It’s not every Tuesday that you can go from Mansfield to the moon of Titan for a hellraising adventure. But this Tuesday I did, thanks to The Void, playing at the fabulous Mansfield Palace Theatre. Indeed, sci-fi horror, while common in movies, is a rare genre for the stage. So how did it translate into the medium of live performance...
Marc Brenner
A space ranger, scarred with guilt, comes upon a deserted spaceship, the Odyssey. As he figures out what horrible events have occurred, the spaceship turns out to be not so deserted. A mad scientist, virus-ravaged zombies, and an AI with a mind of her own, are some of the elements stirred into the pot. So far, so Event Horizon. We even have some plucked-out eyeballs.
This production is very cleverly done. The set has that blasted metal design reminiscent of the Alien's Nostromo or indeed any spacecraft in the ‘haunted rocket ship’ sub-genre of sci-fi. Large screens built into the set serve as computer displays. These do the heavy lifting. For example, one minute they are windows onto the scenery of Saturn’s rings. Next, they are playback recordings that establish backstory and the worldbuilding. A great way of keeping the audience prepped. Then they switch to ship-wide com systems, allowing plenty of jump scares when resurrected crew members reveal hideous faces.
These filmed segments suggest a bigger cast than there actually is, as only two actors are live onstage: Flynn the arriving ranger and Blair the sole survivor. But no end of special effects keep them, and the audience, occupied. Pyrotechnics, crashing sounds, dramatic scores, not to mention a scene not unlike the iconic stomach-burster in Alien.
an unpleasantly active morgue
As well as an unpleasantly active morgue, space walks, decaying orbits, nuclear bombs, dystopian corporations and all those genre staples, there also emerges a story of memory, identity and lost love and how technology might erase these elements to enslave our humanity. And in the climax there is a twist you will not see coming.
The Void is the latest production from Thunder Road Theatre, ‘a multi-award winning theatre company from Yorkshire, specialising in original, cinematic horror shows that fuse multimedia, storytelling, and illusion.’ That is a quote from their website and sums up The Void in a nutshell. Part of their funding is from the Arts Council, by the way, and this is exactly the kind of project that I want to see my art tax bucks funding.
A few moments of extreme imagery did make me, well, jump. However, there were kids in the stalls lapping it up. So perhaps no worse than computer game or a Netflix download? But you will definitely find yourself gripped.
So, an evening of white-knuckle excitement, almost a rollercoaster ride as much as a two-act drama. A must for sci-fi fans.
The Void played at the Mansfield Palace Theatre from Monday 22 to Tuesday 23 of September 2025. Check out tour dates here.
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