I went into Elon Musk: Lost in Space, anticipating something carefully crafted and hugely entertaining. With prolific radio playwright David Morley scribing a satirical adventure taking Elon Musk into space, voice-actor par excellence Ben Whitehead (the 2nd Wallace of Wallace & Gromit) as Elon, and Office-nominated Sarah Lawrie as the Ship’s Computer, something good seems almost inevitable. Factor in the play’s Olivier-nominated director, John Nicholson, and you can rule out any weak links.
However, whilst this farcical misadventure has its moments, I left underwhelmed; not because of the actors who are both excellent, but due to the shallowness of a play which aims for the lowest-hanging fruit, before abruptly shifting into something darker to bring the curtain down.
For whilst Whitehead’s capering entry, complete with awkward roars and an absurdly pompous impromptu keynote to SpaceX employees, is undeniably funny, Elon Musk: Lost in Space never really attempts a deeper analysis of the world’s richest man.
By this time, his spacecraft has blasted off on a mission to Mars, with only himself and Mothe,r the AI (Lawrie) aboard. He’s all in black, she’s a ’70s sci-fi vision in a gold catsuit and gloves. The set, aside from two chairs, is digitally projected, complete with viewscreen and beep-beep-boop-boop elements plucked from early 90s computer games. It’s a setup made for fun, not serious drama, and for the most part, that’s what you get.
“…whilst Whitehead’s capering entry, complete with awkward roars and an absurdly pompous impromptu keynote to SpaceX employees, is undeniably funny, Elon Musk: Lost in Space never really attempts a deeper analysis of the world’s richest man.“
Yet, there’s only so often you can laugh at Elon’s whiny assertions of his genius, or Mother’s increasingly sassy put-downs. It’s alarming that a few conversations with Donald Trump over the intercom provide some of the best laughs in the show – as opposed to Musk, he’s not overused until the ‘Trumpisms’ start to grind.
When things go wrong for the mission, the journey into darkness begins. However, this turn for the slightly more serious isn’t accompanied by an increase in satire. Musk makes some tired references to the ‘Woke Mind Virus’ and AI as the single greatest threat to humanity, but these are either ignored or bulldozed by mother without much sophistication. He frequently threatens to catastrophically adjust Mother’s coding “when we get to Mars”, but once you’ve heard it twice, you’ve heard it enough.
Satire, at its best, picks up on the big and small absurdities of the topic or person inspiring it, but instead of going ‘inside’ Elon’s mind, we get a shallow caricature which wouldn’t have passed muster on Spitting Image. Finding lots of ways to say, ‘actually no, Elon, you’re not a genius’ isn’t satire, it’s just an opinion. I say this as no fan of Elon’s often infantile mode of argument, or his edgelord ideas of freedom of expression.
But there are so many other ways to knock a rise out of him left in the writing room in exchange for some wish-fulfilment comeuppance, and some excellent physical comedy from both actors you could drop into all sorts of productions with or without Elon Musk, or a drop of satire.
Place this script in the hands of a less competent team, and the results wouldn’t be pretty. Fortunately, with Whitehead, Lawrie, and Nicholson bringing their A-game to each moment, Elon Musk: Lost in Space is entertaining for the most part.
Show details
Venue: Venue 53: theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall, Nicolson Street, EH8 9DW (Google Maps)
Date(s): Mon 11 Aug to Sat 23 Aug (13 shows)
Time(s): 3:05pm (70 mins)
Age recommendation: 12+
Price: From £15 (concessions available)
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