Dramatic plays in the sci-fi/horror genre are few and far between. Whether it’s budgetary restraints or the difficulty in getting audiences to suspend their disbelief that much, folks interested in seeing that stripe of show usually have limited opportunities to do so. 6th Street Playhouse’s recent production of Marjorie Prime and the Spreckels Theatre Company premiere of David Templeton’s Galatea a few years back would be the most recent examples of locally done work in the genre. 

Leave it to the students of Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts program to band together to produce something little seen. Their Theater Student Production Club is presenting Alastair McDowall’s X for a very limited run. I was able to attend the final dress rehearsal, but you can catch it in the SRJC’s Frank Chong Studio Theater for four performances only through May 3. 

It’s set on a research base on Pluto, where a skeleton crew of four awaits a ship to bring them back to Earth. They’ve received word that the ship’s arrival has been delayed, then they hear… nothing. 

Their repeated messages home never get a response, though indications are that they have been received. Is their communications equipment faulty or was it sabotaged? What has happened back on Earth? Have they been abandoned? Does Earth even exist anymore? 

As the isolation begins to take its toll, an even greater horror soon surfaces. Their system of time measurement used appears to be faulty. With no way to accurately measure time, does time have meaning anymore? How long have they been there? How long have they been waiting to be rescued? Hours? Days? Months? Years?

And then the crew starts to hear and see things…

This is a really interesting show, well produced and performed by a talented group of students.  Lizzy Bies plays Gilda, a geologist put in the Captain’s role. Justin Smith plays Ray, the one-time Captain now straining to stay connected to the Earth through photos and sounds. Rachel Wyne plays Cole, a meteorologist with a child back home to whom they are desperate to return. Director Moose Frank plays Clark, a mathematician who believes in the here and now and not much else. Maya Tuchband plays Mattie, a station engineer. Or is she?  Then there’s this girl (Naomi Roth)…

All give strong performances. 

Frank displays a sure hand as a director and has a team of designers who have executed his vision well on what I suspect was a minimal budget. Designer Bridget Lustenberger’s set well reflects the sterility of space. Sound is a big element in this production and designer Dylan Mooney has it coming to the audience from all directions. Lighting by Anthony Newton is also very effective. Costumes by Reynalda Cruz are basic and believable. A shout out to stage manager Marsh Jackson and board operators Xitlalli Saldana and Noe Margulis for making the technical elements flow seamlessly.  

They all work together to bring a real sense of atmosphere (no pun intended) to McDowall’s space drama. It’s not the easiest show to follow but heaven forbid a show be produced that requires an audience’s full attention. The play is a bit of a puzzle and challenges the audience to put it together by its conclusion. 

Accept the challenge. Solve for X.

‘X’ runs through May 3 in the Frank Chong Studio Theatre in Santa Rosa Junior College’s Burbank Auditorium, 1501 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. Fri & Sat, 7:30pm; Sat & Sun, 2pm. $15 suggested donation at door.

Photos by Dana Van Meter

This review originally appeared on the website of the North Bay Bohemian.