PLAY REVIEW: This Little Earth ★★

It’s a curious irony that This Little Earth, a debut by Jessica Norman, should itself feel so resoundingly flat, especially in it's third act. Now playing at the Arcola, this two-hander promises an exploration of belief, delusion and connection in an age of misinformation, but despite its lofty ambitions, the piece never quite achieves lift-off.

Fanta Barrie plays Honey and Ross O’Donnellan is Christopher, meeting in grief and curiosity, drawn by their shared attraction to alternative truths. Their chemistry, however, never fully emerges. Instead of crackling philosophical sparring or psychological friction, their interactions feel perfunctory; two soliloquies in search of drama.

Directed by Imy Wyatt Corner, the production is well intentioned: shifting timelines and surreal hallucinations attempt to evoke the disorientation of belief and doubt. But when the “twist” arrives, the supposed revelation of hidden layers to Christopher’s identity, it lands flat. A show about flat-earthers that cannot surprise feels like a conceptual betrayal.

Visually, Cat Fuller’s set design and Jamie Lu’s soundscape sometimes salvage mood, and Hugo Dodsworth’s projections attempt a luminous counterpoint. Still, behind those glacial backdrops, the dramaturgy loses its grip. Rather than a descent into mystery, the play’s latter moments collapse into a meta dreamscape, here described as 'the truman show', that feels like a last-minute escape clause.

There is merit in ambition, and Norman’s themes of truth, grief and echo chamber looms are timely. But This Little Earth is haunted by the irony that a narrative about believing the earth has no depth itself lacks dramatic depth, and its central twist is far too flat to stir.