OUR COSMIC DUST

Park Theatre

★★★

“charmingly human and unique”

“Our Cosmic Dust” takes a heavy topic and makes it light. Paradoxically, it looks at its subject matter through a child’s eye and, by doing so, tackles the mechanisms of grief and loss with a clarity and maturity that can only come from the honesty of innocence. The emotions are loud and big, but writer and director Michinari Ozawa’s play is quiet and intimate while also allowing touches of comedy to seep into the narrative – a brave choice, like someone telling jokes at a wake.

The central character is Shotaro, a curious schoolboy who spends his night counting the stars and wondering how many more unseen stars there are in the ‘dark bits in between’. Voiced by Hiroki Berrecloth, Shotaro is brought to life in puppet form. Berrecloth is pulling the strings and through his subtle and sensitive performance he layers rich expression onto the mute, blank face of the marionette. Shotaro believes his late father is up among the stars but realises that it is humanly impossible to get there to go and look for him. Instead, he opts to search for answers closer to home. ‘Where do people go when the die?’ is his recurring question.

His mother, Yoko, finds him missing one day. What is brushed over in Ozawa’s play is the unwitting selfishness of the boy – a pointed stab at the fact that the mother is not allowed, or given time, to grieve for herself. After all she is recently widowed, but the child pulls focus. Yoko has to remain useful as the mother in search of the son in search of the father. Millie Hikasa visually expresses these conflicting emotions, while also conveying the fear of a mother losing a child. The ensuing journey mercifully gives us some light relief. The characters that Shotaro, and then Yoko, meet all adopt childlike mannerisms that keep the adult world at bay. We enter a vaguely Dr. Seuss type world as we wander from the hospital to the crematorium to the planetarium.

Nina Bowers gives a delightful performance as nurse Tara who keeps her memories locked away in the silver tooth of her late mother. Sweary and naturally crude, she teams up with Yoko on their search, enlisting crematorium worker, Alastair (Hari Mackinnon), with all his fragile and tearful rashness; and finally, the matter-of-fact keeper of the planetarium, Orion (Ian Hallard in fine form). Each persona represents various viewpoints of the sweeping spirituality versus science debate. Without lecturing, the dialogue throws innocence and experience into the pit to gently fight it out.

Eika Shimbo’s video backdrops dominate the space, occupying the entire back wall. Predominantly monochrome, there is a childish simplicity to the animation that prevents the audience being fully swept into the three-dimensional world of its characters. Our imaginations are teased but the scale of the graphics sits uneasily with the piece. Too dominant to echo the workings of our protagonists’ thoughts, yet not quite grand enough to draw us into the cosmic odyssey we are promised. Tomohiro Kaburagi’s sound evokes stronger emotions, along with the music of Orenograffiti (ORENOTE) with its ethereal pads, rhythms and lush strings.

Translated from Ozawa’s Japanese original by Susan Momoko Hingley, the dialogue is sharp, and it travels well. It is difficult to disguise the over simplified sentimentality of its conclusion, however. It has come full circle during which its orbit has been more fascinating than its destination. The young Shotaro has needed guidance but seeking it he has shown that we all need it. Loss, grief and longing isn’t the preserve of the young or the old – it is universal, and Ozawa has presented this in a charmingly human and unique way.

OUR COSMIC DUST

Park Theatre

Reviewed on 6th June 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

OUTPATIENT | ★★★★ | May 2025

CONVERSATIONS AFTER SEX | ★★★ | May 2025

FAREWELL MR HAFFMANN | ★★★★ | March 2025

ONE DAY WHEN WE WERE YOUNG | ★★★ | March 2025

ANTIGONE | ★★★★★ | February 2025

CYRANO | ★★★ | December 2024

BETTE & JOAN | ★★★★ | December 2024

GOING FOR GOLD | ★★★★ | November 2024

THE FORSYTE SAGA | ★★★★★ | October 2024

AUTUMN | ★★½ | October 2024

OUR COSMIC DUST

★★★★

“achieves something incredibly rare by being so frank about something so taboo”

“It’s weird that we don’t talk about it,” Olive tells us. She is referring to death and society’s taboo towards it. Olive is writing an article about this very subject and is looking for volunteers who are terminally ill to speak about their experiences. Without reservation, she does not consider this unusual and starts handing out her business card to patients gathered in a palliative care ward. However, this ambition takes a completely different spotlight when she, herself, is diagnosed with the rare illness primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). What unfolds is that Olive cannot deal with the prospect of her own death at all, as she embarks on a self-destructive path, which could ruin her life before its potential premature end.

Outpatient is an astonishing one-hander conceived, written, and performed by Harriet Madeley (Olive Johnson in the play), centred on her own experience of being diagnosed with a potentially life-limiting condition. It is a remarkable performance, which provides so much deep insight into such a serious, brutal subject matter, whilst being uplifting and funny. Irony is regularly deployed throughout the piece, a particularly good example of which is Olive, her fiancé and mother going to the cinema to watch a Norwegian film about suicide, just after receiving the news. It is not morbid and solemn about the inevitability of what awaits but rather insists that we enjoy the time before then.

Whilst only having a single performer, the play features numerous characters via pre-recorded material. These stretch to Olive’s parents, her fiancé, wider family, and doctors that she meets, and provide necessary grounding to her situation within her inner circle. This element of the play works well for the most part but is, at times, over-used because we want to hear more of Olive’s internal dialogue.

We learn of the different reactions to the news from different people. There are those that try too hard to be nice but end up overbearing. There are those that think that they can fix things themselves and then there are those that just pity. Clearly, nobody knows exactly the right way to respond. Of most interest, is Olive’s own response. While everyone else is trying to confront the problem, Olive is trying to run from it, in the hope that she can run faster than it. It is quite befitting that so much of the story is narrated by Olive whilst running on a treadmill. The direction (Madelaine Moore) is pin-point, and it needs to be, given the minimalism of the set design, which helps to project the performance rather than hold it back. The lighting (Megan Lucas) is also a prominent feature of the show, the projection of an x-ray reminding us of the authentic meaning of the show despite the comedic light relief.

Through telling this story (an adaptation of Harriet’s own story), Harriet appears to want to tell us two things. Firstly, that even in light of terrible news, one’s actions can have a damaging impact on those closest to them. Moreover, though, is that even if one thinks they have nothing to lose, this is never truly the case, that there is always something worth protecting and working towards. Outpatient achieves something incredibly rare by being so frank about something so taboo, whilst somehow raising your spirits.

OUR COSMIC DUST

Park Theatre

★★★

“charmingly human and unique”

OUR COSMIC DUST

Park Theatre

Reviewed on 6th June 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

OUR COSMIC DUST

OUR COSMIC DUST

OUR COSMIC DUST

OUTPATIENT

Park Theatre

★★★★

“achieves something incredibly rare by being so frank about something so taboo”

OUTPATIENT

Park Theatre

Reviewed on 22nd May 2025

by Luke Goscomb

Photography by Abi Mowbray

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

OUTPATIENT

OUTPATIENT

OUTPATIENT

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