There is a whole raft of productions this year at the Fringe in tribute to the anniversary of the first moon landing. This isn’t one of the best by a long shot.
Strickland Productions’ Apollo: Take 111 has much enthusiasm from its very young cast but not a lot else.
Young office worker Stuart James’s world is the job of facial identity regulation, i.e. is your moustache the correct size according to the regs. For some reason, he is ordered by his boss to create a film of a fake moon landing. So he calls in a director friend he knows and starts filming in his basement as he only has a week to complete the mission.
There is a nod to director Stanley Kubrick and actors Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando and two Russians hang around a bit but get left behind by the plot somewhere along the line.
The cast give it their all but the script is fairly dire and the plot as flimsy as the cardboard boxes they use for everything from a desk to a camera.
This is a featherlight farce that is not sure where it wants to go and what its point is. There are glimpses of real humour here and there yet largely the play relies on the energy of those involved and finally grinds to a halt long before it shudders to an end.
A waste of some serious acting talent that need to go and find themselves a better show for their skills.