PLAY REVIEW: The Void ★★

There is an intriguing premise lurking somewhere in The Void, Thunder Road Theatre’s ambitious attempt to bring cinematic science-fiction horror to the stage. Set in a bleak future where Earth has been destroyed and humanity lives under corporate control, Ryan Simons’s play follows space ranger Flint, played by Alex Moran, as he boards a seemingly abandoned spacecraft orbiting Saturn. What follows is a descent into a world of fractured memories, sinister technology and an increasingly familiar brand of existential terror.

The production’s greatest strength is its technical ingenuity. Caitlin Mawhinney’s set design creates a suitably decaying spaceship, while Andrew Crofts’s lighting and Nick Sagar’s sound design work hard to manufacture an atmosphere of mounting dread. The illusions by Jay and Joss of Fine Entertainment are frequently impressive, offering flashes of old-fashioned theatrical magic that prove more effective than the production’s cinematic ambitions. Ben Parsons’s score adds further weight to the unsettling environment.

Unfortunately, the storytelling is considerably less convincing. Simons, who also plays the mysterious Dr Blair, establishes an intriguing mystery but struggles to sustain it. Explanations arrive in a rush, leaving the central characters feeling underdeveloped and the eventual revelations insufficiently earned. Moran’s performance occasionally slips into an overly emphatic register, while the dialogue too often mistakes volume for genuine tension.

The Void deserves credit for its ambition and occasional flashes of theatrical invention. However, its reliance on familiar genre conventions, conspicuous jump scares and an overburdened narrative prevents it from reaching the terrifying heights it promises. There are moments of genuine ingenuity here, but too much remains lost in space.