Too Close to the Sun is a play being performed in the Thistle Theatre in the Greenside @ Riddles Court venue. It follows the stories of three groups of people as they deal with the impending Apocalypse. First, the audience is introduced to two Arctic Researchers (played by Scarlett Clarke and Maariya Khalid), who are on a boat in the Arctic and are waiting to see the sun for the first time in 75 days, and are the first people to notice its disappearance. Then, the audience meets the three Survivalists – Colin (Harry Threapleton), Amber (Bethan Avery) and The Silence (Oliver Grieves), who find themselves stuck in a bunker together as the news of the sun’s absence hits the world. Finally, there is the Astronaut (Mason Peach), who is the only person onboard his spaceship with only his AI companion, Laika (played by Kalypso Panagiotou) for company.
Clarke and Khalid’s scenes in Too Close to the Sun contain less humour than the later parts of the show, and instead have an almost dream-like atmosphere to them, and the direction succeeds at presenting these two characters as being entirely disconnected from the world.
Threapleton and Avery share an endearingly awkward kind of onstage chemistry, perfectly capturing the dynamic of two very different characters realising that they are going to be stuck together for the foreseeable future. Threapleton’s delivery of Colin’s one-liners paired with Avery’s growing panic and hysteria, alongside Grieves’s silence, makes their scenes incredibly funny to watch.
Peach and Panagiotou’s scenes on the spaceship are equal parts devastating and hilarious. Panagiotou’s robotic acting and deadpan delivery as Laika the AI serve to emphasise the Astronaut’s isolation. Peach’s portrayal of the Astronaut is brilliant; they capture the character’s growing panic at the idea of their continued isolation, especially as Laika begins to lose battery.
Too Close to the Sun is a funny and breathtakingly honest play about human nature in the lead-up to the Apocalypse. It has a very talented cast of seven, and the script is well-written in a way that portrays these very different characters in an interesting and enjoyable way.
