In Encounter: A Space Cabaret, Zena Wood takes on the role of Space Weather Girl, a spunky sci-fi cliché in a shiny costume who really needs to tell you everything you need to know about all of the interesting phenomena the Sun is spitting out into the cosmos.
This is a charming, smoky roomed cabaret show that mixes actual space facts with music, personal anecdotes and an invasion of relatively horny aliens. There’s also a song and dance routine, because there is.
We open with some science facts and an extended series of jokes on how some terms can sound quite rude. (Let’s be honest, we’ve all sniggered at the term coronal mass ejections, even if it is just a fancy term for solar flare.)
Our charming host then goes into a bit of a tangent about how they became the Space Weather Girl, and even though the premise of the show is that we’re watching a sci-fi style science broadcast, it’s got much more of a lounge-room vibe to it. As the plot thickens, aliens arrive. Lonely aliens, looking for love. And Space Weather Girl is single…
This is charming, camp and silly fun. It’s very much a showcase; a mix of different skills and moods specifically targeted at sci-fi-loving audiences. We have three performers in total: Rober Briggs on keyboard, Zena as our host and Brandon M Weber as our charming yet desperate alien visitor. There’s an extended metaphor here about growing old as the cosmos carries on regardless, but mostly this is a nice, if strange, hour of your time.
You can book tickets for the Edinburgh Fringe show here and learn more about Space Weather Girl here.
