LUMINOUS DEAD comes to life onstage at The Voxel
An adaptation and staging of Caitlin Starling’s debut sci-fi/horror novel, the Bram Stoker Award-nominated The Luminous Dead, gets its world premiere at The Voxel in Baltimore June 2-7. It’s the brainchild of the creative imagination of Andrew Hungerford–who adapts and helms–along with Distance over Time Theater, and the result of one of the Voxel’s creative residencies.
The play picks up the source material’s close, even claustrophobic focus on heroine Gyre, who embarks on an intrepid but risky venture-for-hire to explore a mysterious cavern–sealed up tight in an all-encompassing space suit, accompanied and guided only by a combination voice-in-her-ear and “guy (or gal) in the chair,” Em. Who, along with mission’s many other challenges and potential pitfalls, may prove to be more than meets the eye, or ear.
While Gyre faces plenty of peril from her alien environment (driven as she is to take extreme risks to help fund her search for her mother), the real obstacles and dangers seem to lie within. Ultimately, the claustrophobic constraints of the cave mirror, or even take a backseat to, the psychological tension of Gyre’s efforts to navigate her own secrets and wrestle with what unfolds between her and Em. Relying on her suit and her–possibly unreliable–handler for sustenance and survival, as well as to provide any input from the outside, tangible world, on stage Gyre can lead the audience through an immersive, atmospheric experience. One in which the spelunking proves as emotional or psychic as geological, and what gets discovered can be as much about self and identity as about alien mysteries.
As adapted and staged (including both direction and lighting design) by Hungerford—with essential environmental support from scenic designer Sarah Beth Hall—The Luminous Dead aims to translate the original novel’s acclaimed interior journey with highly physical, science-fiction horror storytelling, delving deep into audiences’ imaginations with a mix of world building, projections, audio immersion, and rough theatrical magic.
There’s more online, including info, tickets, and showtimes, here: https://voxel.org/events/luminous-dead/
Hear Andrew’s reflections on the piece and the production here:
