Rocket Science is easier and much funnier than it sounds. At least, in Helen Keen’s capable hands. Almost a lecture at times, and with the graphs and charts to prove it, this show is still packed with gags, silliness and science.
Keen talks about falling in love with space, about her postie dad, and about her slightly strange childhood – using the practical aid of shadow puppets. She takes the audience on a journey through time, which takes in the Babylonian era, the war, and the 1960s, when rocket travel was suddenly happening, despite decades of press mocking.
Occasionally, Keen’s own life parallels that of one of her space scientists, and these tales are woven in smoothly, along with the downsides of rockets, moving weapons great distances, and seeming to attract Nazis and Satanists.
In more shadow puppetry, Helen covers her friends’ questions about space, before she pretends to be an alien, and then continues on the American / Russian Space Race.
Her ending piece is a little contrived, and feels perhaps included to help her live up to the brochure text that mentions costumes, rather than being needed. But she succeeds in bringing outer space, and rocket science to life, in a fun, fast-paced, gag filled show. If coming up with a great concept for a Fringe Show is rocket science, Keen has cracked it. And if living up to the quality of that concept is a giant leap for any one performer, Helen Keen is one who’s made it.
[Gill Smith]
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