Space Tour - Review

Reviewed by Alix Kelman

Salterton Drama Club’s latest production ‘Space Tour - Into Knoware’ is an original play both written and directed by popular local author D.R Hill, previously performed as part of the One Act Play Festival where the piece received awards for ‘Most Exciting Production’ and ‘Best Play’ and it was not hard to see why.

Space Tour Into Knoware is a hilarious, rompy sci-fi spoof with plenty of nods to the classic Star Trek series it so aptly pokes fun at. The scene was set with a twist on the iconic voice over as the lights went down, alongside a precariously flying ship, this is where the laughter began and did not stop throughout.

The set, as always, was incredibly impressive. So much thought and creativity had gone into every aspect and along with the sound effects it felt as if you were truly inside a spaceship. The cast and crew did a fantastic job with the set building, decoration and costumes, one of my personal highlights, as I’m sure any other audience member will attest to, were the sliding doors which never failed to get a laugh, comedically closing every time onto the unwitting Captain.

Captain Tiberius J. Cook was played with the perfect amount of sleaze and dim wit by Paul Turner, an essentially unlikeable character that in spite of his certain characteristics, Paul made the audience howl with laughter on numerous occasions. Mark Rose dived, quite literally, into the role of Commander William Striker who had some really lovely moments and gave one of the audience's favourite jokes - the suspenseful coffee maker. Leonie Motler played the simple minded Private Haruka Fukumi with such charm and delight and Penny Hill played the strong minded Lieutenant Aloha with rambunctious femininity.

The rest of the cast made up of Leigh Steedman, Will Hill, Molly Morton, Nathan Wakefield and the unseen Katrina Horth completed the SSV Audacious’ crew, each bringing their own aspect of comedy to their performances. All the cast and crew should be very proud of all their hard work putting together this wonderful production.

There were so many hilarious moments throughout this one act journey into space and The Salterton Drama Club should be commended for all their efforts presenting an original piece of theatre a little different from the norm which was a hit with audiences. I look forward to hopefully seeing a Space Tour sequel in the not so distant future.