Screams of pain and anger echoed the core themes of desperation and mental anguish when faced with the unknown and the death of all life, especially focusing on the passage of time in Santa Rosa Junior College theater production club’s performance of “X,” written by Alastair McDowall, at their May 1 showing in the Frank Chong Studio Theatre.
The play is set in a small research base on Pluto. We follow the crewmates — “Gilda” (Lizzy Bies), “Ray” (Justin Smith), “Clark” (Moose Frank), “Mattie” (Maya Tuchband) and “Cole” (Rachel Wyne)—as they are stranded on the planet with no knowledge of Earth’s status, which nearly all life has disappeared from and the remaining survivors who were meant to pick the crew up months ago.
We see the concept of reality slowly breaking down for the crew and time being lost. The crew loses hope, which leads to devastating outcomes. There is also a horror and psychological element featuring the “Girl” (Naomi Roth), which makes you unsure throughout the entire performance if some of the events are real or in the crew’s heads.
The play features a mindbending, somewhat perplexing story where the incredible acting will both have you laughing at certain points and uncomfortable by the visceral reactions of human beings losing their minds and sense of self at others.
Scenes where emotions ran high felt the most realistic and made you feel the distress the crew is experiencing firsthand.
The set design felt realistic, though heavily inspired by Sci-Fi, with tools and objects attached to the walls. The lighting flashed and spun to represent the crew’s feelings, with red especially seeming to represent the breaking point. In one scene, where the two crew members left begin to fully lose their sense of self, two colors represent the crew. The colors rapidly switch and move with the characters, representing the confusion and loss of self.
The colors often accompanied sound design to give a true feeling of desperation and assistance for viewers to feel the emotions in all their brute force as the crew was experiencing.
The sound design significantly enhanced the horror and allowed the audience to experience the crew’s internal struggles. Throughout the entire performance, you can hear the humming of the frequently mentioned water filtration system, which plays an important role in the confusion the crew feels. The humming of the water filtration feels somewhat akin to the grinding of the gears you hear throughout Markiplier’s film “Iron Lung.”
A few scenes where Gilda mutters to herself were hard to hear, but still conveyed the passage of time well.
The ending of the performance was confusing but ultimately played into the theme of the unknown. “X” will have you questioning what was real and what was simply a product of the human mind when it breaks.
Strong, sexual language, gagging and vomiting, along with depictions of self-harm and suicide, all make this show more appropriate for an adult audience.
