'Solaris' review

Watching this play at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith had Richard Davies wondering why there isn’t more great sci-fi theatre?’

OUR VERDICT

Solaris is a thought-provoking adaptation by David Grieg of the cult 1961 novel by Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem. If you’ve never heard of it, you may want to know that the 1972 film version by Soviet-era Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. More recently, Steven Soderbergh remade the film starring George Clooney. So you could say that a stage adaptation, while undoubtedly an ambitious project, was long overdue.

The play is set in a space station orbiting the planet Solaris. Kris, a psychologist, has received a request for assistance from the mission’s leader Gibarian. On arrival, she learns that Gibarian has committed suicide and the only two surviving crew members, Snow and Sartorius are traumatised and desperate to leave. Meanwhile, a five-year-old child wanders around the ship – no one explains why or who she is. 

Kris quickly learns that Solaris, a planet largely composed of water, is also sentient. After billions of years of cosmic isolation, it has learned to interact with its human visitors, penetrating their subconscious minds to create human reproductions using their stored memories. When Kris wakes up to find a semi-naked man in her bed, her open-mouthed shock is not because of stranger intrusion, it’s because the man is her drowned former lover, an Australian oceanologist surfer dude called Ray.

This production, which first opened recently in Melbourne, still feels raw and experimental. Polly Frame and Keegan Joyce who play Kris and Ray have great chemistry; Frame in particular fizzes like someone doing interesting chemicals. Jade Ogugua and Fode Simbo who play Sartorious and Snow, perfectly capture the fatigue and hollowed-out emotions of scientists coming to the end of a long, gruelling mission that has been like…  well, living in a sci-fi psychological horror movie.   

By far the most powerful presence, however, is Hugo Weaving as Gibarian, even though he only appears in posthumous video recordings. Weaving will be well known to fans of The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix. On the giant screen, his looming head literally towers over the other actors, but that’s not meant as a criticism, he’s just so damned good in this role. 

Director Matthew Lutton is to be congratulated for the sustained energy and excitement of this production. The pace is frenetic and it is also visually stunning, thanks to a wonderfully clever and versatile set by Hyemi Shin and excellent lighting by Paul Jackson. Some of the scene changes are lightning-fast and I was frequently amazed by how the stage was transformed by minor changes, reminding me of puzzles where you move just a few matchsticks to create a wholly new picture.

The set also has a distinctly retro feel, combining ‘Kubrikesque’ space-age design with 1970s household objects, like a doorbell that took me back to the house I grew up in. In the first half, this slight kitschiness confused the audience into thinking they were watching a slightly camp comedy; indeed at times, it felt like the actors were playing it for laughs. But the disturbing and philosophical themes of the second half shooed away the laughter and replaced it with a serious and respectful quietness. In the end, this is a deeply thought-provoking play that questions what it is to be human. It is a perfect story for the ‘machine age’. I loved it.

Venue: Lyric Hammersmith

Dates: 10 October - 02 November

Ticket prices: from £10 (click here for full information on the event)