is a dramatization of a film being made about two groundbreaking astronauts in the US – Mae Jemison and Jan Davis. All five cast members take turns in filming the action and so the drama unfolds on the stage and screens in front of the audience. Both subjects of the film had their struggles – Mae as an incredibly intelligent African American student who had to battle harder than everyone else to get the recognition she deserved, and Jan who worked for NASA for years before she was considered for the Space program, despite being as qualified as her male colleagues who just walked into the program. The play charts their path to being crew members of Endeavour STS-4 and the fall out after their return to earth. Jan had married her fellow astronaut Mark Lee prior to the launch and so was faced with salacious journalists asking if she had had sex in space. Mae, on the other hand was paraded around as a poster girl for NASA and her pleas to get back to work were ignored. 

The play is a hard-hitting dig at the racial and sexual discrimination in agencies such as NASA and is successful at getting the message across. The special effects used during the filming, although fascinating to see the end result on screen, were quite distracting for me, so I found myself concentrating on them rather than the action. However, with a fascinating tale and a cracking soundtrack, there is much to enjoy about this play  

****

Reviewed by Rona 

Pleasance Dome – Queen Dome 

2pm 

Until 27^th August