Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Do Astronauts Masturbate in Space?
Briony Martha and Zak Reay-Barry
Genre: New Writing, Theatre
Venue: Greenside @ Riddle's Court
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
There are four things you need to know about this show, one, there are no astronauts, two, nobody masturbates, three, it is not set in space, and four, it is the perfect title for the show. Billed as a physical theatre dark comedy, it is exactly that. Our two protagonists, Gareth and Lily, have discovered they are pregnant. The problem is that you are in the dystopian future, where the parent act suggests that if you are not fit to be them, you should never become parents at all.
Review
Do Astronauts Masturbate in Space has clearly had time to gestate, develop and bubble. That bubble has led to a well-crafted production which is just ready for birthing. There is skill because there is knowledge and an understanding of being at that age where pregnancy is possible and the beginning of your life as a parent is just one step away from you. Both Martha and Reay-Barry are young enough and old enough to qualify.
Gareth and Lily need to qualify to be judged as suitable parents. It’s not straight forward because she is a labour researcher and he is currently unemployed. She disowned her parents when they voted for this parent act, and he once spent time in care. They both have skeletons that they hope shall not dance from their collective closet. And so, they are judged to be in category two so are off for a week-long assessment. And what a week that is. We listen to a judgmental disembodied voice interview each separately and together in a highly charged atmosphere where lives are literally and metaphorically on the line. The assessment is brutal, with little space for their dignity to hide nor indeed the opportunity for them to argue. The issues are that if you are in category one, fine be a parent and here is your stock card. Category three and the state forces you to abort the child. Category two, like a Not Proven verdict means we are not sure. Unlike a Not Proven verdict, a decision one way or the other shall be arrived at.
From the beginning the manic episode where Lily finds herself pregnant is beautifully played as both characters are introduced to us with such great clarity. It is so well done. As Lily, Martha is hyperactive both inside and outside of her own tiny gargantuan mindscape. As Gareth Reay-Barry is the perfect calm and yet tortured foil. From the outset you just get the impression, not that he is hiding anything, but that he is terrified by everything. All at once. And before it happens. And sometime still afterwards. But on the outside, complete calmness. Like a swan trying to manoeuvre an iceberg into a cup of tea that nobody wants.
Without the pressure of tragedy, comedy can struggle to find effect. It needs that struggle between and here, Martha and Reay-Barry create the perfect environment in which both thrive. The tragedy is obvious as is the message – think this cannot happen in 21st Britain? Think again. I have never been so content to support the baby box…
It is that strength – decent writing coupled with great actors, that makes this work so well. There are a couple of occasions it does begin to flag a little and perhaps could do with more poignancy rather than going for the laughs, but these are fleeting, saved by plot points and foreshadowing that later on become more usefully used. It shows that wave of narrative structure, allowing the idea to be planted, then developed before it is plucked from the head of the audience to demonstrate what they wish you to think about. It leads to Lily’s final act of defiance and a reminder that behind the disembodied voice was also a human being. The final message was inherently human and humanistic.
The use of two-coloured light boxes on the set work well too as they double as beds and seats for them to be interrogated in, or the bush behind which much of their discussion, physical and conversational, happens. It uses the space well and all of the stage is utilized to its maximum effect.
It is an intimate performance with the audience. There is no escape. And the physicality that both actors employ, particularly Martha, as she contorts her face from trying to contemplate the panic and control it at the beginning; through having to smile with a grimace over her video recorded message and then sing God Save the King; before she finally flips recognizing what she is being asked to do is simply wrong. Alongside as Gareth, Reay-Barry has a civilizing role, trying to keep Lily’s outbursts under control, but at the same time having a deep, dark secret, that he doesn’t want to tell.
Overall, Do Astronauts Masturbate in Space is a superior piece of theatricality which demonstrates that if you give something sufficient time and care and consideration, it will pay you back in dividends.
