Set in a future where humankind is ready to take the next step in interplanetary travel, Lonely Mars takes you on a dreamlike journey full of visual and aural reflections as it traces the paths of seven pioneering women to the Red Planet.

The physicality of the performers is evident in their almost constant movement that spills into the audience sporadically in unexpected ways.

Together the performers cycle through story segments both through the expression of body language and narration.

Indeed, movement throughout the show is one of its strengths; from the very start we see the performers in a state of flux. Their movements change with the trajectory of the story and the finely crafted score, at times gentle and deliberate, then spasmodic and fierce, then yet again fun and loving. It’s a vortex of emotions dictated by unearthly soundscapes that effortlessly transport the storytelling to an interplanetary setting.

The use of different languages gives the performance a modern, international flavour – one would expect a polyglot crew to head up a mission to Mars after all – and yet without any translation it’s challenging to grasp the context for the deeper message conveyed, if a message does indeed exist within these multilingual snippets. Most meditations by the would-be colonisers are in English, however, touching on their intrinsic motivations and fears, their musings and reflections.

The music is hypnotic, and together with the huge projector screen backdrop, really dictates the ambience of the piece, building and dissipating tension, directing the performers’ physical transitions, and playing with the tempo of the storytelling.

Lonely Mars is a story about pioneers, women prepared to accept the sacrifices even as they question their choices, facing the unanswered and unanswerable, all set to an imaginative Martian score that breathes life into the bodies of the dancers, making for an impressive, colourful performance.