The hopes have been cosmic for “X,” the new play by rising star Alistair McDowell. This is apt when the award-winning 28-year-old’s latest, premiering at London’s Royal Court, is set on Pluto, following earlier works based in the rather more prosaic locations of Manchester and Middlesbrough.“X” is accomplished enough to fulfil its mission of further confirming McDowell as a writer to be reckoned with, even though this time the storyline is a little less cutting-edge.Think of “Star Trek” with the most dysfunctional of crews; David Bowie’s Major Tong, adrift in orbit beyond the point of return, “Lost in Space” with less wisecracks but plenty of meaningful lines about a post-apocalyptic world. Mix them together and you get some idea of “X.” The research- base commander Ray (Darrell D’Silva) at the outset reveals that they have not heard from Earth in months, perhaps longer. He later admits to thinking of tampering with the communications, and we are left wondering: what happened. The world they left was one where birds and trees had perished. Has mankind since died out? Or forgotten about the Pluto base, even with its billions of dollars of equipment? Or is the radio somehow broken?Their space station is a tax write-off “where they send the new, the underqualified, the old. And most of all the British. Mars is full of blonde Americans. It’s like they’re building the master race out there.”For the most part, though, this is not laugh-out loud funny, but a deeply serious piece with the playwright building in complications as the crew apparently see visions or ghosts and start forgetting who they are. The clocks have gone wrong and days stretch into months and years awaiting rescue. Time and time again, one asks the other how long something has been going on or why someone is “blubbing.” There are no answers.Jessica Raine does an especially fine job portraying the haunted Gilda, from her opening nervous eating of cereal through to her last goodbye staring out of the black window which ultimately seems to offer no hope and paints a pretty bleak future for mankind. James Harkness, as Clark, also convincingly crumbles from a self-assured astronaut to someone who simply cannot take it any more.While there is a lot of “Waiting for Godot” and sci-fi parallels in this story, its blasts of originality remain its strongest suit under director Vicky Featherstone. The “X” leitmotif comes up as a bloodstained sign on the window and in mathematical formulae. It culminates in an impressive sequence of some five minutes where the crew members Clark and Gilda babble “X” as the ghost in the computer machine flashes symbols over the walls of Merle Hensel’s set. McDowall has been quoted as saying one can do anything on stage, there are no rules. Rule-breaking like this is the strongest argument for more. Rating: ****.“X” by Alistair McDowall is at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS through May 7. Information: http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/xtheplay
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